Westminster Chorus
Encyclopedia
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
chorus
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
based in Westminster, California
Westminster, California
-Government:In the state legislature Westminster is located in the 34th, Senate District, represented by Democrat Lou Correa and Republican Tom Harman respectively, and in the 67th and 68th Assembly District, represented by Republicans Jim Silva and Van Tran respectively...
. International Chorus Champions of the Barbershop Harmony Society
Barbershop Harmony Society
The Barbershop Harmony Society, legally and historically named the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. , is the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbershop music as an art form. Founded by Owen C...
in 2007 and 2010, they are composed almost entirely of men under the age of 30.
History
The town of Westminster, in Orange County, CA has supported a barbershop chapter for almost half a century; but by the 1990s, it had an aging membership and no active performing chorus. In 2002 a small group of younger men from the Masters of HarmonyMasters of Harmony
The Masters of Harmony are a 135-member men's barbershop chorus, based in Santa Fe Springs, California. They are the current SPEBSQSA International Chorus Champions. Founded in 1986 with a few dozen men, they rose to stardom under the tutelage of director Dr. Greg Lyne...
chorus in nearby Santa Fe Springs, CA decided they would like to try to start a barbershop chorus with the mission of bringing younger men together to make music with others their own age. Founding member Terry Ghiselli approached the men of the Westminster chapter, which at the time only boasted 8 members, and they were glad to allow the young men to pick up and use the chapter charter in order to produce their vision of a youth-oriented chorus.
With 15 members and only a half dozen rehearsals under their belt, they competed at the SoCal West divisional contest in April 2002. The oldest member on stage was 27, the youngest 16. The average age was 20, and 6 of the singers were brand new barbershoppers. Directed by Ghiselli, they surprised the crowd by walking away with the championship trophy that day, and advancing to the Far Western District
Far Western District (BHS)
Far Western District is a geographical district of the Barbershop Harmony Society.First organized in 1946, FWD encompasses the far western US states including all of California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, and St...
contest the following fall.
In October 2002, they traveled to Bakersfield, CA to compete in their first district contest, with 19 men. They shocked the crowd by outscoring all other competitors, but were unfortunately disqualified from the championship because of a member eligibility issue. The San Jose, CA Garden City Chorus was given the crown and advanced to the 2003 International contest in Montreal, Canada.
In the fall of 2003 they once again competed at the Far Western District contest in Bakersfield and once again won the contest, this time legally, and by quite a margin, outscoring the second place Pacific Coast Harmony
Pacific Coast Harmony
Pacific Coast Harmony is the La Jolla, CA Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. The all-male chorus sings the a cappella style known as barbershop music. PCH placed 19th overall at the chorus competition at the Society's international convention in Indianapolis in July 2006....
from La Jolla, CA by 53 points. This gave them the right to represent FWD at the 2004 International contest in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
the following July, where they surprised the crowd by placing 9th the first time out!
The chorus voted to lay out of the 2004 fall district contest to pay homage to the 5-time International Champion Masters of Harmony
Masters of Harmony
The Masters of Harmony are a 135-member men's barbershop chorus, based in Santa Fe Springs, California. They are the current SPEBSQSA International Chorus Champions. Founded in 1986 with a few dozen men, they rose to stardom under the tutelage of director Dr. Greg Lyne...
, who were again eligible to win the right to defend their title in the summer of 2005 in Salt Lake City, where they won their 6th gold medal in a row. Many of the men of Westminster were on stage as members of the Masters as well, including most of the original handful of Masters teens who had founded Westminster.
The fall of 2005 brought the Westminster Chorus back to the district contest, defending their title against a stronger field, which included the newly-minted Spirit of Phoenix chorus (a merger of the Phoenix-Saguaro Phoenicians Chorus and the Greater Phoenix chapter) that boasted over 100 members. But once again, quality won out over numbers, and the Westminster Chorus emerged victorious with less than 50 men singing. Their outstanding score average of 87.7% gave them the third highest preliminary ranking internationally.
Under the direction of Royce Ferguson, they represented the FWD again in contest in July 2006 in Indianapolis, IN, where they placed second and won their first chorus medal, silver. The Vocal Majority
Vocal Majority
The Vocal Majority is a Dallas, Texas-based men's chorus of over 150 singers, billed as "America's Premier Pops Chorus." The VM is part of the Dallas Metro chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society...
chorus from Dallas, won gold, continuing their streak of international championships.
In 2007 they auditioned on the second season
America's Got Talent (Season 2)
The second season of America's Got Talent, an American television reality show talent competition, premiered on the NBC network on June 5, 2007 with a two-hour episode. Tabloid talk show host Jerry Springer succeeded Regis Philbin as host. Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff returned as judges,...
of the TV show America's Got Talent
America's Got Talent
America's Got Talent is an American reality television series on the NBC television network, and part of the global British Got Talent franchise. It is a talent show that features singers, dancers, magicians, comedians, and other performers of all ages competing for the advertised top prize of...
in Chicago, aired June 19, and were passed to go to the second round by all three judges, but were eliminated at the first cut of the second round.
In July 2007 the chorus competed again in the international contest, again under the direction of Royce Ferguson, winning a gold medal. They tied with the Ambassadors of Harmony
Ambassadors of Harmony
The Ambassadors of Harmony is a 160+ member men's barbershop chorus, based in St. Charles, Missouri. The chorus won International Championship gold medals in 2004 and 2009, each time singing two arrangements by David Wright, under the direction of Jim Henry...
in overall score, and won on the singing category tiebreaker. They became the youngest chorus ever to win a gold medal.
In 2009, under the new direction of Justin Miller, 35 members of Westminster Chorus took on a bunch of much older directors with much longer resumes and were the overall winners of prestigious Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod 2009, where about 4,000 singers and dancers from 50 nations competed.
A huge feather in the hat of our 2007 international champion, and a grand slam for barbershop harmony worldwide. They were consistently introduced as a barbershop chorus (and the winners of the festival’s ”Barbershop Choruses” competition, but they performed impressive classical pieces as well. After winning the “barbershop chorus” and “folk song choirs” competitions earlier in the week, Westminster took a close second place in the “male choir” competition. Then in the final competition, they performed two the same numbers that had gotten them second place and this time beat all others to win the Pavarotti trophy.