Celebrating female barbershop

Submitted by Kelli Allison on

This week the Waikato Rivertones were meant to be on stage in Louisville, Kentucky performing in the international Sweet Adelines competition (thanks Covid)! Instead we commiserated/celebrated with dinner together, and sang some of our favourite songs (check out this Facebook post). Not quite the same, but we still had fun! We're grateful that unlike many countries, we can actually sing together rather than via Zoom.

If you didn't make it to our recent Open night or are unsure if a female barbershop choir is for you, you can try out our Intro to Barbershop workshops (next one is on Monday at 6.30pm) or just pop along on any Monday night at 7pm. Here's some reasons why from our newest Bass members Colleen and Fanbo...

Colleen decided to come along to the Rivertones because 'I liked their costumes and they seemed to move around quite a lot during their performance. The first night the sound of the chorus brought tears to my eyes - I had been to Pentatonix last year and was blown away but we're so much more amazing.' She kept coming back and decided to join because 'I was having fun and it was enjoyable even though I didn't know what I was doing. Everyone was so supportive.'

Fanbo was encouraged by a WRT member to come along, and says she fell in love with the group on her first visit. 'The atmosphere was bright and all the members were nice and lovely, which did make me feel at home and l thought it would be really cool if I could become one of them.' She liked that the group had a shared vision, 'led by real professional people with passion and talent, not only on the musical area, but also on the management side. Everyone has a strong commitment to the group and is trying her best to make the community better. I feel it is a great opportunity to grow myself and develop an interest into a hobby.'
  
Colleen and Fanbo also enjoyed the 4 week 'Intro to Barbershop' course, which covered the details of barbershop, breathing and lots of 'practical techniques to relax my body and produce better outcomes for singing.' Join us on Monday!