A panoply of choirs, including Spirit of Harmony, performed at St Edmund’s church in Roundhay, North Leeds on Friday in aid of St Gemma’s Hospice.
The event was a great success, raising a grand total of £1051.
Spirit of Harmony performed a 4-song set as part of a packed programme which included other local groups like Vocologee, Sally’s Army, and Good In Parts Community Choir.
Spirit of Harmony is fortunate enough to have been coached by many great barbershoppers. One of those is Steve Jamison, who has been a judge with the Barbershop Harmony Society for nearly 40 years.
Steve is most famous in the UK for being one of the architects of the White Rosettes’ success - he has coached them for the last 10 years, during which they have consistently performed at an A-level standard.
We have been lucky enough to have worked with Steve on a few occasions, most recently on 15th June 2017. It was a great night - thanks so much to Steve for donating his time and boundless expertise!
Over the last few months, we've been thinking hard about how we can protect the chorus for the future. We decided that the first step would be to move our rehearsal location into a vibrant community full of potential recruits, as well as other musical groups and artists.
With that in mind, we're very pleased to announce that Spirit of Harmony will be based in York, North Yorkshire, starting on 29th June 2017.
Spirit of Harmony is fortunate enough to be home to a number of great quartets. After a successful quartet prelims in November 2016, 3 of our quartets made it into the UK top 16, which earned them a place in the 2017 Semi-Finals.
This round took place on Friday 26th May, and all 3 of our quartets did themselves and Spirit very proud! In the toughest semi-final in competition history, under the scrutiny of an international panel of judges, South Parade achieved a great score of 64.2%, and Blueprint were awarded 69% and 13th place overall. 4 On Demand (current National Youth Champions) achieved a 73.3% score, which placed them in the UK top 6 and took them through to the final.
In the final on Sunday 28th May, 4OD came 6th with an average score across the 2 rounds of 72.1%. This is a great result and the highest score they’ve achieved to date.
We look forward to the next National Prelims in November 2017, where we hope to see another fantastic Spirit of Harmony representation.
After the success of the inaugural York Community Choir Festival in 2016, Spirit of Harmony were invited to make a return performance.
We sent 4 On Demand - 2016 National Youth Quartet Champions - along with a scratch quartet formed of Spirit of Harmony members to represent the chorus in the matinee concert on 1st April at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.
The festival was once again a great success, and it was fantastic to perform alongside some of York's best choirs.
4 On Demand and 'SHQ' perform Is This the Way to Amarillo? to close their set.
4 On Demand - Spirit of Harmony's resident youth quartet - came back from Manchester with the 2016 National Youth Quartet Championship in tow.
With an average age of less than 19, they are the youngest quartet to ever win the contest, which has been running since 2008.
Their average score of 71.3% also qualified them for a place in the 2017 National Semi-Finals, which take place in Bournemouth in May, in conjunction with the national chorus competition.
Every year, the British Association of Barbershop Singers hold the national Quartet Prelims - an open contest for barbershop quartets.
This year's prelims, held at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, saw 38 quartets cross the stage. Of those 38, the top-scoring 16 win a place in the National Semi-Finals.
Spirit of Harmony were represented in 5 quartets during the contest:
All 5 groups did a fantastic job, and we're proud to say that 3 of our 5 quartets made it through to the illustrious national Semi-Finals.
Spirit of Harmony travelled to Cork, Ireland recently for the annual Irish Association of Barbershop Singers convention. We were there to compete in their international chorus competition, and are very proud to have won the Silver medal for 2nd Place, with a score of 76.8%.
Our very own 4 On Demand also came away with a Silver medal, achieving 2nd place in the international quartet contest.
Photography by Matthew Kitchen
Wetherby Methodist Church
Bank Street
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