February 2005 2001 International Gold Medal Chorus XXIII NUMBER 1

On Saturday, January 8, 2005, members of the New Tradition, their wives, and guests attended the Annual Installation and Awards Dinner held at the Meridian Banquet Hall. The annual dinner is held to recognize the achievements of the chorus and its members, and to install the Board of Directors.

After a great meal, the program started with the recognition of the women s auxiliary group, The Sweet Traditions, and the announcement of their 2005 officers by President Nancy Nicholson: Merrill Seal will serve as Vice President, Kay Schuetz will continue as Secretary, and Marlene Anderson will continue as Treasurer. (Sweet Traditions meetings are held on the third Monday of each month.)

Pete Harrison, our resident statistician, then acknowledged members who attended more than 90% of the chorus 72 re-hearsals and performances. One member, Cal Revis, achieved 100% attendance!

John Trumbull, our retiring Treasurer, made a special musical presentation to incoming Treasurer, Rich Nelson.

The retiring President, Stan Hadley, presented the Annual President s Award to Ken Wexler for his dedication to helping the chorus in so many ways during the year. Jay presented his Annual Music Achievement Award to Mike Bagby for his dili-gence as chorus member, quartet member, and soloist during the year.

The major award for the evening was the BOTY (Barbershopper Of The Year) to the member who best exemplifies the spirit of barbershopping, and who makes the greatest contribution to the advance-ment of the chorus. This award is voted by the chorus membership by secret bal-lot. Last year s winner, Mike Saeger, made a humorous presentation and an-nounced the 2004 winner: Bob Smith! Bob is a former chorus President and Vice President of Operations, and this year

filled-in as Music Vice President. He will have his work cut out for him to come up with another entertaining presentation to next year s winner.

The installation of the 2005 Officers and Board members was presided over by our very own Mike Bagby. Mike filled-in at the last minute for Don Harris, our Society Executive Director and CEO, who was unable to participate due to illness. Mike did an excellent job of relating each Board member s role to all walks of life, in a touching, humorous, and dignified ceremony. We are truly blessed to have a dignitary like Mike in our midst. He has such a long, rich barbershopping history, that you could almost say he was born with a pitchpipe in his mouth.

President John Trumbull gave a stirring challenge to the mem-bership to create a legacy for generations to come with the New Tradition. Jay did a special presentation to reinforce John s call to action, and we relived our finest hour with a showing of the video from the 2002 Portland International Contest Swan Song performance.

The evening concluded with a performance from the Illinois District s 2004 Quartet Champions, Lakeside Edition. This was our sixth consecutive year of having the reigning Illinois Dis-trict Quartet as the featured entertainment at our annual dinner.

New Tradition Installation Banquet Submitted by Nick Caccamo

Bob Smith

In this issue .

Noteworthy - A Very Large Quartet...page 3 The Empty Cup...page 4 Ground Breaking Methods...page 5 Ten Expectations of a Champion .page 6 Gadzooks!...page 8

February 2005

Page 2 Harmony Gazette

The Gazette Bulletin of The New Tradition Chorus

Editorial Goal

By means of professional reporting, articles, photos, features, letters, and editorials, provide information about the Chorus to our chapter, the Society and the community, which will assist our members in achieving our goals and objectives.

The New Tradition Chorus Northbrook Chapter Illinois District

Meets every Monday at 7:30 P.M.

at the Christian Heritage Academy 315 Waukegan Road, Northfield, Illinois

MUSICAL DIRECTOR Jay Giallombardo

Music Team: J.D. Rich, VP-Music

Jay Giallombardo, Music Director Duane Fenn & Brian Milnikel, Assistant Directors

Duane Fenn, Chapter Coach Bob Tempas, Tenor Section Ldr.

Pat Brady, Admin Tenor Section Ldr. Ralph Brooks, Lead Section Ldr.

Dennis Barto, Admin Lead Section Ldr. Dick Kingdon, Baritone Section Ldr.

Ben Ahring, Admin. Baritone Section Ldr. Duane Fenn, Bass Section Leader

Bob Haselsteiner & David Lee, Admin. Bass Section Ldrs. Ben Ahring, Music Librarian

Duane Fenn, Learning Tape Prod. Barry Cain, Presentation Team Leader

The HARMONY GAZETTE is published by and for the New Tradition Chorus, Northbrook, Illinois Chapter of SPEBSQSA, Inc., an educational and non-profit society.

Articles without by-lines are written by the editors. Contributions are appreciated and will be credited to the author. All submissions will be edited for clarity and for reasons of space.

Editor: Don Meseth Assistant Editor: Jennifer Sievers

PO Box 2235 Northbrook, IL 60065

marketing@newtradition.org Phone: 630-539-1544

Photographers: Nancy & Tom Nicholson

Past Editors Richard Nelson and Michele Arnette were Illinois Bulletin Editor of the Year

1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 International BETY:Second place 2003,

Third place 1999, 2000, Fourth place 2001

THE SOCIETY VISION STATEMENT The Society is to be a widely recognized ever-growing, singing fraternity of men, drawn together by their love of the four-part a capella, close-harmony style of music known as barbershop whose mission is to perpetuate that style by sharing it and their love for it with people of all ages throughout the world; and to be a leader in the cause of preserving and encouraging vocal music, in our education systems and in our communities, as a lifelong recreational activity and an essential element in one s cultural well-being.

access the web

New Tradition Chorus: www.newtradition.org SPEBSQSA: www.spebsqsa.org Illinois District: www.harmonize.ws/Ill/

Barbershop Harmony Chicagoland: www.bbs.singer.as Chordiac Arrest: www.chordiacarrest.com Skyline: www.harmonize.ws/skyline Take 2: www.take2quartet.com Without a Prayer: www.singingmenofnote.org/wap.htm

President John Trumbull Executive Vice President Stan Sakalowski Board Member-at-Large Barry Cain Chapter Development Vice President Ralph Brooks Chorus Manager Brian Milnikel Immediate Past President Stan Hadley Marketing & PR Vice President Max Kieba Music Vice President J.D. Rich Operations Vice President Chuck Feuillan Secretary Mike Saeger Treasurer Rich Nelson BOTY Bob Smith received his award from last year s BOTY, Mike

Saeger, at the Installation Banquet on January 8, 2005. Nicholson Photo

February 2005

Page 3 Harmony Gazette

Noteworthy A Very Large Quartet

After Noteworthy s debut in the Holiday show, we ve been getting a number of questions from chorus mem-bers regarding the group. We d like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves.

Noteworthy was formed 1) To allow the chapter to perform in shows which the big chorus could not do be-cause of size, budget limitations on the part of the patron, or availability of a large enough group of singers, 2) to act as a marketing tool for the chorus, and 3) to act as a recruiting tool for younger potential members who might be unfamiliar with barbershop music before they gave it a try.

Another reason the group was formed was to give our members the opportunity to sing a cappella arrange-ments in a variety of styles. While we will still do barbershop songs, the group s main focus is on singing contemporary, popular songs (usually in more than four parts) outside the style to appeal to a wider audience and challenge ourselves as singers.

We currently have eleven members and are considering an expansion to 12-13. Current members were se-lected based on their proven ability to sing in various styles of music, hold their part, keep pitch/tune, their commitment to individual effort in learning music, and most importantly their ability to blend their voices into the sound of their section and to the group as a whole. Any additional members will need to pass an audition based on those factors.

We ve found singing in a VLQ to be a very positive experience and we highly recommend you give it a try. Being a member of a VLQ is a great way to improve as a singer. Since there are fewer members in each sec-tion of a VLQ, blending becomes a bit tougher and more important. A singer in a VLQ not only needs to blend his voice into his section but also keep in touch with the sound of the group. Holding your part is also key. A singer can t just sing and trust that his sound will be covered by the sound of the section. Each voice is important and adds to the sound of the group as a whole. This is a great way to become more confident in your part. It s also a great way to be part of a non-chorus group for those who don t feel they are ready to sing in a quartet. While not everyone may be interested in singing the types of songs Noteworthy sings, there is no reason that you can t form a pure barbershop VLQ. Find some friends and give it a try!

Submitted by J.D. Rich

Performing at the Holiday Show Nicholson Photo

February 2005

Page 4 Harmony Gazette

The Empty Cup By newbie President John Trumbull

So, what does the new president of The New Tradition have to say? Well, how about a few words regarding our greatest enemy: ego.

When I was studying martial arts

about forty pounds ago

my instructor spoke often about the empty cup approach to learning: the need to empty your cup of ego, pride, and arrogance, before it can be filled again by a teacher or peer.

The concept requires that, no matter how experienced you are -- whether you are a white-belt or black-belt -- you need to open your mind, first, before you can re-ceive new ideas, before you can improve your mastery of the art. If you cannot leave your pride and prior accom-plishments behind, if your cup is already full, you simply cannot learn.

Back in 1985, producer Bob Geldof gathered together a group of famous singers who called themselves USA for Africa , and they recorded a song that you may re-member: We Are The World . Ray Charles, Harry Belafonte, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, and forty other solo artists joined together as a chorus to raise millions of dol-lars to relieve famine in Africa, and they managed to win two Grammys in the process.

Can you imagine all of those egos in one room? How could Bob Geldof possibly put so many millionaire solo-ists on the risers, and expect them to collaborate? He had a simple solution: before entering the studio, each artist was handed a coat hanger, and directed toward a coat rack. Bob told each star: Hang up your ego before you walk through that door . One by one, each singer placed their hanger on the rack, and each was transformed from an accomplished solo artist into a humble chorus mem-ber.

And so, I ask that we do the same. Whether you are a new white-belt singer, or an experienced black-belt bar-bershopper: leave your ego on the coat rack, empty your cup before you ascend the risers, and prepare to let

our director, or even the new guy standing beside you, fill your cup.

BARBERSHOP HISTORY QUIZ author: Mark Axelrod, editor of "Blue Chip Chatter,"

Teaneck, NJ.

1- When was the first bona fide barbershop quartet launched?

2- Who are the earliest known quartets?

3- Name this famous vaudevillian, who began his show biz ca-reer as a singer in a professional barbershop quartet named the Manhattan Comedy Four, and later teamed up with Ed Galla-gher to form one of America's greatest and most popular vaude-ville comedy acts.

4- In the golden age of barbershopping, many of the greatest quartets were comedy quartets. Name the most renowned of these turn-of-the-last-century quartets, and, for extra credit, in what year were they organized?

5- What is noteworthy about the Casion Comedy Four?

ANSWERS on Page 9

New President John Trumbull passed the job of Treasurer on to Rich Nelson.

Illinois District s 2004 Quartet Champions, Lakeside Edition

February 2005

Page 6 Harmony Gazette

Ten Expectations of a Champion

Make these hallmarks of excellence part of your in-ternal makeup, the fabric of who you are as a singer. Tips from a master class presented by the Masters of Harmony.

Consistently excellent singing and performance spring from consistently excellent rehearsal and repetition. Each time you do something righter than before, you make it easier for yourself to repeat that level of quality in subsequent performances. Regard-less of the music, the performance setting, the en-semble, or the director, there are some hallmarks of excellence you can make part of your internal makeup, principles and techniques that are a part of the fabric of who you are as a singer. Then, cued with only quick reminder, you can redouble your energy and effectiveness in the best parts of making music, without distracting yourself with executing technique.

1. Singer s Posture Always sing with one foot slightly in front of the other, weight comfortably forward, chest comforta-bly lifted in a proud position, shoulders resting com-fortably down and a little back, head in line with the body. Stand tall. Controlled relaxation is the goal; an attitude of readiness for anything. Everything in per-fect balance!

2. Active Face Singing is not a passive experience. When singing, have your entire face always doing something, ide-ally to reflect the particular emotion conveyed by the lyrics. Lift the cheek muscles a little, raise and ex-tend the upper lip a little, energize the eyes a lot, get involved facially. Always sing with facial animation. Check yourself by practicing in front of a mirror.

3. Vowels that look right Make an oh vowel look like an oh. All vowels should be vertical in approach and encourage space inside the mouth. Create as much space as possible without inducing tension. Avoid any vowel which looks horizontal.

4. In-line singing Make all the vowels sound similar, each to another. That is, no vowel should pop out at the listener dis-turbing the musical line; they should all be of a simi-lar character.

While an ah is certainly distinct from an oh or an ee, it should not be different in the way it s placed, vocally, or in its inherent resonant character-istics. This is achieved by consistent vocal produc-tion, consistent placement high in the head, and a consistent approach to the musical line. At its best, there should be a continual, uninterrupted resonance (ring) throughout the entire vocal line, through the full range of word sounds and pitches. Go for a constant placement, constant breath pres-sure and a minimum of jaw movement.

5. Focused Singing The sound is simply focused into a resonant point. Start the chorus with their hands held wide apart and have them sing a unison pitch while slowly bringing the palms together in front. Have them listen to the focusing of the sound. This is related to #4, above,

especially in the consistency of the placement of the resonance and the focus of the tone.

They will feel the tone placed in the front of the bony mask, generally behind the eyes or a little higher. Always work for the feeling of resonation in the head. It should never feel like the tone is pro-duced from the throat position. Think spin and reso-nance in the tone without weight in the tone. The tongue position is also critical here: tip touching lightly the lower gum ridge. Carefully monitor a re-laxed tongue position. It must be carefully taught. Any tension in the tongue is counterproductive.

6. Know the characteristics of your part. There are many ways to relate the different roles of each part to the unified whole. I like the car analogy: The chorus is a finely tuned, extremely expensive racing machine (say, an expensive high performance sports car). The leads are, of course, the drivers. They are in control of both the speed and direction of this well constructed machine. They sing with lyricism and freedom and are able to negotiate all the curves with ease. No jagged turns, everything sounds the same throughout the range and never

February 2005

Page 7 Harmony Gazette

Chorus Information by E-mail

The chorus would like to keep our friends and audience mem-bers informed of breaking news: important chorus events, local appearances, and concert dates and times. Please provide your email address to us at jennsievers@hotmail.com so that we may keep you in-formed.

Weight Ten Expectations of a Champion, cont.

weight in the singing. The basses are the engine, providing a smooth, velvety, unrelenting supply of effortless, masculine power. The basses form the foundation and constancy to the barbershop sound. The baris are the transmission: shifting from gear to gear in a smooth, effortless motion. An even quality throughout the range, the baritones bring the dignity to the barbershop sound and are the dignified Mer-cedes Benz s of barbershop singing. And the tenors are, well, how about the paint job? Brilliant yellow, fire engine red? Or maybe the decals. I dunno. Fig-ure it out. They will want to work for added color, sparkle and focus in their tone to make it just right.

Another approach to part characteristics is to get the foundation from the basses, beauty from the baris, personality from the leads, and shimmer or glitz from the tenors. This works well, too.

7. Bring the whole singer Bring all that you have to offer to every experience in life, including the rehearsal. Be in the moment, be attentive, be alert, be energetic, contribute to the whole. You get the idea. Be all that you can be. Accept responsibility for the only man who can make the ensemble better you! It s amazing how liberating it is not to have to worry about all the guys around you!

8. Expect to grow. Expect every rehearsal to bring personal and corpo-rate growth. Come with the expectation of learning. Come expecting the musical leadership to have something to teach you. Treat time not spent gaining new knowledge as time wasted. Intend to improve every rehearsal.

9. I m talking to you!

Not to the man behind you, not to the man on either side, not to the man in front, but to you. Every com-ment is meant for you. Be prepared to change in-stantly when the musical leader asks for a change. Don t think he means someone else. He means you! Do it now! Only you can change the way the chorus performs. No one else!

10. Look, act, and be successful! When you re a little down, your back or feet hurt, and you wish you were somewhere else, try acting the way you d like to feel. Stand up straight, smile, elevate your chest, look someone in the eye. If you look successful and act successful, success will fol-low. Take charge of your experience and make it

just make it be something wonderful!

Copyright © Greg Lyne, Reprinted by permission.

Mike Bagby, Ralph Brooks, and Dick Kingdon Performing at the Annual Holiday Show

Nicholson Photo

February 2005

Page 8 Harmony Gazette

GADZOOKS! Submitted by Bob Schieble

What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, Gadzooks had just finished competing, for the first time, in the International Senior s Contest in Biloxi, MI with Bill Ward as bass. However, Bill was then living in Edmonton, Canada which made rehearsals together rather difficult and traveling to contests rather expen-sive. Joe Schlesinger had been standing in for Bill for several months (how many are in your quartet?) but was not a senior and, with the first Illinois District Senior s Contest in Peoria only two months away, some difficult decisions were needed.

We needed a senior bass who could quickly learn the repertoire and be prepared for the spring contest. Fortu-nately, Doug Smith volunteered for the challenge with the understanding that Doug would only be available for the spring contest because his regular quartet, Skyline, was not competing. With less than a dozen rehears-als, we went to Peoria, scored even higher than we had in Biloxi and made the cut for Saturday night.

While Gadzooks came in second behind Savoir Four in the Friday night senior s contest, this was Gadzooks first time in the top ten. Exciting! Thrilling! And sobering

we had to quickly rehearse two more songs for Saturday night.

After contest we began looking for yet another bass. Some of the key criteria included having a timbre that was a good match with John Cain, having the solid low notes needed to get a big sound, and, most important, being over 55 so Gadzooks could continue competing in the senior s contests. Bill Schwarz met all of these criteria and more.

However, Bill did not know the repertoire and, with the chorus commitments in preparation for Louisville, we couldn t begin quartet rehearsals in earnest until mid-July.

Fortunately Doug volunteered to help Bill get up to speed as quickly as possible and even made learning tapes for Bill. Again, with only a few months of rehearsals, we were in Peoria - our third contest of 2004 with our third bass. Our objective was simple. Score well enough to be a wild card selection for Jacksonville.

Of course, we then had to wait for all the other District contests to be completed and the scores for all quartets tallied. Finally, just before Thanksgiving came the e-mail. Gadzooks is invited to compete in Jacksonville. We had achieved our objective of being in two consecutive International Senior Contests.

While we were very happy to join the formidable Savior Four and Talismen as the third senior quartet representing the Illinois District, we had no illusions of being in the top ten. Our goal was to improve our scores from fall, have fun, and surprise a lot of people. We achieved all three goals, particularly the last one, and are looking forward to the spring contest in Peoria - only now it is our third contest with the same bass.

February 2005

Page 9 Harmony Gazette

Answers to Barbershop History Quiz: 1 Quartets that we would recognize as barbershop in nature are first written about in the 1870's.

2- The following quartets, all from the 1870's, are the earliest mentioned in print: The Hamtown Students, the American Four, the Four Shamrocks, the Continental Four and the Big Four.

3- Al Shean

4- The Avon Comedy Four in 1900

5- Its lead singer was Al Jolson

Nicholson Photo

iGive.com While the traditional avenues of fundraising are still popular, there are many new opportunities available every day. One of these is iGive.com, a privately held company based in Evans-ton, IL.

The iGive.com concept is simple. Register yourself as a New Tradition Chorus supporter on iGive.com s website and then shop at any of the 400+ popular online stores, including L.L Bean, Old Navy and Dell, featured at www.iGive.com. Make sure to show the iGive.com website to your wife! Mention it to your friends. A percentage of everything purchased goes to New Tradition Chorus!

The best part is that by shopping through iGive.com, it does not cost the shopper or the charity anything extra. The shopper will most likely save money, due to the buying power of hun-dreds of thousands of shoppers using the site! Once you ve registered with iGive.com, whenever you log in to their web-site, you will be shown how much you have raised for New Tradition!

Monthly specials include sales, as well as free shipping on cer-tain items. While most of the online stores offer 2-5% of the purchase as a donation to the charity you have registered with, there are opportunities to earn up to 27%.

Go sign up at www.iGive.com today!

February 2005

Page 10 Harmony Gazette

Stan Hadley pre-sented Ken Wexler with the President s Award.

Mike Bagby was given the Annual Music Achieve-ment Award by

Jay Giallombardo.

Nicholson Photo

Many New Tradition Chorus members spent Octo-ber 23, 2004, on the campus of Northwestern Uni-versity in Evanston, Illinois. It was an opportunity to spend the day singing with the U of I Glee Club. That evening, a joint con-cert was performed for family, friends and mem-bers of the community in Millar Chapel.

Not only can they sing, but many of the New Tradition members have other musical talents, as well. Some of these were show-cased during the an-nual Holiday Shows this past December. The chorus members were also joined by harpist Tija Danilovics during the perform-ance of Angels Blush.

Nicholson Photos

February 2005

Page 11 Harmony Gazette

Board meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month at the home of Member-at-Large Barry Cain at 7:30 P.M.

Members are encouraged to attend.

New Tradition s Section Leaders

Duane Fenn Bass Section

Dick Kingdon Baritone Section

Ralph Brooks Lead Section

Bob Tempas Tenor Section

Sweet Traditions New Tradition Women s Auxiliary

Join us! Date: 3rd Monday of each month Time 7:30 p.m. Place: Christian Heritage Academy Program: TBA

The 2004 Sweet Traditions Board

Nancy Nicholson, President 262-886-5486 Merrill Seal, Vice President 847-229-1868 Kay Schuetz, Secretary 630-325-0214 Marlene Anderson, Treasurer 708-422-0918 Marion Meseth, Membership 847-827-6530 Roxanne Barto, Sunshine 847-564-0399

Mindy Lazor, Immd. Past President 847-257-1000

Please call anyone on the Sweet Traditions board if you have questions, suggestions, or wish to volunteer.

New Tradition Welcomes 10 New Members

in 2004!

Chuck Carothers Max Kieba Tim Carter Jim Parsons Rich Gordon Ken Rotter Jeff Hartvigsen Steve Schoultz Josh Leath Mike Sidor

The following people introduced one or more of these new members to the chapter: Ralph Brooks Jay Giallombardo Bob Smith

Have you invited a guest recently?

Mike Saeger gave a humorous BOTY presentation, as former BOTYs tried to contain their laughter!

What do you mean It isn t the BOW TIE Award?

Operations VP Chuck Feuillan

Immed. Past Pres. Stan Hadley

Secretary Mike Saeger

Member-at-Large Barry Cain

President John Trumbull

Chapter Dev. VP Ralph Brooks

Executive VP Stan Sakalowski

THE HARMONY GAZETTE

Northbrook Chapter SPEBSQSA

Assistant Editor: Jennifer Sievers

PO Box 2235

Northbrook, IL 60065

marketing@newtradition.org

630-539-1544

International Gold Medalist - 2001

International Silver Medalist

1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000

Chorus Manager Brian Milnikel

Music VP J.D. Rich

CALENDAR OF EVENTS (other than regular Monday night meetings)

February 19 Mini-retreat with Geri Geis

April 15-17 Illinois District Spring Convention Peoria

May 6 & 7 New Tradition Spring Show Glenbrook South High School

June 3-4 Summer Retreat at Carthage College Kenosha, Wisconsin

July 4 Local 4th of July Performance

July 5-10 SPEBSQSA International Contest and Convention

Salt Lake City, Utah

VP PR & Marketing Max Kieba

Treasurer Rich Nelson