A Background on Sydney Harmony
Sydney Harmony is a well established choir that specialises in 4-part vocal harmony. The group comprises over 40 competitive men singers aged from 16 to 76 from a variety of backgrounds, who love close harmony singing, particularly of the barbershop variety. Members come from all areas in and around Sydney. Members find there are many ways to enjoy this great hobby that also provides a challenge for singers of all levels of accomplishment.
Formation, 1999
The group was formed in May 1999 from the merger of the then two most successful Sydney singing groups, Broadway and Harbour City Harmony. The first rehearsal of the new chorus, with a combined membership of around 70, took place on 24 May with Jim Catt as Musical Director and Steve Ferrick as Coach. Shortly thereafter, at the 5th AAMBS National Barbershop Convention in Brisbane, Sydney Harmony, with only eighteen weeks rehearsing as a new chorus, achieved 4th place out of the 17 competing choruses from around the country, and was the highest placed chorus in New South Wales. Sydney Harmony also had four quartets competing at the Brisbane Convention. 'Close Quarters' finished third as bronze medallists in the Open category competing against all the best quartets in the country, while the 'Bi-Focal Minority' also won bronze in the Seniors section.
2000
Throughout 2000, Sydney Harmony continued to expand both its membership and repertoire and was included in several public performances. One performance highlight of the year was competing in the Open Choral section of the City of Sydney Performing Arts Challenge, where in the finals at the Sydney Town Hall, Sydney Harmony finished a close second. The other major performance was the chorus' own concert night at Sydney's new premier venue, the City Recital Hall at Angel Place. This concert also featured an exciting line-up of top a cappella talent, performing jazz, barbershop and other styles. Acts included 'Idea of North', 'Southern Cross', as well as the exquisite 'Waratah Girls Choir', winners of the Open Choral section at the City of Sydney Performing Arts Challenge, 2000.
2001
The year 2001 was another extremely busy and challenging year for Sydney Harmony, the highlight being The 3rd Pan-Pacific & 6th AAMBS Barbershop Convention at the Melbourne Concert Hall in September. Sydney Harmony finished as Australian silver-medallists in the Chorus Competition only two points (out of 600) behind the winners. Sydney Harmony also had four quartets qualify for the Pan-Pacific Open Quartets Competition: 'FREEFALL', 'Your Shout', the 'Bi-Focal Minority', and 'Four Sure'. 'FREEFALL' won the Silver medal and 'Your Shout' (a very new quartet) finished a creditable 9th place nationally.
Throughout 2001 Sydney Harmony expanded its repertoire and expertise in choreography and performed at a number of functions including the Retirement Expo at Homebush Bay and the Sydney A Cappella Festival at Dockside, Darling Harbour. Other functions included corporate gigs at Rosehill racecourse and at the Australian Stock Exchange. At the City of Sydney Performing Arts Challenge in August, Sydney Harmony received a Highly Commended award.
2002
In April of 2002, Sydney Harmony gave its second annual concert at the City Recital Hall in Angel Place, featuring such well-known groups as the 'Australian Girls Choir' and the jazz group 'High Five'. Sydney Harmony also performed in July with the world champion men's quartet 'Michigan Jake' at Parramatta's Riverside Theatre.
2003
Our first performance of 2003 was a charity concert for the Baptist Community Services, where we shared the stage with 'Idea of North' and 'FREEFALL'. On May 17, we had our annual fund-raising concert at the City Recital Hall in Angel Place, with performances by The Song Company, FREEFALL, and the Humming Birds
In October, we travelled to Perth for the 7th Australian Barbershop Convention, and again finished a creditable 2nd, winning the silver medal. We were extremely proud when our quartet FREEFALL picked up the gold medal in the Open Quartet competition and were anointed Australian champions. Our quartet 'Ignition!' collected the trophy for best new quartet, and we had other strong performances from Your Shout, the Bi-Focal Minority, Quadrasonix and Harlequin.
Other highlights of the year included a charity concert at the St Ives Uniting Church and the Sydney Performing Arts Challenge in August.
2004
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Winners of the Australasian Community Choir competition Sydney Performing Arts challenge, August 2004 |
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| Winner's trophy (click to enlarge) | Winner's certificate (click to enlarge) | ||
In 2004, Sydney Harmony decided to focus on polishing our performances and improving our quality. The results of this program were reflected on August 1st, when we won The John Lamble Australasian Championship for Community Choirs, part of the prestigious Sydney Performing Arts Challenge. Sydney Harmony was adjudged to have produced the best in the variety of styles, balance and contrast.
2005
In June, we again competed in the Community Choirs section of the McDonald's Perfoming Arts Challenge (MPAC), formerly known as the Sydney Performing Arts Challenge.We made our way into the finals at the Sydney Town Hall, but the 1st Prize was taken out by a worthy Endeavour Chorus, a Sweet Adelines barbershop chorus from the Sutherland Shire.
The 8th AAMBS Convention was held on the Gold Coast in October 2005 where Sydney Harmony won Bronze behind the first place 'Blenders' and second place 'Vocal Evolution', the new and exciting group from Perth.
There was a significant challenge at the end of the year following the retirement of our foundation Musical Director, Jim Catt. Jim was subsequently elected a Life Member of Sydney Harmony at the AGM.
2006
This was a very busy, rebuilding year for Sydney Harmony. After an intensive search, Vicki Dwyer was appointed as our Musical Director. Vicki is a professional singing and dancing coach very much in demand for her barbershop expertise. Vicki was also Musical Director of 'Circular Keys', a Sydney based Sweet Adelines barbershop chorus, a position she maintains to this day.
Under the direction of Vicki we ran a very successful six week 'Sing in Harmony' course that attracted some forty outside singers who joined with Sydney Harmony to brush up our singing skills, with a focus on barbershop. Some of the new participants ultimately joined as full members of Sydney Harmony.
Thanks to the financial support of one of its members, Sydney Harmony ran a thirteen week cine-advertising campaign at the Hayden Orpheum Theatre in Cremorne. This campaign was run concurrently with the promotion of the 'Sing in Harmony' course.
Sydney Harmony was very busy during this year. Its first fund raising concert at Verbruggen Hall, Sydney Conservatoium of Music was very successful. This was followed by a number of singouts, including our participation in a two hundred voice choir for the Edinburgh Military Tatoo and in a five hundred voice choir for the soundtrack to the international blockbuster movie "Happy Feet".
Sydney Harmony also performed at two Australian Citizenship Award ceremonies and at an Anzac Day Dawn service. Another highlight of the year was our first ever performance at Sydney's famed jazz nightclub, The Basement, on the same billing as The Elementals\Jonah & the Wailers, a popular gospel group.
The 2005 International Barbershop Quartet Champions, 'Realtime', toured Australia near the end of the year under the sponsorship of AAMBS (Australian Association of Mens Barbershop Singers). Sydney Harmony performed at an AAMBS Eastern Region concert at Sydney's Seymour Centre that featured Realtime, Circular Keys, Hills Harmony and the Australian 2005 Gold Medallist quartet from Perth, 'Alliance'.
2007
2008
Another very busy year that started with our 2nd Sing in Harmony Course in February. This resulted in gaining 5 new full members.
In June, we entered the Community Choirs Section of the McDonald's Performing Arts Challenge, and once again we received a Judges' Commendation Certificate.
End July, we staged a very successful Annual Concert at norths Leagues Club, where we conduct all our rehearsals throughout the year. Some 500 patrons attended, This was one of the largests crowds at the club on a Sunday afternoon. The Circular Keys Chorus joined us on the day, and FREEFALL delighted everyone with their very last public performance, as they have reluctantly decided to call it a day.
Our first overseas trip together to the Pan Pacific Barbershop Convention in Honolulu end October went very well. We competed against 16 other Pacific Rim choruses from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hawaii and the West Coast of the USA. We came 6th overall against some very worthy choruses, particularly two outstanding groups from New Zealand. Observers said they had never heard us sing so well. This augurs well for the forthcoming McDonald's Performing Arts Challenge next June and the AAMBS National Barbershop Convention in Hobart next September.
And here we are in Honolulu Hawaii USA!
2009
This year is our 10th Anniversay and plans are underway to celebrate on 24th May, the very date in 1999 when the Harbour City Harmony & Broadway choruses met formally and voted to amalgamate into Sydney Harmony. All Foundation Members will be invited to help us celebrate this grand occasion.
In February, we conducted our 3rd Annual Sing in Harmony Course and attracted 25 starters. The course culminated in a concert on 30th March in front of a full house at norths' Kameraigal Room. Just on half the starters backed up at the following week's rehearsal with a view to becoming full members.
In early May, a group of nine of us distinguished itself as the 'Recession Choir', singing live on Channel 7's 'SUNRISE' Breakfast Show on Tuesday 5th May. The lyrics were provided to us by Channel 7 on the afternoon of Monday 4th May and then cleverly arranged into a four-part harmony song by MD Vicki Dwyer, at 'breaknet' speed!
Our 10th Birthday Party was held on Sunday 24th May at the Balmain Rowers Club. This venue was ideal and the day was perfect after a week of rainy weather. Over 70 people attended this event including ten former members. Everyone was given a montage of photos of the chorus from 1999 to today as a memento (below).The middle photos feature (from L - R) our 1st Musical Director, Jim Catt, 'el Coacho', Steve Ferrick (Musical Director of the Harbour City Harmony Chorus who merged with the Broadway Chorus in 1999 to form Sydney Harmony) and current Musical Director, Vicki Dwyer.
The 1999 photo was taken at the AAMBS 7th National Convention in Brisbane where Sydney Harmony came 4th after only 18 weeks of rehearsing as a new chorus.
Our performances at the McDonald's Performing Arts Challenge went well. We entered two events; the 'Open Choirs' & 'Show Choirs' sections. While we didn't place, we scored in the low 80s and received positive comments from the adjudicator like: 'Good style & well presented' and 'Good energy'.
The AAMBS 10th National Convention in Hobart was a resounding success in many ways. While we improved our total scores from last convention by 7%, and achieved some of our highest 'Presentation' scores ever, this wasn't enough for us to 'medal' as we'd done in all former Open Chorus competitions. The overall standard of quartet and chorus performances has improved markedly within the last two years and there has been a 'changing of the guard' lead primarily by singers in their teens and twenties. This alone is an important step forward for barbershop in Australia and is a most encouraging development for the long term. With this in mind, we have started a program to get Sydney Secondary Schools interested in the barbershop genre where we can take an active part in tutoring. We'd like to see Sydney youth taking part in the AAMBS 11th National Convention in Brisbane 2011, either as part of Sydney Harmony or in separate quartets and choruses. Our colleagues in other capital cities have proven how well such a program can work, and we will attempt to emulate their success, beginning with a workshop for seconday schools to be held at the Shore School, North Sydney in March 2010. This workshop was lead by the 'Musical Island Boys' quartet from Wellington, NZ who actually won the US National Collegiate Barbershop Quartet Competition two years ago and finished 10th in the Open International Quartet Competition at Anaheim this year.
2010
In September 2009 we were involved in the Music Council of Australia's second annual Music in Communities Awards. There was $20,000 prize money to be shared and although we did not win an award, the council issued a Certificate of Commendation to Sydney Harmony that "comes with our sincere thanks and encouragement for your wonderful efforts in helping to get more Australians making music and for your contribution to the well-being of your community". You can view our submission to the council 'MCA Awards for Community Groups' on the website's Home Page under the Recent Notices menu.
In June, we finished second in the Sydney Eisteddfod's McDonald's Performing Arts Challenge (MPAC) 'Show Choirs' competition. Also in June, we followed this up by winning the AAMBS Eastern Region's Chorus Competition. One of our quartets, Just4Now won the Sydney Eisteddfod's MPAC Small Vocal Groups Competition having also won the AAMBS Eastern Region's Quartet Competition.
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In August & September, we held the 4th Annual Sing in Harmony Course at norths club. This proved to be another well-supported event with 21 new faces learning to sing a cappella 4-part harmony. Details of this course can be seen at the 'Learn to Sing' section of our website.
In November, we capped our year off with "A Cappella Rocks!", a sell-out concert at norths Leagues Club. We joined forces with Circular Keys Chorus and the "Out of the Shadows" rock band. See "Recent Notices" on the website's Home page for details.
2011
The big event of the year was the combined 11th AAMBS National and the 6th PanPacific Convention in Brisbane where we competed against choruses from Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Japan. We finished 4th in the nationals and a close 5th in the PanPacific competitions.
Earlier in the year we had a terrific weekend workshop under the tutelage of Vicki Dwyer and Matt Gifford who is the Bass of the internationally renowned quartet, the Musical Island Boys from New Zealand..
2012
The year commenced with the AAMBS Eastern Region Workshop at Greenhills just near Canberra. Twenty-one members or 60% of the chorus were in attendance.
In June we competed in the Sydney Eisteddfod and obtained a mark of 85% along with a Certificate of Commendation.
Thanks to the AAMBS National Executive, we were able to secure the services of Jim de Busman for a weekend workshop and a Monday evening rehearsal. Jim is a Barbershop Harmony Society of America educator, vocal specialist and accredited Singing Judge.
After five years rehearsing at Norths Leagues Club, it was time to move on. We have secured a great new rehearsal venue at Souths on Chalmers in Redfern where we are now holding "Open Nights" on every 2nd Monday of the month.
