ISLAND CITY CHORUS

GREATER MONTREAL CHAPTER

Northeastern District

SPEBSQSA Inc.

The Little Chorus that could!

MINI PITCH

Date: August 25, 2003 Bolton Landing Weekend Coming Up Volume 2003 - 35

Rob Hopkins, Society President for 2004, has appointed Bob Ebers to the 2004 Society Marketing and Public Relations Committee. The confirmation came in an email as follows:

"Hi Bob,

"Clark Abrahamson has recommended you for the 2004 Society Marketing & Public Relations Committee, and I am happy to appoint you to the committee. I am pleased that you have already indicated a willingness to accept that assignment. Thanks!

"The Society is privileged to have many very talented men serving on its committees, and I welcome you to that service. You have already demonstrated your commitment and expertise, most recently as the PR Chairman for the Montreal convention. Thanks for all you did to make that one of our greatest conventions ever.

"And thanks in advance for working to make the 2004 SM&PR Committee the greatest ever!

"All the best,

"Rob"

It is a credit to the Society that Bob's excellent efforts to make the 2003 International Convention well known locally, nationally and internationally have been recognized.

Congratulations, Bob, from all of us.

The Bolton Landing Barbershop Quartet Festival starts its newest incarnation on August 29, 2003, when the Bolton Landing Chapter of SPEBSQSA has its first annual show., with Le Dixieband. The 2003 "Festival Chorus" will be directed by Mark Hale, director of the World Champion "Masters of Harmony" and the lead of the World Champion "Michigan Jake"!

Saturday Morning at 9:30 am the boat ride on Lake George will take place. It is on a space available basis due to scheduling difficulties. Quartets will be singing around town during the "treasure hunt" and earning a chance to get in the draw for prizes.

The Saturday afternoon and evening shows will feature Uptown Sound, Fanatix, Swinglish Mix, The Racing City Chorus, Heat, Wheelhouse, Fortissimo, and more. After the show, folks will have a great time with plenty of friends at the Algonquin Restaurant, and more than enough people and quartets will show up to keep the chords ringin' all night long... and maybe then some! This is a great spot, and it has a LOT of space, both indoor and out! And it's on the water!

Sunday morning the 9:00 AM contest starts. Last year 64 quartets took part. The winners took home the 6-foot tall "2002 Bolton Landing Quartet Champion Trophy." ANY group of four can sing one song! This contest enters you into the random draw for the $3000 US grand prize!

At 6:30 PM - "THE BOLTON LANDING CHAPTER CHARTERING SHOW!" Come celebrate the chartering of the newest chapter in the Northeastern District! Join the Bolton Landing NY Chapter and it's sponsor, the Saratoga Springs "Racing City Chorus", as they welcome friends from around the Barbershop World for an evening of song and fun! We spend our final evening with the talented quartets we'd been watching all weekend, but again presenting all different material!

What a weekend it will be! Hog Tickets are available until August 29, and individual event tickets will be available on site.

Our new quartet champs, Power Play, visited Rob on August 16 and chartered a plane to make the trip to St. Louis. Here’s how Jim Henry, bass of GHG, described the visit on the Harmonet:

"We all knew what kind of champions they would be, and they wasted no time in proving it. On Saturday, Power Play—looking great in their new gold medals—used one of their few free weekends to charter a plane, and fly into St. Louis for a surprise visit to Rob. "You weren’t able to come to Montreal," they explained, "so we thought we’d bring our sets to you." They then proceeded to overwhelm us all with the most incredible display of chord ringing we’ve heard in a long time. And they really PERFORMED those songs. They stood at the foot of Rob’s bed and sang only for him, but they brought every ounce of the heart, soul and energy that they displayed when they made 10,000 barbershoppers fall in love with them in Montreal. It really was as if they were lifted right off the international stage and dropped into Rob’s room. If anybody wonders what it takes to be a champion, that’s it.

"Sue, Ryan, our parents Rose and Gordon, Rick and his girlfriend Jan, my wife Geda and I were all blessed to be a part of the day. Kipp, ironically, was in Power Play’s home state of Michigan becoming a godfather. In between each song we shared lots of stories, laughs and tears. Mom, of course, made food, which was devoured even though SOME of us had already eaten ourselves stupid at a Chinese buffet on the way to Rob’s. Rob’s two-year-old son Ryan loved having new playmates in the house. Don in particular was Ryan’s pal, and we were all impressed (?) by his almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the Wiggles and Thomas the Tank Engine. Rob managed to toss out a few good lines. After they sang, the quartet gathered around Rob for a picture and in order to get close enough to fit into the frame some of them had to lay on the bed with him. Rob asked, "Is this sleep with the champs?" (For those of you who aren’t barbershoppers, every international convention has an event called "Sing With The Champs" in which barbershoppers pay $25 to sing with their favourite international champion quartet.)

"All too soon the guys had to go back to the airport. They had more good deeds to do. After having already planned to come to St. Louis, they were asked by the organizers of the Buckeye Invitational at the last minute to fill in for the Bluegrass Student Union whose lead, Ken Hatton, had to have emergency surgery (hope you’re OK, Kinny Ray). Of course they agreed to help out—what else would you expect from the Slamka boys—and arranged for their pilot to take them from St. Louis to Columbus. I heard from several sources that they were awesome, in spite of the fact that they barely made it and had to have been exhausted.

"And that’s how our new champs spent their weekend off.

"Don, Mike, Mark and Jack: Nothing we could say can adequately express the depth of our appreciation, and nothing we could do can suitably repay you for your kindness. Thanks also to your wives and kids for giving you up for the weekend. Lord willing, we’ll all grow old telling our children and grandchildren about the day that the champions came to visit. We love you all so much.

"Jim"

Quartetting songs for this week: Roses of Picardy and Orange Coloured Sky

Repertoire: Overture, If I had My Way Dear, Roses of Picardy, Several others [Sectional We'll Meet Again, Summertime] (Choreo) Sixteen Tons, Orange Coloured Sky

Practice is something we do at home, every day, between rehearsals!

Rehearsal is where we reinforce what we have been practising every day!