Alliance spent five busy, fun-filled days in Adelaide, South Australia primarily to act as faculty for the “Big Barbershop Day Out” (BBDO) which is a major day-long singing workshop run annually for young people from schools from all over the city.
Along the way we also visited and coached various barbershop harmony choruses and quartets and performed in the ‘Here We Come Kansas City!’ Concert with the Festival Statesmen Youth Chorus, The Fishbowl Boys and Now In Stereo.
Seeing the 150+ crowd of young people taking part in singing and performing at the BBDO was especially heartwarming and being able to take some small part in their musical development was quite a privelege.
The hospitality that everyone showed us was spectacular and we certainly were made to feel very welcome and special. We have to make special mention of Jonathan Bligh and Yvonne Twining who did an amazing job as prinicipal organisers of the BBDO and our whole itinerary. What has been acheived can be credited mainly to your hard work and dedication to the young people and you can be justifiably proud of the success you and your team have acheived.
We also want to acknowledge Graham Whetter who for many years has been a driving force behind getting young people involved in babershop/a cappella singing in Adelaide and who continues to be actively involved. We never saw him without a smile on his face the whole time we were there!
The Fishbowl Boys will be heading to the USA to compete in the Barbershop Harmony Society’s International Collegiate Contest in July this year and will also be joining Vocal Evolution in the Chorus Contest. You can find out more about them here. Also be sure to check out the Festival Statesmen Youth Chorus.
