The Barbershop Harmony Society lost a legendary talent, when J. Edward Waesche III, noted arranger, music judge and former Society president, died last Tuesday of cancer at the age of 74.

A "Celebration of Ed Waesche’s Life" will be held in the chapel of Princeton University, Waesche’s alma mater, at a date to be announced.

Ed’s widow, Kate, has requested donations to Harmony Foundation, in lieu of flowers.

"Ed’s passing is a tremendous loss," said Ed Watson, executive director of the Barbershop Harmony Society. "Not only did he leave an indelible mark on the Society and the people he met, but he touched the lives of thousands through his music."

Ed Waesche had written some 600 arrangements, many of them performed on the contest stage. He had a long record of leadership in his 49 years as a Barbershopper. He had served on the Society Board for 10 years and was president in 1998 and 1999. A certified Music category judge, he was a past chair of the Society Contest & Judging Committee and the World Harmony Council. He also had served as a Harmony Foundation trustee. It has been suggested that choruses and quartets that sing Waesche arrangements make a donation in his name.

Ed had been a respected member of the Harmony University faculty for more than 20 years. He had sung with three top-20 quartets over a 20-year span, most recently with The New Yorkers, past Mid-Atlantic quartet champion. Ed was a member of the Manhattan and Five Towns College chapters in New York, the Easton, Pennsylvania, Chapter, and the North Carolina Harmony Brigade.

He lived on Long Island, New York, with his wife, Kate, cats, Darla and Buckwheat, and dog, Lucky. He spent 43 years in the aerospace industry as designer, project engineer and strategic planner.

New members = 2 Members in process = 0

Talk to somebody about barbershop this week! Our target for members this year is for a 7 member NET INCREASE by the end if 2006.

Remember: If you recruit 5 members this year, your International, District and Chapter dues for 2007 are 100% fully paid!

This has been seen in the Mini-Pitch/The Pitch before, but this time it is becoming urgent. The Phillips mansion is on the market, and when it goes, your editor goes against the flow and "goes East, old man."

Before that happens, it is important to the Chapter to have a willing volunteer to publish a newsletter for the Chapter on a regular basis. Weekly is best, but every two weeks would be fine, even monthly would be great.

Interested? Talk to Murray or Bert Brossoit, soon!

This years show is only 4 weeks away! Tickets are available, and Bert Brossoit is the ticket manager. This is the time to tell people we are again the Small Chorus Champs of the Mountain Division, and that our guest quartet Vocal Spectrum, is going into International ranked as #2. Try to sell all your tickets by May 15, 2006 or see Bert to reassess the value of the tickets you still have.

We have budgeted to make a profit on this year’s show – something we haven’t done for the past four years. One way we can do that is to sell enough advertising that we pay for the costs of the show. Flyers are available online.

It can be done, and there is no time like the present, so just do it! See Murray or Steve! Talk up our show with your friends and acquaintances. The price of the tickets is $25.00 CDN or $21.00 US.

Here is our current repertoire list: [mp3] means that the mp3 file is on the Members’ Only web site