Singing Away The Trophy!! (04-Apr-2019)

It’s contest weekend!! As the 2018 Regional Champions, it is our honour and privilege to sing away the ‘trophy’ and hand the title over to another deserving chorus of Lake Ontario Region 16! All this happens on Saturday, April 6, 2019, at the Crouse Hinds Theatre in Syracuse, New York! Shameless plug …. check us out on webcast at www.region16webcast.com if you can’t be here in person!!

This we’ll accomplish sans Joe! As a previous commitment from before he became our director, he is judging the Spanish Association of Barbershop contest this weekend and will also be performing with guest quartet 20/20. He leaves us instead in the very capable hands of his FAD4’s. Meet the Fabulous Assistant Directors; Nora McEwen, Aileen Carney, Julie Sykes and Janet Cadman. The collaborative working relationship Joe and the FAD4s have is unrivaled. We are so lucky to have them all! We are excited too that these 4 amazing singers – all very experienced quartet singers – have formed a pickup quartet for this weekend and will serve as mic testers for the quartet contest! They kept this a secret from us until Tuesday night at rehearsal. Wow! Great sound! We are some proud!!

But wait! This weekend is not the end of our journey as Champions. It continues and won’t end until we compete internationally on stage in New Orleans in September 2019.

Planes, trains and automobiles! That’s what this journey is all about!

Planes! Our famous and in demand chorus Director, the mighty Joe Connolly, has this one covered!! He brings passion, knowledge, enthusiasm and energy to us weekly, often on his way back from a coaching or judging gig somewhere in our barbershop harmony singing world!! I wouldn’t be surprised if he was on a first name basis with most flight crews! Soon, chorus members will be booking flights to New Orleans! Laissez les bons temps rouler!!

Trains! Okay, so we don’t use trains very often, but we are blessed with quality learning tracks for all of this terrific new music Joe is bringing our way! We train hard to achieve greater heights in our sport, fueling the fire with new techniques and tools that will guarantee individual and collective success when we reach our destination!

Automobiles!! We have this one covered in spades! Every week to drive to rehearsal and this weekend to get to our Regional Convention! The trek to Syracuse started yesterday for many but it is safe to say that today is the main travel day for most of our chorus members. The balance will follow tomorrow. Road trip! It’s a highlight of the year! Google Maps will tell you that it is a 3.5-hour drive from Ottawa to Syracuse, but it can take anywhere between that and 8 hours depending on the shoppers in the car!!  Always fun to compare notes and purchases and determine who got the best deal along the way! Not that we are competitive or anything! (wink wink!)

The hotel lobbies are starting to hum! Members are checking in by the dozen. Hotel staff are jovial; chorus and quartet members are excited to see their singing sisters from all over the region and the hug fests have begun! It is a bit bittersweet this year as, after more than 30 years, this will be our last convention in Syracuse. It has been a fantastic run and it will be with mixed emotions that we load up our cars on Sunday morning and head out of Syracuse for the last time. Next year, we take this show on the road and settle into our new home in St Catharines Ontario at the beautiful Partridge Theatre, First Ontario Performing Arts Center.

We are a formidable Team and together we will achieve greatness! To quote the great Muhammad Ali: “I don’t count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count!” Are you counting yet???

Good luck to all quartets and choruses crossing the stage this weekend, in particular our very own KeyRings Quartet! You’ve got this!!! xo

How I love this hobby!

JD Crowe

CSC Blogger