10th Annual Youth In Harmony Festival-Western WI
Submitted by Kathy Lucken, YWIH Coordinator – Vallee de Croix
We made it…all the way to 10 years…yea us!!!
Ten years ago, 25 boys met at the St. Croix Falls High School for the 1st Annual Youth In Harmony Festival hosted by the Indianhead Chorus and directed by Shawn Gudmunsen. I attended that festival and the rest is history. I met with the Indianhead organizers and suggested that we collaborate and hold a festival for both boys and girls and away we went. My thinking was, “if the girls are invited, more boys would attend.” We did manage to get that number up to 31 this year, but we had a record number of girls at 90.
What have I learned over the past 10 years? There are just more girls in high school choruses than there are boys. However, in the SAI and BHS communities…there are more men than women. I’m not even going to try to figure out why that is, but it does appear that the boys are drawn to the barbershop style at a later age.
The core planning team has been in place for all nine years, with an addition here and there; the team consists of representatives from Indianhead and Croix Chordsmen Choruses, and Carolyn Ward, Jackie Hillman and Kathy Lucken who represent Vallee de Croix Chorus on that team.
We also boast an excellent strong musical staff. Liz Miller (teacher in Osseo School District and front row singer in City of Lakes) has directed the girls for the past 9 years; her excellent music standards and love of barbershop music are an great fit for this position; however, Liz has informed me that (at least for next year), she is stepping back. Kyle Hammers (Unity High School and singer in GNU), and Shawn Gudmunsen (St. Croix Falls High School music teacher) have served as directors for the boys. Scott Perau (Red Wing music teacher and singer in GNU) has been a part of many of our festivals and I have no doubt he will be joining us again in the future. Pat Teorey, Jackie Hillman, Judy Olson and Tricia Perau have served as choreographers.
We have many talented quartets in the Northern Lights Region 6 and Land O Lakes District to draw from for teaching quartets. I’m not going to list them here in case I should miss one…but you all know who you are. I have yet to invite a quartet to be a teaching quartet that has turned me down…unless they are unable to attend; sometimes even pulling in a “sub” for a part that may be on vacation.
For eight years we used Doug Miller’s arrangement of Harmony as our combined finale number; a song that Doug has arranged so beautifully, but this year the “young” music staff wanted to try a different song. The last two years we used the song “CUPS” for our finale’ number and this year we will be looking for something new.
The planning team has not been able to meet for a wrap-up meeting, but YES…there will be an 11th Annual Festival; where that will be and what date are yet to be determined. Through our 10 years we have introduced barbershop singing to approximately 1,000 students and we have loved every minute of it.
If you haven’t tried hosting one of these events in your chorus neighborhood, I would challenge you to try it, the rewards are many.
Let’s Keep America Singing and Harmonize The World.
