Weekly Update, April 1, 2019

from President Larry Hlavacek

Proud Image Chorus is holding their 40th Anniversary show with guest quartet Boom Town on May 4th at 2p.m.and 6 p.m. The show will be held at Central Middle School. Tickets are $12.50 for adults and $8.00 for students.

Sean Devine from the Harmony Foundation will be at rehearsal this week.

Marty Monson, CEO of Barbershop Harmony Society, will be at Spring Contest. He will be attending the first part of our rehearsal. We will be going out for dinner with him, 5 p.m. at the Black Sheep Social Club, prior to our rehearsal on April 25. If you are interested in eating with Marty, please let me know so I can make sure we reserve enough space for us.

See the detailed information below on helping Iowa City with the Spring Contest. They still need many people! Monday night we were contacted by BHS about warming up the mics Saturday at the contest. I have reached back to them to get more information. I should have more to share at Thursday’s rehearsal.

Thursday’s Rehearsal Schedule

  • 7:00 Vamp Ups
  • 7:20 “Love Letters,” “Isn’t She Lovely,” “God Bless America”
  • 7:40 Business and Break
  • 7:55 “Daydream,” “Can You Feel the Love Tonight “
  • 8:20 Business and Break
  • 8:25 “Down on the Corner (soloists),” “Daddy Sang Bass,” “I Believe”
  • 9:00  KTWWS

Upcoming Events

  • April 26– Spring Contest in Iowa City. (See Below)
  • May 2 – Cookie Festival in Iowa City. We will sing “Love Letters” and “Isn’t She Lovely”
  • June 20 – Tribute to Heroes performance
  • August 27 – Sing National Anthem at the Kernel’s game

Profound Sound wows Prairie Middle kids

Thank you to Profound Sound quartet for continuing our youth outreach mission with their visit last week to Prairie Middle School.

Profound Sound sings for Kelly Truax’s seventh graders at Prairie Point Middle school.
Kelly Truax’s students listen intently to Profound Sound’s performance at Prairie Point Middle School last week.
Kelly Truax’s students listen intently to Profound Sound’s performance at Prairie Point Middle School last week.

Speaking of Youth Outreach

The March issue of Sounding Board, a publication of the Iowa Choral Director’s Association ran our article on the Youth In Harmony event we help at Prairie Point Middle last October. You can look at the article here:

What you missed last week

As always, last Thursday’s rehearsal was full of fun moments. In one, director John Hayden mentioned a This America Life program about pirates, one in particular who became a pirate to avoid a nagging wife. Why John found this especially relatable was not explored. It’s a fun program and if you’d like to give it a listen, you can find it here https://www.thisamericanlife.org/616/i-am-not-a-pirate. When we discussed adding a whistling chorus to “Daydream” Gary Lindsay mentioned once whistling with professional whistler Fred Lowery at a school assembly. Lowery whistled the theme to the Andy Griffith Show and had a billboard top ten hit. If you’re curious, see the Wikipedia article here and check on YouTube for his recordings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Lowery

Repertoire update

The music team under the direction of Greg Koenigs has begun the process of paring down our repertoire with the purposes of making the songs that remain performance ready. Here is the list so far. Please send your comments to Greg at [email protected]

Open House, Guest Night is June 23

cookiessallys-baking-addiction-brown-butter-pretzel-mm-cookies----sallys-bhldnnvz

Thursday, June 23 will be a special night dedicated to inviting men of all ages to experience the excitement and fun of four-part men’s harmony. Whether you get a specific invitation from one of our current members, or just decide on your own that you’d like to see what Barbershop Harmony is all about, you’ll feel welcome! We’ll show you what happens in a rehearsal, learn a tag to sing in a small group, and see a demonstration of how we learn our music. If transportation is an issue, we’ll pick you up! RSVP to Jack Ray [[email protected]] or just stop by. There will be cookies!

Singers wanted for exciting summer performances

Brucemorchestra_Gazette
Orchestra Iowa performs at Brucemorchestra before a huge crowd on the front lawn of Brucemore to open its 2013 season. This year, the Harmony Hawks have been asked to anchor a male chorus to perform Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and the March of the Men of Harlech. Republished with permission © 2015 Iowa SourceMedia Group, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Busy summer on tap for the Harmony Hawks

The chorus is reaching out to singers in the area including high school and college students home for the summer to prepare and sing with us at two upcoming events.

The first is Wednesday, July 22 and Sunday, July 26 (same program, two nights), where we will join the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band for an outdoor program. The Sunday evening performance will be at the McGrath Amphitheatre along the Cedar River downtown. We have a few specific songs we will be working on during the first half of our rehearsals.

The second event is Saturday, September 12 where we will join Orchestra Iowa at Brucemore. The two songs we will perform are Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and a new arrangement of March of the Men of Harlech. We’ll learn this music, but will be able to use sheet music to sing from for that show. In addition to our regular rehearsals, we will rehearse twice with the orchestra before the concert.

This is a special opportunity for male singers in high school or college choirs to keep singing for the summer, and to perform for of family and friends. Please join us as we will work on this music EVERY Thursday night this beginning now, 7-8 p.m. (the first half of our rehearsal), at the Scottish Rite Temple, 616 A Ave. NE.