The Ontario District flocked to Belleville earlier this month for our annual Spring Convention. Attendees braved the unseasonably icy weather to once again meet with barbershop friends from all over the province. The adoring audience was treated to the joys of good close harmony by over 20 quartets and 10 choruses who took the stage, and the fun continued late into the night. Here are some of the highlights from the weekend, in no particular order:
- Fresh off of their bronze medal placement at the World Mixed quartet competition in Germany, Ripple Effect beat out five other quartets to win their second consecutive Ontario District Mixed Quartet Champion title.
- Supertonic once again hosted an extremely successful hospitality room on the Friday night of convention. The event was well-received at the Fall Convention in Brantford, and the quartet expanded the event this Spring with the addition of kegs of craft beer from a local Belleville brewery.
- Peterborough’s Sunset 4 quartet earned the Novice Quartet Champion title after a great performance on Friday night. Fall 2017 winners Perpetual Emotion handed over the trophy to the new champs on stage on Saturday evening.
- In a contest that was decided by only two points, Playback narrowly edged out Supertonic to win the coveted Nighthawks Trophy. Both quartets earned qualifying scored for International and will be representing Ontario District in Orlando this summer. They will be joined by The Aristocrats, who qualified out-of-district at the Johnny Appleseed convention the following weeked.
- The Hamilton Harbourtown Sound did a terrific job as the assisting chapter at the event, and capped off the convention with a stellar performance on the Show of Champions. The chorus unveiled their competition ballad, You’ll Never Walk Alone, and performed it as a tribute to late great Sound member and Ontario District President Andrew Shackleton.
- Dan Locke and Jamie Macpherson were honoured with a Barbershopper of Renown title, an award given each year to up to four barbershoppers to recognize outstanding contributions at both the chapter and district levels. Other Barbershopper of Renown awards will be presented throughout the year, as some of the recipients were not able to make it to convention.
- C Suite quartet, no strangers to the contest stage after their performance at Midwinter this past January, walked away with this year’s Seniors Quartet Champion title.
- The Capital City Chorus, Kingston Townsmen, and A Cappella Niagara choruses all took home trophies for their performances this past weekend. Ottawa won both Plateau 3 and the title of 2018 Chorus Champions. The Kingston chorus were awarded the Plateau 2 trophy and named the Most Improved Chorus, and Niagara Falls earned the Chorus Encouragement award.
- The Joe Barbershop Chorus was redubbed the Everyone in Harmony Chorus with the addition of women for the first time to the typically all-male chorus. The mixed group, under the direction of Ontario District VP Chorus Director Development Pat Hannon, served as mic testers for the chorus contest.
- A new format for the Show of Champions had the official convention program wrapping up shortly after 9:30 on Saturday night, much earlier than in past years. The post-convention festivities kicked off at the hotels at 10 pm and continued long into the night. Attendees enjoyed great singing and fellowship in hospitality rooms hosted by the Capital City Chorus and A Cappella Niagara at the headquarters hotel.
- Choruses and quartets received world-class coaching and evaluations from a panel of the Society’s top judges and candidate judges from as far away as New Zealand.
Whether or not you were able to join us this spring, we hope to see you this fall when we return to Global Kingdom Ministries in Scarborough! Early bird registration is open now… why wait?
Thanks for a great convention!