[From the Ontario District's newsletter, The Trillium, issue 61-01, January - March, 2007 , Waldo Redekop, editor.]

OSCARS returning

By Jamie Marr, District VP Music and Performance

Top Gun

The Top Gun program was a great success at COTS this year. We had seven quartets in attendance due to three seniors division quartets qualifying for the Midwinter convention.

Play It Again! placed eighth, Sound Association placed sixteenth and Silver Threads placed twenty-third. These three quartets, along with The Fixx, Mirage, Common Interest and Fusion, were the Top Gun quartets.

They were coached by Bobby Gray Jr., Tom Wilkie and Allen Gaspar of Saturday Evening Post fame. Joining them were Rick Spencer and Jeff Selano. We had a health problem eliminate Bob Hodge as stand-in tenor for SEP, but Rick Spencer saved the day and filled in.

Coaches for next year’s Top Gun are currently being assembled. We will tentatively book five coaches for next year. The show on Saturday night was a great success with many thanks to Chuck Alexander.

Harmony College North

Ken Fisher has been hard at work ensuring that all the major details are in place. We are trying to revamp some of the course selections to appeal to those Barbershoppers who have done it all before. This year at HCN we hope to offer some new and inspiring experiences that our members will bring back to their home chapters.

We will have James Estes coming in from the Society Music Staff. We would like to invite as many quartets from the District as possible to come to HCN to enter into the quartet coaching program. We have many great coaches lined up and it would be great to have to search for more!

Larry Dale Coach of the Year award

I sent out submission requests for this year’s nominations. The award will be presented at spring convention at the Saturday evening show.

OSCARS

It is time for the resurrection of the OSCARS quartet coaching program. This is an excellent tool for our new or novice level quartets to gain some coaching from the veterans within the district. It is a great opportunity for both the quartet and the coach as they learn a lot about what they do by helping somebody else get better at it. Stay tuned for more information.

The quartet coaching programs in the district will be designed to cater to the following structure.

Top Gun — quartets capable of qualifying for International (by invitation only).

Harmony College North — quartets who have competed or are ready to consider competing at the district level (open to any quartet).

OSCARS — entry level / novice quartets (open to any quartet — coached by Top Gun participants and other coaches from within the district).             k