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Harmonies returning home
by Kendra Evensen
EVE00002@BYUI.EDU
Scroll Staff
Barbershop originated in the United States and has since spread throughout the world. However, the harmonious music will soon be returning home for students at BYU-Idaho.
Women’s and Men’s Choirs Go ... Barbershop will be held Friday and Saturday in the Barrus Concert Hall.
This year the concert, which has sold out for the last two years, will also feature the group Storm Front, one of the semi-finalists in the International Barbershop Competition from Denver, the Local Barbershop Chorus and the Sweet Adeline Chorus, a group from Idaho Falls. Several student quartets will also be performing at the concerts.
For the first time, a barbershop quartet contest will be held prior to the concerts, due to the number of students wanting to participate.
“[This is the] first time we have had this many [student] quartets,” Philip Ricks, a representative for the Local Chapter of Barbershop Harmony Society and District Chairman of the young men’s and women’s Harmony Society, said.
“The first year we had one student quartet, the second we had two, and the third we had three. This year we have at least nine,” Ricks said.
The quartet contest will be held in the Barrus Concert Hall at 5 p.m. Friday. The contest will be open to the public and free of charge.
Guest conductors will be coming to the campus to work with the men’s and women’s choirs and coach the student quartets.
“[Barbershop] music can be difficult to sing, but it’s still enjoyable and fun to sing,” Ricks said. “Harmony is what makes barbershop different.”
Barbershop music is rarely sung with musical accompaniment, so the singers must listen to each other, Ricks said.
“[The] chords just ring. It’s really pretty,” Ricks said.
The performers will be singing love songs, spiritual music, and “just plain fun stuff,” Ricks said.
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