Each summer, The
Barbershop Harmony Society hosts its huge International Contest and Convention.
The contest determines who will be the new international champion quartets and
choruses. In 2008, the International Convention will be held in Nashville,
Tennessee.
The District Contest
is held in mid-October each year. Its location can change from year to year.
What do district winners actually win? Well,
the Chorus Champions win the right to represent the district at
next year's international contest and convention. The district Quartet
Champs earn the title, the admiration of everyone in the district, and bragging
rights for a year. But the district quartet championship has nothing to do with
determining the quartets that represent the district at next year's
international contest. That's accomplished at another JAD contest, the
"Spring Prelims." Finally, the highest-scoring Senior Quartet
at the District Contest will represent JAD at the Midwinter Convention.
Spring
International Prelims
As noted above,
the main purpose of this contest is to pick the quartets that go to International,
in July, whether they've ever been District Champs or not. Hard to keep it
all
straight? It is for me, too. The Prelims are held in April, at a location that
can change from year to year.
The qualifying quartets (based on a cutoff score that's established each year
by the Society) will win the honor of representing JAD at the International
Convention
and Contest in July.
The prelims weekend in JAD
also generally includes the district's contests for the following:
Senior Quartet
The spring senior
quartet winner will be the District Senior Quartet Champion. [Determiniation of
who will represent JAD at the Midwinter Convention does NOT
happen at the spring Prelims - it happens at the fall District Contest.]
College Quartet
The top-scoring collegiate competitors represent JAD at the international
contest.
High-School Quartet
The
top-scoring high-school competitors have the honor of being declared JAD High-School
champs for the current year.
At
the fall District Contest, the District Novice Quartet
award is given to the highest-scoring quartet in the District contest which has
no more than two members who have competed in a sanctioned contest (other than
the qualifying Divisional). It MUST be a registered quartet. If no Novice quartet
advances from Divisionals, then the highest scoring Divisional Novice quartet
will receive the award.
Occasionally, there are
also informal novice quartet contests held at various locations within
the district (called Divisions, but not to be confused with the Eastern and Western
Divisional contests that lead up to the District Contest), which serve as qualifiers
for the fun novice contest that's held at Apple Corps. For these informal novice
quartet contests, the following rules apply:
The members must be paid up with SPEBSQSA
No
more than 2 members of the quartet have competed in district contest
The
quartet CANNOT be registered with SPEBSQSA
Buckeye
Invitational
Although it's not an official
JAD contest, the Buckeye Invitational is gaining a following that goes far beyond
our district's boundaries. The Invitational is hosted by the Buckeye-Columbus
Chapter each August, and its goal is basically to provide "a place where
choruses and quartets which fell just an inch short of qualifying for International
can meet and compete in a multidistrict contest setting."
The
contest's emphasis is on entertainment, which is scored along with regular contest
categories - and the audience judges the entertainment. One of its most popular
aspects is providing a venue where comedy quartets can come and be judged on their
comedy and entertainment alone.
At the Buckeye
Invitational, barbershoppers from around the world perform side-by-side with American
and Canadian singers, and male and female barbershoppers compete on the same stage
in the same contest.
Sound like something you'd
like to know more about? Go to the Buckeye
Chapter's web site for the latest information on dates, schedule, and other
details for this exciting event.
JAD's
program has moved into high gear, including giving district quartets and choruses
the opportunity to register on-line for all district contests. There are also
some feedback forms that competitors can use after each contest to give
JAD's Vice President for Contest & Judging and the other district officers
a report card on the contest from the competitors' point of view. Check out the
C&J Page.