I don't expect any takers on this, since it costs $$, but just in case... For those of you not in the Dallas or Anaheim areas, there is another way to see/hear the contests/performances, through
webcasts of all the events. Pricing starts at $10 for an audio-only feed.
A little background... If any of you get the chance to see the VM rehearse or perform, either in the DFW area or in Anaheim, I thought it might add some excitement to know what's at stake here.
The barbershop international competition is a highly entertaining but very competitive, emotional event, both for quartets and choruses. It's like a whole different world that most people don't know exists -- or, as a
new documentary currently playing in some cities calls it, "The biggest singing competition you've never heard of."
For over thirty years, the
Vocal Majority has been the standard-setter in the barbershop chorus world. (Although we perform many different styles, we compete in barbershop.) For much of that time, there was a fairly substantial gap between us and the second place chorus. No more. At least three other choruses have improved to that top-tier level, and -- since a winning chorus only competes every third year -- that means that every year's competition is a dogfight now.
VM has eleven gold medals, ten of them consecutive, and we will be competing for the unprecedented twelfth medal three weeks from today. The next ranking chorus is the
Masters of Harmony -- based right up the road from Disneyland, in Santa Fe Springs -- who last year won their seventh gold medal. The Masters and VM have never competed head to head, as they've been competing on one of our off years each time. However, a "spin-off" group consisting of many of the younger members of the Masters, the
Westminster Chorus, came within a whisker -- 17 points out of a possible 3000 -- of upsetting VM in the 2006 competition. Westminster went on to win the title in 2007.
Added in the mix is the
Ambassadors of Harmony from St. Louis, who won the gold medal in 2004. (Do you need a scorecard yet?) They actually
tied Westminster in 2007, losing on a tiebreaking rule, and came very close to beating the Masters last year.
When VM won their last medal so closely over Westminster, some disagreed with the outcome, and many in the society seem to think that VM's had our place in the sun and it's time for us to fade away. Westminster and the Masters are not competing this year, but the Ambassadors are, and they are set on doing what no one has been able to do in thirty years: beat the Vocal Majority.
We have no intention of letting that happen. :D:
So, that's a little behind the scenes for you. We're working incredibly hard to put together an entertaining, and winning, contest set, and having a great deal of fun along the way! Hope to see you there!!
ETA: So you see, if -- I mean when -- we win the gold, that will be my answer to "What will you be celebrating?"!! :D: 