Golden Harvest Sharp Notes

Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America

Golden Harvest Chorus meets most Monday Evenings, 7:30-10:00 at
Knox Metropolitan United Church, corner of Victoria and Lorne, Regina, Saskatchewan
Guests always welcome!

Bruce Odell, from Winona, Minnesota, sings lead and has sung in several very popular show quartets, including the Mistersippis, the Road Runners, and saving his best for last, the Downstate Express! Bruce has served as chorus director for the Winona barbershoppers, and also has directed the Winona Sweet Adelines to a regional championship. Professionally, Bruce has progressed through a number of high level jobs, recently having arrived at the pinnacle of his career as a part-time janitor at the local YMCA.

Many of you will remember Bruce from last year's Clear Lake Mini-HEP, or from last November's music leadership school in Virden.

Bruce will be here in Regina and environs, coaching Barbershop and Sweet Adeline choruses and quartets (and at least one mixed quartet) as well as visiting some of the local schools.

We're thrilled to have Bruce here to work with us (cool name too – us Bruce's have to stick together). Our thanks to Dave Pearce for all his work over the past year in putting this week together for us.

Thanks to our guests who attended our guest/open house – and thanks to those members who invited and brought out guests. We hope you all had a good time, and we hope to see you again soon. If you enjoyed your visit with us, we'd be glad to have you return as often as you like.

Once again, if you need a lift to a chapter meeting, or just want to find out more about us, please give us a call.

For those of you who brought out guests, or invited someone who couldn't or didn't make it to our guest night – give your guest a call and give them that extra little nudge of encouragement that might just bring them out to join us.

Remember how you were first introduced to barbershop? It was probably through someone you knew inviting you or bringing you, and encouraging you to give it a try.

And if you didn't invite anyone to come to our guest night, there's still ample opportunity. Guest nights don't bring out new members – members bring out new members. Think of all the fun you're having – and consider sharing this experience with your friends, co-workers, neighbours… They'll be glad you did…

The Executive met Sunday May 7 at Stuart and Jeanne Reiley's. The meeting opened as usual, with "The Old Songs", but due to a shortage of tenors, our sole bass (Ron Evans) was conscripted to tenor and one of our two baritones (Bill Coulthard) filled in for the bass – a flexible bunch we are.

We will be holding our annual chapter elections on Monday June 19. The nominating committee of Dave Pearce and Lynn Lowes are busy rounding up candidates for the upcoming year's executive. This is your opportunity to contribute to the running of your chapter – and also an opportunity to help set the direction for our chapter. If you are interested in any of the executive positions, don't think you have to wait to be asked – feel free to talk to Lynn or Dave, or to approach any of the current executive members for more information. The time commitment is fairly minimal – we try to meet once a month from September to June. The pay isn't much (in fact its nothing), but the rewards are great. Give it a thought – and shock Lynn by volunteering.

Just a month to go for "the greatest Mini-HEP School" ever held at Clear Lake!!!

We have an awesome faculty coming up this year with no less than 10 instructors available to help you sing better and to have more enjoyment in this great hobby. There will be some new faces you have not seen before to include: Bill Rashleigh from the International Staff; Doug Miller who directed the Minneapolis Commodores and who also has three International Quartet medals; Jim Emery a candidate Judge and excellent in Quartet vocal training; Mel Eliason from the Harmony Works Quartet; your good friend Judd Orff; and of course EXCALIBUR Quartet.

Excalibur Quartet competed this past week in the International Prelims and are currently rated fourth in the World according to their score in contest. They are an excellent quartet and one that everyone will want to take home a memento CD or tape.

Chapter Coordinators be sure to get the message out to your members they may want to bring along some extra dollars and buy one of their CD's or tapes to take home.

We currently have 17 Quartets for coaching which should make for an excellent Show Saturday night. Coaching will start Friday evening with the nine quartets that can get there by 6:00 pm. Then on Saturday morning we continue with nine more quartets in coaching. Chorus coaching will again be Saturday afternoon and of course we have sessions with Bill Rashleigh going in the barn Friday night and Saturday morning.

The Saturday night Show will be video taped and will open with the Clear Lake performing Chorus under the direction of Doug Miller. This Chorus will practice Saturday afternoon from 3:00 - 5:00 and only those at the practice can sing with the chorus, as they will be adding some special interpretation and presentation. The Saturday night Show will again be open to the public at a cost of $10.00 per person and we expect a standing room only crowd. And to top things off we will be judging the Quartets Saturday night and will have awards to give out after the Show.

Chapter Coordinators.... Keep track of the number attending from your Chapter. I will need to know that so we can commit to Sportsman Park the number of meals to prepare. We will again be using meal tickets to better control our meal counts. Also the Saturday night Dinner will be available for wives attending at a cost of $10.00.

Spread the word... We can handle the crowd... But if they want to eat we need to know how many to plan meals for... This is going to be a GREAT Mini-HEP and one they won't want to miss!!!

Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. However, all the league records were unfortunately destroyed in a fire. Thus we'll never know for whom the Tell's bowled.

The Harmony Unplugged convention hosted by the Regina Sweet Adeline choruses was an astounding success.

The Chord Jesters and the Golden Harvest Chorus put on excellent performances to the packed house at Darke Hall at the Thursday kickoff.

Thanks to the riser and shell crew (Eltyn Hasz, Stuart Reiley, Dave Pearce, Bruce Fish, and many others) for moving the risers from place to place over the week/weekend. Thanks to the drivers and helpers who got the quartets from the hotels to the competition (Lynn Lowes, Eltyn Hasz, Dave Pearce, Jack Boan, Bruce Fish) – we only misplaced one quartet and only one driver (and quartet passengers) got busted. Thanks to Dave and Bruce for coordinating transportation for the choruses on Saturday. The members of the Regina Golden Harvest Chorus helped make a great impression on these visitors to our barbershop community.

For those of you who missed it, there was also a great tribute to Regina and Saskatchewan at the Saturday night show of Champions. Many of you will remember Henk Bertsch as a former member. His wife Dana MC'd the Saturday night show. I've included the following email Chris Evans received from Dana. It looks like Henk is off to Jamaica now…

Thank you for the lovely note you sent to Corinna in regards to our tribute to Saskatchewan. I wrote the words from my heart and it was easy to deliver my message to my hometown crowd.

On a personal note, my husband has taken a job in Jamaica and one of our daughters and myself will likely join him early next year. The assignment could be up to seven years, so it is unlikely I'll be at any contests in the near future. Keep up the good work and continue to make our Region proud.

Fondest Regards,
Dana Bertsch (nee Jaques)
Westcoast Harmony lead, MC,
and proud to be from Regina
hbertsch@wave.home.com

Our sincere thanks to the Golden Harvest Chorus members for helping with the risers and the volunteers who worked with transportation (both vans and buses) for our Region #26 Sweet Adelines competition. It was good to see familiar faces and hear your words of encouragement when boarding the bus as well as on our arrival at the Centre of the Arts.

With your busy weekend, it was really nice to see that you took time to perform for our First Night Show Thursday evening.

We had a great show, and on the following Monday night we had a short relaxing, fun meeting, following which we headed off to the local Western Pizza. A dozen or so of us had some great pizza and beverages, sang for our hostesses and the other patrons, and had an all-around-great time.

"At the end of the day, it is relationships that count," Says Anne Luke in her Director’s report in the Spring Newsletter of the Early Learning Centre. She went on to say that among the many changes that take place in any organization, "One of the things that does not change is your support. I hope I will have the opportunity to see many of you at the Annual Dinner and thank you personally for being part of the network that makes the Early Learning Centre community so vibrant."

Their annual fundraising dinner is being held on May 18, at Holy Rosary Parish Hall, 2140 Cameron Street. Punch at 6:30; Dinner at 7 pm. Tickets are $20 each, but corporate tables of eight or more are at $15. For reservations call 757-3744.

This is going to be the first dinner I will have missed in a long time. They are always well worth while: the food is excellent, and so is the entertainment. This year there will be a Guest Speaker: Ken Beattie. Getting the latest in gardening just at planting time is pretty good timing, don’t you think?

There are lots of things to learn from the E.L.C. newsletter. For example, Mary Ann McGrath, research assistant in the T.L.C. project tells us that things are going well with the Parents as Teachers (PAT) program. [That is a program that helps parents to acquire nurturing skills, where none, or few, may have existed. This is a program with the promise of an absolutely enormous return on investment.] She says, "[it} has been a rich learning and growing experience for everyone within the program. Growth has meant, however, the need to assess our vision of ourselves and how we communicate who we are and what we do. The Early Learning Centre is no longer only a preschool program rather we now see ourselves as being multifaceted and offering programming to families with children from birth up to age five."

Sounds great to me. The Golden Harvest Chorus deserves commendation for helping to fund this outstanding community endeavour.

Otherwise in the news: Elsie May Quick is home from the hospital, having had some more surgery. Marj Gardiner has had a cataract removed. We wish them good health from now on.

As you celebrate the forthcoming long weekend, I will be thinking of you as I travel down U.S. No.2 Highway, to Michigan, where Jean and I will attend a wedding on May 27. Have a good one!

We had some technical difficulties with the Mega-Bingo this past Thursday which caused about a 20 minute delay – but which gave us the perfect opportunity to put a pick up quartet (Ron Evans, Vic Goertzen, Jack Boan, Bruce Fish) in front of the caller's mike and sing a song for the crowd. Despite being dyed-in-the-wool serious Bingo players, they all seemed to appreciate our singing. Afterwards, we had several queries from players asking who we were and wanting information about us – we might have even gotten a few extra patrons for our next year's show.

Our next bingo is May 24, and who knows, maybe we'll get another chance to sing.

Jack Boan was featured in an article in the Regina Philharmonic Chorus Newsletter. This front-page article not only told of our singing valentines, but was also a great plug for our chorus and our show. Thanks, Jack, for submitting this article and bringing attention to our music and cause.

"Crown prosecutor Eric Neufeld and his barbershop quartet, The Chord Jesters, spread smiles and revived romances across Regina this Valentine's Day."

Eric Neufeld and the Chord Jesters were the subject of an article in the "Justice Profile – News for employees of Saskatchewan Justice". This article featured not only Eric and their quartet, but also spoke well of our chapter, our society, and our support of HeartSpring and the Early Learning Centre. Thanks, Eric, for bringing us to Justice.

Once again, we will be taping some of the repertoire that we have been working on over the past several months. We have tentatively scheduled this for Monday June 26 at the New Music Productions studio, 603B Park Street. Mark this date on your calendar. We'll probably tape for an hour or so, and then retire someplace for food and libations to wind up the year.

We're the Grampa-phones, or the Four Hoarse Men, or any of several other names – tenor Peter Vanderstelt, lead Bruce Fish, baritone Jack Boan and bass Bill Quick. We've been singing together off and on for a couple of years now – and as the song goes "We're still havin' fun." Over the past few months, we've sung Singing Valentines, we sang for Expressions (for the second year running – they must really think we're pretty great, huh). We've sung for church dinners and at seniors' homes. And we sang as part of our annual chapter show. We're four average joe barbershoppers singing together, and making ourselves and others happy through our singing. We're not looking to win any prizes, but we're spreading harmony through our songs – and we're having fun. What more could we ask…

The site of the Spring 2001 convention has been changed from Eau Claire to Fargo – bad news for Eau Claire, but good news for Fargo – and great news for us. While Eau Clare is 1442 kilometres and about 14 hours driving from Regina, Fargo is only(!) 882 kilometres and only a leisurely bus ride away.

We’ll be entering a float in the annual Buffalo Days parade again this year – so we'll have to look at melting the snow off our Santa Claus parade float.

Hello Bruce, I just, today returned from the Spring Convention at La Crosse, Wisconsin and just received your bulletin. Congratulations on the show and congratulations on winning an honourable mention for bulletin editor. I brought home a framed plaque for Bismarck, 1st, and Minot, 2nd, and unframed plaques for other chapters. They just announced the first two places and four other honorable mentions. I will send it to you tomorrow. You do a great job, and I certainly enjoy receiving yours.

It was a great contest, and the quartets certainly showed that they had received coaching, etc. Boy were they good, and as you will see, we are sending five quartets to International.

I had the good fortune to visit with several of the Winnipeg group, but other than that, we were the only reps of Northwest Division. Looking forward to Clear Lake. The staff will fly into Minot and we will shuttle them up. Wish I could have been there for your Radio show. We did three shows in three weeks around the Minot area, so have been quite busy. Our best to Bob Brutsman, just went through surgery. Jack Edgerton filled in for him at the Convention.

Land O'Lakes will have five quartets represented at International this year!!! Excalibur and Breakpoint have already qualified in other district competitions, but last night, Jackpot, Trademark and Checkmate all won the right to compete this summer.. Congratulations and good luck to all of them!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue of your Sharp Notes. You, too, can see your name here in print – it's easier than you think. Just drop me a line or email and I'll see that the info gets into the next issue.

COMING EVENTS

Chorus coaching with Bruce Odell Monday, May 8

Mothers Day Sunday, May 14

Victoria Day - no meeting Monday, May 22

Bingo Wednesday, May 24

Bingo Thursday, June 1

Mini-HEP, Clear Lake, Manitoba June 2, 3, 4

Trans-Canada Trail singout Wednesday, June 7

Bingo Thursday, June 15

Chapter Elections Monday, June 19

Chorus coaching with Bruce Odell Monday, May 8

Mothers Day Sunday, May 14

Victoria Day Monday, May 22

Bingo Wednesday, May 24

Bingo Thursday, June 1

Mini-HEP, Clear Lake, Manitoba June 2, 3, 4

Trans-Canada Trail singout Wednesday, June 7

Chapter Elections Monday, June 19

LOL Show of Champions, Richfield, MN Sunday, June 25

Taping session Monday, June 26

Windup meeting for the Summer Monday, June 26

International, Kansas City, MO July 2-9

Buffalo Days Parade Sunday, July 30

Labour day Monday, September 6

First meeting after summer break Monday, September 13

Open House / Guest night Monday, September 20

LOL Fall District Convention, Oshkosh, WI October 20, 21, 22

Golden Harvest Annual Spring Show Saturday, April 7, 2001

LOL Prelims / Spring Convention, Fargo, ND May 4, 5, 6, 2001

LOL Fall District Convention, Fargo, ND October 25, 26, 27, 2002

Articles in this bulletin do not necessarily reflect the views of the chapter. Unless carrying a byline, they are those of the editor. Items received may be referred to the executive before publication. All chapter officers and members are encouraged to submit articles to the Sharp Notes. Submissions will be credited to the author. Please address any comments, suggestions or submissions to the editor –

Bruce Fish, 2327 Brodie Bay, Regina, Canada S4V 0V1
phone: (306) 761-2503; email: bfish@cableregina.com.