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The Atlantic Harmony Brigade organizes
a special event for highly motivated men who actively quartet and want to
build their repertory and contact with a large network of other committed
singers. Sixteen weeks prior to this invitational weekend event 124 selected
applicants (31 per voice part) receive a package of 12 challenging and
exciting songs (and learning CDs). They are required to independently
study their part and agree only to attend the event fully prepared to sing
each song accurately. They are assigned a random quartet at the start of
the event and immediately compete in a fully adjudicated contest. Most of
the weekend, however, is spent mixing it up in hundreds (potentially thousands)
of informal but well prepared, random quartet combinations.
Men from all over the eastern seaboard (and often beyond) gather for the
Atlantic Harmony Brigade in August in a conveniently centralized location
for this weekend rally. Currently there exist only two other quartet oriented
Brigades in the world; one in North
Carolina (now in it's 15th year-the NCHB) and one in Indiana
(IHB). Michigan will be holding it’s inaugural rally in May 2008.
Others are in the making throughout the US.
Wilmington Delaware was the site of the first Atlantic Harmony Brigade
convention held in the Barbershop Harmony Society’s Mid Atlantic
District. The up coming rally and show location will be posted on this
site by mid March. |
The weekend is capped off with a 100-man
chorus and quartet show that is open to the public. The Atlantic Harmony
Brigade Chorus show will also include selected quartets from the Brigade
and featured guest quartets. See “Our Big
Show” for details on last year’s and our up coming show.
There is a high level of self-administered accountability on the participants.
Complete and uncompromising preparation is the rule and not the exception.
Attendees participate with an ethos that says, "I will be the guy everyone
came to sing with" and that "coming unprepared is not an option." Yet
there is an unquestionable esprit de corps of fraternity, encouragement
and musicality.
The Atlantic Harmony Brigade is a NOT-FOR-PROFIT corporation filed in
the state of New York. It is a federally tax exempt 501 (c) (3) charitable
subsidiary of the Barbershop Harmony Society, a national, educational
and cultural arts organization. The organization chartered to foster and
preserve the unique, American traditional style of avocational Barbershop
quartet singing.
The event team is a diverse, talented, experienced and dedicated group
of men from all over the BHS's: MID-ATLANTIC DIVISION representing a region
that includes: Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey,
New York and Pennsylvania; many of whom have been active participants
in the North Carolina and Indiana Harmony Brigades.
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