- Convention 2023 Bournemouth
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Date Posted: Fri, 2 Jun 2023
Wight Harmony, the Isle of Wight male barbershop chorus, entered the annual UK Barbershop Convention 2023 at Bournemouth on Saturday 27th May. Singers travelled from the Isle of Wight and met at the Bournemouth International Centre. There were 29 male barbershop choruses (choirs) this year from all over the UK and during the day, each chorus had two songs prepared, to perform in front of the audience and nine judges – three experienced judges for each category: music, performance & singing.
Wight Harmony, along with all the choirs had rehearsed their songs in the months prior to the Convention. They continued during the preparation and warm-up on the day, and the singers were relaxed and ready, ready for their performance. They were warmly welcomed onto the stage by the audience, introduced and then performed their two songs - To Make You Feel My Love and Feeling Good. There was a lovely, positive feeling about the performance when singers came off stage. They then relaxed in the auditorium along with hundreds of other singers and followers. After two more performances it was time for the results....and .... Wight Harmony came 11th !
This was an improvement of 13 points - 1190 points, (1177 in 2019) and 9 places – 11th (20th in 2019). Needless to say, the singers and MD were over the moon, eleventh heaven!!
Dave Bryant,
Musical Director
Wight Harmony
- IW Music Festival - adjudicator's feedback 2023
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Date Posted: Sun, 9 Apr 2023
finally got round to writing up Melanie's feedback on us at IW Music Fest on March 17th !!!
enjoy - lots of positive points there!
cheers
DaveAttachment: 
- Wins in the Isle of Wight Music, Drama & Dance Festival 2023
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Date Posted: Sat, 8 Apr 2023
A great night for Wight Harmony on Friday 17th March 2023 when the male barbershop chorus took part in several classes.
The chorus won the Community Choir cup in class 656 with two contrasting songs - 'She's Like the Swallow', a beautiful Canadian folk song of some pain for a loved one when she finds that her loved one, also loves someone else. Melanie Armistead, described the performance as 'lovely unison singing, moving as one voice, followed by the harmonies filtering in unobtrusively, adding texture, and allowing the solo line to emerge'. This was followed by the pop group Elbow's 'One Day Like This'. Melanie described this performance as such: This built into a glorious and uplifting body of sound. I loved the way 'day' popped out of the texture throughout. The dawn truly came up and life's possibilities seemed so joyful. The adjudicator gave the choir an 'outstanding' with 90 marks, with an 'outstanding', something she doesn't often do apparently!
Wight Harmony then entered the Barbershop Male Voice Choir class 639 and were winners again!
The two songs were Bob Dylan's 'To make you feel my love,' and 'I'm Walkin'. Melanie's comments were again very positive. The sound (To make you feel my love), is full and satisfyingly in tune with subtle injections of energy. This is music making and communication. Thank you.
For I'm Walkin; she went on to say 'Slide and jazzy. A wonderful ensemble that is senstive to the solo voice. I just tapped my feet and enjoyed this. She gave 89 marks with a distinction.
A total of 4 quartets entered the barbershop quartet class 650, 3 from the Wight Harmony choir. The winners were the Blue Eyed Boys. This quartet was Steve Morris (bass), John Kerr (lead/baritone), John Ward (barione/lead) and Dave Bryant (tenor). They sang 1. The Way We Were, and 2. Chances Are. Melanie commented, 1. Nicely tuned and free moving with musicality. Touching word-painting with a lovely sense of the natural sense of their rhythm. Beautiful. for the second song, she commented, 'A very cheeky flirtatious little number and this adjudiactor could see the attraction! Bravo gentlemen. A well crafted bit of singing that came to life. Melanie gave the Blue Eyed Boys 88 marks with a distinction.
The other Wight Harmony quartets were Quaynote 87 marks and Part Exchange 86 marks - all very close.
A small group Wight Harmony group Random came third in the small chorus class 619, with some very favourable comments from Melanie - settled into a very confident performance - the tone blossomed on 'the smile on your face', - a full sound for a small ensemble. Well done gents.
A thoroughly enjoyable evening!! Congratu;lations!!
Dave Bryant
Musical Director
