Official publication ofSequoia Pacifica Region 11

Contest 2015

News@11CommuniCations Coordinator

Jolene ForzettingProspective Bella Nova Acappella (2 years)SAI member since 1998

DiRECtoRs’Coordinator

Kim Patrick- miernickiPacific Horizon (49 years)Tri City Sound (6 years)SAI member since 1966

EDuCationCoordinator

Debbie CurtisCarpe Diem (8 months)ChannelAire (21 years)Harborlites (10 years)SAI member since 1994

EVEntsCoordinator

Pat VincentChannelAire (13 years)SAI member since 2002

FinanCE Coordinator

Laura La BordeVerdugo Hills (6 years)

SAI member since 2009

maRKEtinG Coordinator

Lillian ZellmerGolden Sands (9 years)SAI member since 2006

mEmBERsHiP Coordinator

Lou schroffGolden Sands (7 years)

Harborlites (13 years)SAI member since 1966

tEam Coordinator

Viena ZeitlerCarpe Diem (3 years)

SAI member since 2001

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News@11 – the official publication of Region 11

Published 3 times/year: Spring Convention • Summer Sizzler • Fall Festival

Editor: Debbie Curtis • curtisnotes2@icloud.com

Stay in touch!Agoura Hills Harmony.............. Agoura Hills, CA www.AHHChorus.net

Antelope Valley Showcase ..........Lancaster, CA www.AVShowcaseChorus.com

Bella Nova Acappella (prosp.) ...Bakersfield, CA www.facebook.com/BNAChorus

Carpe Diem ..............................Santa Barbara, CA www.facebook.com/CarpeDiemSingers

Celebrity City ..............................Las Vegas, NV www.CelebrityCityChorus.com

Central Coast Celebration .........Pismo Beach, CA www.Celebration-Chorus.com

ChannelAire ................................. Camarillo, CA www.ChannelAire.org

Golden Sands .......................... Long Beach, CA www.GoldenSandsChorus.com

Harmony Valley ...............................Merced, CA www.harmonyvalleychorus.org

High Sierra........................................Bishop, CA

Kern Valley ............................ Lake Isabella, CA www.KernValleyChorus.com

Lady Luck Showtime (prosp.) .....Las Vegas, NV

L.A. South Towns Show .................Torrance, CA www.LASouthTowns.org

Pacific Horizon.................. San Luis Obispo, CA www.PacificHorizon.org

RiverOaks ............................Sherman Oaks, CA www.RiverOaksChorus.com

Santa Monica.........................Santa Monica, CA www.SMChorus.com

Singing Sands ........................... Ridgecrest, CA www.facebook.com/pages/Singing-Sands-Chorus-Region-11-Sweet-Adelines-International/301550153296615

South Valley Sound ...................Bakersfield, CA www.SouthValleySound.org

Tri City Sound .................................Lompoc, CA www.TriCitySound.org

Verdugo Hills ................................ Glendale, CA www.VerdugoShowtimeChorus.org

Voices United................................... Fresno, CA www.VoicesUnitedChorus.com

Region 11 Choruses

Region 11News

R11NG

Official Website of Sequoia Pacifica Region 11www.sairegion11.org

Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/Region11/

R11NG – Region 11 Yahoo GroupSubscribe: R11NG-subscribe@yahoogroups.comPost a message to the group: R11NG@yahoogroups.com

SING – Sweet Adelines Yahoo GroupSubscribe: sweetadelinesint-subscribe@yahoogroups.comPost a message to the group: sweetadelinesint@yahoogroups.com

InstagramPost your pictures of Region events!Follow: SAIRegion11

TwitterPost your messages (140 characters max.)@SAIRegion11

Official Website of Sweet Adelines Internationalwww.sweetadelineintl.org

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Double Quartet Contest2014

A-Cord-diem (Carpe Diem • ChannelAire •

Harborlites)

Debbie CurtisCarol Dirner

Lee HaysKim Honig

Melinda NordengDiane RothbergMary Ashford

Janet Daw

“Lettuce” Entertain YouAudience Choice Award Winners

detention (Santa Monica)

Timari Thorstenson Laura Pallas Debra Hockenberger Jennifer Boase Natalie Duque Anna Mavromati Alexandria Beaudry Leah Tanzy-Roberts

Region 11News

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Left to Right: Debbie, Lou, Viena, Pat, Lillian, Marcia, Laura, Mary

We’re back! Bakersfield is our “home away from home” and it’ll be great to see everyone again! You’ve spent months preparing for this special weekend – go out there are put your best on

that contest stage! The Regional Convention Steering Committee (headed by Tammy Ragsdale, Chair of Regional Convention) and Assisting Chorus, SaNTa MONiCa, have been working diligently since last Summer on all the details for this weekend to be sure that all competitors have the most fantas-tic experience ever! During the weekend, these dedicated ladies will be working behind the scenes, as well as performing in quartets and choruses – quite a juggling act, for sure! When you see them, please give them a well-deserved “atta girl”. We hope you’re making plans for July’s Summer Sizzler, featuring a combination musical and leadership seminar. The amazing Darlene Rogers will be working her magic with all singers, and Kathy Carmody will be conducting much-needed leadership sessions with our Team Coordi-nators/Presidents and Marketing Chairs. Watch for details coming your way sometime in May! As we wind down our fiscal year, the RMT would like to thank Marcia Bosma, who is leaving the team after serving as Finance Coordinator for five years and Communications Coordi-nator for one year. Thanks also to Mary ashford for stepping in as Interim Directors’ Coordinator

for the past year. We look forward to working with Kim Patrick-Miernicki, our new Director’s Coordinator and Jolene Forzetting, our new Communications Coordinator for 2015-2016. Continuing on the team are Debbie Curtis, Laura La Borde, Lou Schroff, Pat Vincent, Viena Zeitler and Lillian Zellmer. Enjoy the weekend, everyone – and break a lip!

2014-15 Regional Management TeamMary Ashford ........ bary2bass@gmail.comMarcia Bosma ....... marcia@mbosma.comDebbie Curtis ........ curtisnotes2@icloud.comLaura La Borde ..... region11finance@gmail.comLou Schroff ........... lousings@aol.comPat Vincent ........... patsingslead@gmail.comViena Zeitler ......... vienasings@gmail.com Lillian Zellmer ...... lillianzellmer@gmail.com

Region 11News

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Marcia Bosma

Communications Coordinator

Mary Ashford

Directors’Coordinator

RMTNews

It’s been an exciting year for Region 11. Lots of positive changes and you can expect many more to come. Speaking of changes, with almost 50 years of Sweet Adelines under her belt, Kim Patrick-Miernicki, director of PACIFIC HORIZON, will be taking over the reins as our Directors’ Coordinator on the Regional Management Team. Also, welcome back, Linda Kelly, director of Prospective LADY LUCK SHOWTIME in Las Vegas.

Coming to Region 11 this June as our educator for our Di-rectors’ Retreat is Mary Rhea. Mary is a Certified Sound Judge, Master Director with OK CITY CHORUS, International Faculty, International Director Education committee member, and the

baritone with 2010 Queens of Harmony, ZING! If you have not taken advantage of the free $250 Region 11 Coaching Grants Program

offered to chartered choruses, please do so. The goal is four-fold: 1) Use all 18 Inter-nationally funded visits per year; 2) Encourage more frequent chorus coaching; 3) Have every chorus increase their score by Contest 2016; and 4) Bring all choruses up to 400 points.

How exciting to be entering into our second year with the 3 different choices for regional competition. This year, our chorus competition lineup include 2 evaluations, 5 Open Division and 9 International Division competitors.

Best of luck to all directors, choruses and quartets! Thank you, SANTA MONICA CHORUS for hosting “Viva Las Divas”.

Thanks to all the choruses that sent me photos for use in the Year in Review presentation that will be shown at the Sunday brunch in Bakersfield. You did a great job of choosing photos that represent your chorus activities and the love you share with your fellow chorus members. It will be fun for the rest of the Region to see your chorus in action.

I know that you will continue to respond to requests that are sent from the Communications Coordinator, because that’s just who you are. Good luck to each of you as you strut your stuff on the Bakersfield stage.

My current 6-year term on the RMT is coming to an end, so I am going to use my last bit of space to send love and appreciation to all of my Region 11 friends for the support you have given me throughout my years as a Regional Leader during this term and also my previous stints in Regional Leadership. I feel so much love in this Region (IMHO, the BEST in the entire organization) and cannot possibly express how much you have all given me. It has been my honor to represent all of you. I will continue to see you at future Region 11 events, but it will be as a former Regional Leader. Thanks for everything!

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Lillian Zellmer

MarketingCoordinator

Viena Zeitler

TeamCoordinator

RMTNews

It’s time for the Region 11 Convention & Competition! If you have a Smart phone, use it. Let’s get techy and saturate cyberspace with our comments and pictures. Share some words of wisdom, a shout-out to a friend, pictures of your chorus behind-the-scenes, quartet rounds, afterglows, Sunday brunch… you get the idea! We have lots to be excited about this year: 22 quartets and 16 chorus-es! I’m especially excited to listen to our newest chorus, CARPE DIEM, and then enjoy five regional choruses performing packages in the Open Division! These are exciting times, Region 11.

We do have a des-ignated hash-tag for

our event (#R11CC2015) to catalog our experiences together in one place on social media. Remember, please keep it upbeat, friendly, and flattering! You all know there are some rules in the convention center during the actual contest (i.e., no pho-tography, etc.). Use your common sense and refrain from anything that could be deemed a distraction. In fact, just for a while, put your phone away, and enjoy the contest!

How wonderful it is to be able to come together and share this hobby of ours – barbershop harmony! We are so fortunate to visit and catch up with close friends, old friends, and soon-to-be friends this contest weekend, and to cheer them on as they enter-tain us on the contest stage.

You don’t want to miss this year’s Installation Brunch on con-test Sunday with the very funny, and entertaining Garish Sisters as Installing Officers! They will be installing the new RMT, in-cluding our newest members, Kim Patrick Miernicki (incoming Directors’ Coordinator) and Jolene Forzetting (incoming Com-munications Coordinator).

At the end of April, Marcia Bosma and Mary Ashford will be departing the RMT. Bobbette Gantz (former Directors’ Coordinator) left the RMT mid-term in June of 2014 to spend time with a new grandbaby. I thank all of them for sharing so much of their time and talents with Region 11, and let them know that we recognize and appreciate all that they have done for the region.

Looking forward to seeing you all this weekend – stay safe, stay healthy, and enjoy this contest weekend!

2014 – 2015Regional

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Lou Schroff

MembershipCoordinator

Laura La Borde

FinanceCoordinator

RMTNews

How many times do we see or hear the statement: "It's Time for an Upgrade"? Well, guess what? That statement can be directly related to our Sweet Adeline lives.

As members, part of our responsibility is to stay current and join the ranks of the electronic world of communication. Not only will our lives be easier to manage, we will be able to communicate and attract new members who are probably way ahead of most of us when it comes to the age of technology. I thank my grandchildren on a regular basis for their patience and expertise in helping me navigate in the age of technology.

If we are looking to attract the younger singers, we need to get on the "band wagon" of their technical communication skills. As

a chorus member, if you need help in this area, please search out the "techie" in your chorus who is able and willing to help you. And all you "techies" out there, please step up and offer to help your chorus sisters who may be too shy to ask for help.

My point to all of this is to once again encourage all of us to become proficient in our ability to communicate effectively and to communicate to prospective members on a level they are accustomed to in their "other" life.

Speaking of updates, Sweet Adelines International's headquarters office is requesting that all members update their personal profiles on the International web site.(whether or not there have been any changes). Please ask your President/Team Coordinator or your Membership Chair for help if needed. They have received the communication which explains how to update.

Good luck to all competitors. "It's all about the BASS, BARI, TENOR AND LEAD"...

2014 – 2015Regional

Management Team

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THere we are at the end of my first year as Regional Finance Coor-

dinator, and what a great year of learning and putting into practice everything I've learned!

I especially want to thank my Chapter Treasurers and Finance Coordinators for being so diligent about making sure the financ-es of every chapter in the Region are in tip-top shape. We've had a couple of really good Treasurers' Forums over the Summer and Fall, and I want to keep those as fun and informative as possible.

Remember that May 1 begins the new fiscal year and the new Regional Assessment. If you still have questions about how much it is and what's included, or any other questions about any other finance-related matters that have come up over the last few months,

consult with your Chapter Treasurer or Finance Coordinator, or come find me at one of our Regional Events.

Enjoy Contest 2015, everyone!

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Pat Vincent

EventsCoordinator

Debbie Curtis

EducationCoordinator

RMTNews

Welcome to Contest 2015! This year we have 5 choruses competing in the Open Division! Can’t wait to watch their packages! Wishing every competitor a wonderful, memorable time.

Thank you to the members of my Convention and Seminar com-mittees. The Regional Convention Steering Committee, headed by Tammy Ragsdale, including our Assisting Chorus Co-Chairs Tove Hoch and Brenda Esacove from SANTA MONICA, have been busy for months organizing this weekend. Patti Goin, our Competition Coordinator, is the “woman behind the curtain” making sure our contests run smoothly so every contestant has a wonderful experience on stage.

JoAnne Hansen, Chair of the Regional Seminar Steering Committee, and her com-mittee members, have done a wonderful job making sure our seminars run smoothly so that we can come to Bakersfield and learn in the best environment possible.

Colleen McCormick, Regional Housing Manager, has done her usual great job of handling all the hotel reservations for both Seminar and Convention weekends.

If you might have a desire to work at the regional level but don’t know where you might “fit in”, let me know. We always have places for people who are willing to work and serve this wonderful region.

2014 – 2015Regional

Management Team

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TI can’t thank Pat Vincent and JoAnne Hansen enough for help-

ing me with the planning of my first two seminars as Education Coordinator. Summer Sizzler with Ryan Heller and Fall Festival with Kim Wonders and Patty Cobb Baker provided us with fantastic opportunities for learning more about our craft.

My goal as Education Coordinator is simple – just try to make a difference in the way we educate our members. That has included more interactive classes, more leadership classes, and more opportu-nities for Region 11 members to share information as class facilitators.

And that plan will continue into the 2015-16 year with TWO Sweet Adeline powerhouses coming to Summer Sizzler!

• Darlene Rogers – vocal coach for Dale Syverson and Peggy Gram, and co-creator of the Sing Baby Sing CD series – will be here to offer unique opportunities for musical education, including small group sessions for all attendees.

• Kathy Carmody – two-time International President – will be working with our chorus administrative leaders, including half-day sessions with Chorus Team Coordinators/Presidents, and later with Chorus Membership & Marketing chairs.

Look for seminar information coming to you in May. Remember, the price of registration for all Region 11 members is now covered by your dues. Just pay for your hotel room and the Winners’ Circle show, and you’re all set for another exciting weekend! And don’t forget to start putting your Novice Quartets together!

Enjoy the weekend – put your best on that stage and let’s see those scores soar!

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Region 11 has a

NEW WEBSITE!New URL: www.sairegion11.org

Colorful new Home page with revolving candid photos of each chorus!

Calendar of Events with links to flyer PDFs

Quick links on the Home pageto get info about our events!

Links to seminar videos!

Click on each caption to visit that page!

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Region 11 has a

NEW WEBSITE!New URL: www.sairegion11.org

Candid photos from events!

Regional & International Contest Scores, plus R11 judges comments!

Photos throughout the decades, plus year-to-year history info!

Password-protected member directory! Update

your own profile and add a photo!

Click on each caption to visit that page!

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Chorus News

We have been in the “spotlight” this last season. Standing in the Thomas and Mack arena singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” for the Rebels basketball game, was an exhilarating experience, and we look forward to future performances. Our next spotlight opportunity had us walking on air when we accepted an invitation from

America’s Got Talent to audition at Bally’s. We were on the local news when NBC filmed us live singing “Viva Las Vegas”! On Valentine’s Day, our quartets, BLOCK PARTY and 4 JOY! sang live valo-gram songs like “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”, “At Last” and “You Are My Sunshine”. Listeners were showered with chocolates and flowers. We thank Chris Hook and her team for making this a success. Being in the spotlight means a guiding light is needed to stay headed in the right direction. Through the devoted direction of our director, Cathie Sturm, and renowned coach, Peggy Gram, with her lifted cheeks and sparkling smile, we had an amazing retreat in Mesquite, NV. Many treasured jewels from a judge’s perspective were shared, emphasizing the importance of singing with a destination. We can’t wait to work with her again. We are thankful to our new members and guests who have caught the feeling in the air about how much we love to sing. At International, we were honored to share the stage with stellar competitors and were overwhelmed when our region formed a greeting line of congratulations after we came off the stage. We hope all of our regional contestants, along with our own quartets – TONALITY, 4 JOY!, and BLOCK PARTY – are “floating on air” while performing on stage! – Carole McSimov

Sierra Gold Chorus is seeking a director to work with a group of energetic, friendly women who love to sing barbershop harmony. With approximately 40 women of all ages and backgrounds., we meet on Monday evenings in Auburn, California – located in the beautiful foothills of the Sierra/Nevada Mountains and within easy driving distance to Reno/Tahoe or San Francisco. Our members come from as far away as Nevada City, Reno, Sacramento, and the Placerville area.

Our singers welcome the opportunity to improve our singing skills, perform in the community and at the Region 12 competition. We placed third in the Mid-size chorus division last April, and we were pleased to re-ceive the trophy for the Most Improved Chorus.

Please contact Judi at 916-761-2998 or j.spike6700@sbcglobal.net or Sharon at 916-782-5277 or sschlesinger2@comcast.net.

The application and detailed job description are on the website: www.sierragoldchorus.org.

Sierra Gold Chorus (Region 12) Seeking Director!

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Chorus News

The Christmas season was a whirlwind as usual and we all enjoyed it tremendously. Exhausted though we might have been when it was all sung and done, our hearts were full with the love and joy we shared with all for whom we sang. Our pic-ture shows us singing our hearts out for our Annual Christmas Friends and Family Performance.

Top Row, Far Left, is Dawn Drake. Dawn has sung with us for Christ-mas performances for many years. She decided that 2015 is the year she will JOIN OUR CHORUS. Yay, Dawn! Dawn brings us a beautiful lead voice. We are delighted she will become one of us soon. On the heels of the holidays came several February performances, in-cluding a highly successful Singing Valentine and Valentine performance weekend. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! On February 20, we sang for Alexis Van Natta at her 80th Birthday Party. You can see Alexis singing her heart out in our picture, Top Row, Second from the Right. Alexis is a vital member of our chorus adding to us her vibrant lead voice. Happy 80th, Alexis! On February 28, our chorus joined the CENTRAL COAST CHORDSMEN CHORUS of Santa Maria by participating in the 5th Annual Youth Festival. We spent the day training youth in the barbershop way...culminating in a well-attended fabulous performance for friends and family. Congratulations to all participants and instructors. We welcomed Janice Kueppers, Region 11 YWIH Chair, and we were grateful for the generous grant from YWIH. TCS wishes all competitors the very best this contest weekend!

– Lyndell Penney

Competition should be a blast this year. Lots of quartets to cheer on and it's always great to hear and see what the many wonderful Region 11 choruses have to show us. We know it will be spectacular!

AVSC has been working diligent-ly toward this weekend. Our ded-icated and talented director, Kira Wagner, has drilled us with vigor and single-mindedness for many months on our performance tech-niques. Our several coaches, Judy Ashmore, Mary Ashford, Bobbette Gantz and Alan Gordon have pol-ished and buffed us in their most capable ways. We have learned so much and hope to prove it to our fellow Sweet Adelines this Saturday.

We have 2 newbies this year. Well, not really – they have both been on the competition stage in the past. Baritone Liz Sloan comes to us by way of the PRIDE OF BALTIMORE CHORUS and is a dual member of HARBORLITES CHORUS. Lead Judy Saville has returned to us after a break of several years and we are delighted that she has come back "home". They will both be adding marvel-lously to our sound and we wish them both a wonderful experience.

Best wishes to all the competing quartets and choruses on stage this year, with special warm wishes to our very own ZERO GRAVITY.

– Ann Layton

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ChorusNews

Things have heated up at SOUTH VALLEY SOUND since Fall Festival and our coaching session with the fabulous Kim Wonders! We’ve been working hard and having fun while main-taining that spark. Every

rehearsal is better than the last, thanks to our awe-some director, Dave Tautkus. However tired we might be, by the time he is through with us, we are “fired up!” for the sound we are creating.

Retreat coaching, with the amazing Laura Pallas, really turned up the heat with inspiration to carry us forward.

On the side burner, we’ve also been sizzling with 19 Christmas performances and 2 days of delivering Singing Valentines.

Our dear friend, baritone Terrie Dasher, is rejoining us, as well as a fantastic new lead, Linda Philips. We also have another prospective lead in the pipeline.

Competition, here we come! Good luck to every-one... break a lip! – Tamara Shimmin

First of all, we want to express our love and appreciation to Marie Hampton and Joanie Adler for their musical leadership. What an amazing team!

CHANNELAIRE performed at a Veteran's Day service for the Seabees in Port Hueneme. It was an emotional and memorable experience for all.

Our Christmas show, "Jingle All The Way", was great fun for attendees of all ages. It included Santa, crafts, and a cake walk. With all the wonderful vendors,

many of us got a head start on our shopping.A donation was sent to the Young Singers' Foundation to honor our ongoing coaches. Working with the ten-

ors – Barbara Gregg; leads – Lee Hays; baritones – Judy Ashmore; and basses – Mary Ashford. We can't thank them enough for their amazing support.

Valentine's Day weekend kept our two quartets, LYRA and the VALENTONES, and one quintet, CUPID'S QUINTET, on the road. They had fun stories to tell.

Diane Porsch worked and inspired us at our retreat weekend, which was our last hurrah before we took our package on the road to Santa Barbara and CARPE DIEM's show. So much fun and so honored to be a part of it.

Only one thing to say about this weekend - "Looks like rain!". – Mary Forman

ChannelAire Chorus is looking for a director to help us continue our journey toward excellence.

Are you a qualified director, assistant or a musical leader? Are you an energetic positive person with strong vocal production and teaching skills with a great “ear”?

We rehearse 7-10:00p on Tuesday at the Center for Spiritual Living, 340 Mobil, Camarillo, CA.

We would love to hear from you. Please contact us at: memeyer4@yahoo.com

Channelaire ChorusSeeking Director!

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Chorus News

How do you define success?

“There are about 3 million notes in a two-and-a-half hour musical; being a perfectionist, it took me a long time to realize that if I’m hitting 75% of them, I’m succeeding.

Performing isn’t only about the acrobatics and the high notes. It’s staying in the moment, connecting with the audience in an authentic way, and making yourself real to them through the music.

I am more than the notes I hit, and that’s how I try to approach my life. You can’t get it all right all the time, but you can try your best. If you’ve done that, all that’s left is to accept your shortcomings and have the courage to try to overcome them.”

Idina MenzelTony Award-Winning

Actress & Singer

Viva Las Divas! We are pleased to host all the amazing divas who have come together this weekend to show off what they have been working on all year.

In December, this band of Divas had to save Christmas when Santa, overwhelmed by a mountain of mail, decided to escape the North Pole and take his sleigh on a joy ride to Las Vegas. Disaster was averted when we convinced Santa to return to his work-shop so that Christmas could happen on schedule (script by Laurence Walsh-Hodson)! We then continued on to spread more holiday cheer from the Valley to the Ocean and ended the year with a fun celebration at the beautiful home of Ev Levin.

We always love our retreat weekends and this January was no exception with the incomparable Karen Breidert. With a smile on her face and love in her heart, she nuanced every detail and encouraged us to crank up our 100 watt smiles. And just this month, we had another amazing lesson in "thighdraulics" from Lynne Smith.

We have one new member since Fall Festival – Polina Tolkacheva – and 10 first-timers on stage with us this weekend! This is a photo of our 10 newbies after their makeup lesson at our January retreat. Aren’t they all beautiful?

Best of success to all the choruses and quartets this weekend with a special shout-out to CACHET, HARMONICITY, INVITATION and VOCAL EDGE.

It has been our honor to wear the blue ribbon in 2014 and we are looking forward to all that 2015 has to offer. See you in Las Vegas! – Lora Goodpasture

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ChorusNews

We are excited to be back in Bakersfield with all of our Region 11 friends!

Change is in the air. We will be competing in the Open Division this year and we can’t wait to enter-tain you with our package.

New members joining us on the risers are Elizabeth Orr (lead), Carol Wolf (bari), and Jocelyn Harlan and Jennifer McGrew (bass). We are thrilled to add them to our family!

Another change is coming: Dede Nibler, our fabulous Master Director, is retiring from arm waving to join us on the risers!! We will miss her beautiful hands, but we are happy her musical brain and lovely voice will continue to inspire us. God Bless you, Dede!

We have had some fabulous coaches who have also inspired and chal-lenged us this year: Kim Vaughn, Connie Noble and Shirley Kout have been helping us take our vocal skills and visual performance to the next level. Thank you so much, ladies!

On the fundraising front, we had a very successful and fun time singing Hollygrams at Christmas and Singing Valentines. After contest, we will be gearing up for our Spring membership drive which will culminate in a Mother’s Day tea/fashion show.

We want to wish everyone an AMAZING contest experience this year. Let’s make some music! – Susan Sanders

In typical CELEBRATION style, the chorus energetically entered the new year in song and eagerly approached preparing for the com-petition season.

January brought our “You’re A Star” Retreat where we all stayed in Pismo Beach for a weekend of practice and bonding. The high-light of the weekend was our masterful coach, Darlene Rogers. Along with the group sessions, many of us had the opportunity for individual PVIs with Darlene.

This year also brought a change in practice location. We’ve moved our Tuesday night at 6:30 practices to St. John’s Lutheran Church in Arroyo Grande. The church very kindly let our volunteer members and husbands build a shed on their site to store risers and equipment. This made the location a perfect site for us.

The chorus looks forward to pre-paring for our annual show which will be on June 27! Plan to join us then when we will be presenting, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”. In our usual style, you’ll find unexpected surprises and a very fun show!

We send good luck wishes to all regional competitors.

– Mary Michael

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ChorusNews

Viva Las Divas and hello from CARPE DIEM CHORUS. The common thread that runs through our chorus continues to be about seizing the day and living life to its fullest. And if we had to quantify a day, a month or a year, we wouldn’t count inches or miles or even cups of coffee. We would instead, measure our lives in friends, music, laughter and love. A heartfelt ‘Thank You’ to Region 11 for your outpouring of love gifts as we debuted our shower curtain at Fall Festival. A special congrats to CHEERS! on their wonderful perfor-mance in Baltimore.

Joining the ranks as new members are Cindy del Castillo, Banks Pecht and Courtney Anderson-Georges. We had a smashing chorus retreat with Sir Ron Black. And of

course, how fortunate are we to have on a weekly basis, Dame Jurdith “Ears Of A Bat” Ashmore.

Our show, “Orange Is The New Black” was a brilliant success fea-turing CARPE DIEM CHORUS, CACHET, CHEERS!, CHEMISTRY, CRAZE, A-CORD-DIEM (our new DQ champs!) and featured guests, MS. CELLANEOUS and CHANNELAIRE.

“Seize The Day” to our very own competing quartets. Shawnna with CACHET, Mary, Carol, Diane and Joan with CHEMISTRY, Karen with CRAZE, and outgoing champs on their swan song, Barb, Viena, Banks and Amanda with CHEERS! And a big “Seize The Day” to Lynn and Kim dual members with CHANNELAIRE.

Best of luck to all competitors who grace the contest stage this weekend! Thank You to SANTA MONICA CHORUS for hosting “Viva Las Divas”.

PacificHorizon

After Fall Festival, we had a fun Halloween show featuring RINGIN' AGAIN. Then the rest of the holidays arrived with us busting chords right and left. We held a joint Christmas Show with the men’s GOLD COAST CHORUS and we did over 80 singing Christmas cards as well as singing for sever-

al community events. A big thanks to Avis Snyder for her hospitality and the use of her telephone. What a wonderful way to celebrate and enjoy the holiday season. Then February found our quartets busy with Singing Valentines.

We are also very proud of our founding mother, Gail Miernicki, for receiving her 60-year SAI anniversary pin in Baltimore.

The best holiday of all was on St. Patrick's Day when we celebrated our 50th anniversary. It was a St. Patrick's Day we will long remember with lots of shared memories, an open house, food, fun and of course lots of ringing chord filled the night. Stay tuned for our show in the Fall capping off our big 50 celebration year. Lots of surprises and plans afoot.

So with all our shows and 50th year celebrations, we decided to not compete and just enjoy watching all of our sister choruses strut their stuff in Bakersfield. We will be cheering for you all! Bust a lip or two!

– Nancy Gulliver

Voices UnitedSeeking Director!

19

ChorusNews

The Beach Girls have been on the "Road to Bako" since September. As road trips often do, we encountered many surprises: rough roads, lovely detours, talented hitchhikers, and interesting side trips and more rough roads.

We started our journey by "Steppin' Out" at our dinner show at The Grand in Long Beach. Then, a few of us took a shortcut to Seal Beach and sang for our veteran's at a special Veteran's Day ceremony at the pier. In December, we took a detour, with our Holiday Singers, to put on a Cookies and Carols show for friends and family. Later that month we carpooled to Gerry's house to party on!!

In January, our "Road to Bako" became more focused. Chris provided the road map for our journey and Gerry's house was our pit stop. We've been tuning up with weekly tapings, interventions, extra rehearsals, and a retreat to show off our hard work to our fabulous coach, Pam Pieson, who was pleasantly sur-prised. She, of course, added her own suggestions to enhance the trip.

Our hitchhikers are 4 new members who have joined. They have wowed us with their talents and enthusiasm. Grace Lang, our youngest member, Kathy Courtney, Laura Lawrence and Lauren Nelson, our tallest member, have all learned our contest songs quickly and accurately. Each of them has brought something special to our chorus.

We haven't reached our destination yet, but each day our “Road to Bako” gets closer and closer. Watch out Region 11 – here come the Beach Girls!

– Lynn Kohoutek

Our wonderful master director, Dede Nibler, is retiring (to the risers!) at the end of April 2015, after years of amazing musical service.

Voices United Chorus, based in Fresno, CA is searching for a new director for our fun and focused Sweet Adeline chorus.

Mentoring and/or short term co-directing will be available. This chorus of strong, positive women is proud of its solid musical, financial and mana-gerial framework.

Come on, you know you want to! Please contact us with any questions or if you know some-one who might be interested in this exciting opportunity: lunnone@yahoo.com. Come sing with us!

Erin Lunn, Wendy O’Connor

& Susan Sanders , Co-Chairs

Director Search Committee – Voices United Chorus

Voices UnitedSeeking Director!

We had a great Christmas season. We started off our Christmas performances when we sang for the Courthouse Museum Open House on December 7. What a great venue and the place was packed as usual. We had many lovely times during the holiday season.

And when January came around we had 3 new members. Two of them are returning Sweet Adelines from choruses in other regions. They love our relaxed barbershop style. The third one is new to barbershop but believes she's found her spot in music. Welcome to Susan, Belinda and Katie!!

We’re looking forward to convention. See you all soon.– DonnaLee Hartman

HarmonyValley

20

ChorusNews

Ah! Springtime! The earth is renewed and fresh! And we are bursting to show off the skills we've been working on all winter!

Our January retreat with Lea Beverley was inspiring and fun! We also worked with wonderful coach, Ryan Heller, in February.

Who doesn't love a birthday party? Our 60th year party on February 7 rocked with 120 friends old and new attending. We loved reminiscing through the decades while we enjoyed tea, finger sandwiches and scones. We were entertained by chorus quartets

ExTRA! ExTRA!, NO REGRETS, HOT TOPIC, and the chorus. As a final touch to our event, all chorus members, guests and alumnae stood to sing “Thank You, Dear Lord, For Music”. What a fitting finale!

We had a ball with 2 of our fundraisers, Singing Holiday Cards and Singing Valentines. Nothing says love like music!

We are excited to host our 11th Annual A Cappella Scholarship Festival May 16 at Glendale High School. At least 16 choruses from middle and high schools in the community will compete for monetary awards to enhance their musical programs. We receive a grant from the John C. Hench Foundation, which is designated to help fund the encouragement of young musicians.

We proudly welcomed new members Barbara Regan, Katie Boyd, Gale Fue and Pat Vincent to our ranks. We also wish our Shauna Scanlon many happy moments in her first regional contest.

Good luck to all quartets and choruses! Can't wait to see the Open Division packages! – Penny Parisi

What a hoot it was to perform our November show, "Downton Shabby." The chorus, chapter quartets, and guest performers, READY WILLING AND MABEL, took a musical romp through the Grandham Family Estate, with Lord and Lady Grandham and family in residence, butler and maids abounding. All had opportunity to show just how shabby they could be!

Under the ever-brilliant direction of Caroline McLean, who comes up with our whimsical show themes, costumes and musical numbers, and our script writers, Marta Bailey, Connie Wintraub and Donna Lawrence, who also headed our ticket sales and chaired the show. We once again filled the 500-seat James Armstrong Theatre in Torrance. And boy did we leave 'em laughing!

We enjoyed our annual holiday dinner party in December, with games, and chorus and quartet singing. January found us performing for the Torrance Memorial Hospital Volunteers' Luncheon, and again at the Manhattan Beach Community Church, at their Shipmates' annual installation dinner.

In February, we were guest performers on the SOUTH BAY COASTLINERS' annual show, "ROBIN & HIS FALLEN ARCHErS, The Musical." Our own Roxanne Jacobsen was cast as Maid Marian, we the village maidens.

We are delighted to be performing with 6 rookies, tenor Rachel Waters, lead Carolie Aten, and baris Janet Reid, Linda Borg, and Melissa Ferguson (granddaughter of long-time member Deanna Roper), and bass Linda Merkaru. We also mourn the loss of former member, Jinx Stephens.

Have a wonderful time in Bakersfield and enjoy the contest!

21

ChorusNews

Have you heard the news? There's a new show in Las Vegas! It's the Prospective LADY LUCK SHOWTIME CHORUS! We're so excited

to join with our singing sisters around the world representing Sweet Adelines International.

This is a group of lively ladies who are passionate about the unique sound created by the lock and ring of those barbershop chords. We are very fortu-nate to be directed by Master Director, Linda Kelly, who has an 8th place SAI International medal in her "bag of tricks". In fact, we're so excited that we're levitating off the risers at Monday night re-hearsals. We're pleased to share this wonderful craft with experienced Sweet Adelines and also brand new prospective members who have never sung in a barbershop chorus.

Everyone knows that Las Vegas is the playground for all kinds of talent and magic shows, but, for these ladies, the ringing chords of harmony in the air is magic to our ears! When we get together to sing, the energy and ex-citement in the room is palpable and there is a special bond of camaraderie that keeps us coming back for more. We just can't get enough of that barbershop sound!

We look forward to partnering with our sister choruses in Region 11 to share our joy of barbershop singing. – Bobbie Jewell

Lady LuckShowtime (prospective)

We are so excited to be back in Bako! It’s always so much fun to see old friends and to listen to each chorus take the stage. We are proud to be welcoming one of our newest baritones, Ashley, to the competition stage for the first time. We are presenting two new songs this year and feel so fortunate to have our dynamic coaches Shirley Kout and Lynne Smith supporting us on our way.

We are also thrilled to have members in 3 quartets who are competing this year. Good sound to CACHET, VOCAL EDGE and FELICITY BLU. We got to hear you for the first time at Friends and Family, and know that you will be impressing the rest of the region this weekend.

Our holiday show, “The Gift of Music”, featured an ensemble of young women from our area who came together to join us on stage. They had a special treat! Timari Thorstenson from SANTA MONICA CHORUS and SIRENS arranged the hit song, “Let it Go”. It’s a thrill to witness new talent developing. Two of our young members have stepped up and are making more plans for doing more with the young women in our area.

Meanwhile, save the date for 2 Can’t Miss Events! Kim Vaughn is our guest at our annual Voice Matching Party on April 11 for a full day of education. On September 26, we take the stage for “BFF – Friends For-ever in Harmony” show at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza where we celebrate pattycake all the way to rocking chairs!

22

ChorusNews

To my Region 11 Sisters in Song –After a 33-year career of arm waving, I am retiring as the Director of Voices United Chorus.

I feel so grateful and blessed for the opportunities I have had in this wonderful chorus and in the Sweet Adeline organization. My chorus life since 1982 has been full of the very best music and the very best friends a woman could find. I am very fortunate to have had so many years of thrills and chills with them. I will now join these fine women/friends as a singing member of Voices United. A new time in my life is upon me!

To my region – thank you for all the love, support and friendship you have shown me over the years. Region 11 is a very loving region. I have visited many, many regions in our organization all over the world and they do not have the same camaraderie that Region 11 has. We truly care about each other, and the health of our region and international organization. We strive to develop excellent vocal skills and to present our very best to our audiences.

When I decided to join Sweet Adelines in 1976, I had no idea it would be a lifelong endeavor – but I sure am happy that I said, “yes, I would love to visit your chorus.” A life changing answer that has been one of the very best things that ever happened to me. It made me a better person, a better teacher, a better wife and a better mother.

I send heartfelt love and thanks to Voices United Chorus and Region 11.

a message from Dede Nibler...

23

The holidays have come and gone, and with them, some of our favorite gigs – caroling at the United Cerebral Palsy houses in our area, the lighting of the Toluca Lake Christmas tree with Fritz Coleman (we got to be on TV for this one!), performing for our charity partner, Hope of the Valley, and our illustrious RIVEROAKS holiday party where we played a rousing game of thievery and larceny – White Elephant. We’ve finally

gotten our Holiday Singing Telegrams down to a science, breezing through a ton of them in 4 hours, when we weren’t feasting on delicious brunch fare.

Our two fabulous quartets – THE ACCIDENTALS and VOCAL EDGE – will be on the contest stage this year and we wish them all the best! THE ACCIDENTALS appeared on an episode of The Fosters, dressed like adorable Victorian ladies.

In January, we performed at the Braemar Country Club. We’ve started scripting our performances so the songs hang together with a running theme and our audiences seem to love this!

In February we retreated in Simi Valley with Dede Nibler and Karen Laderman as our vocal and choreo coaches – we learned so much!

Now, comes the integration of what we learned into our contest package! RIVEROAKS is proud to have four new members on the risers with us for contest – Stephanie, Anne, Devan and Valerie! We are edging up to the 30 member mark! – Katy Theodore

We have two new members who will be with us at contest – Kim Prado in lead and Shawana Hester (17) singing bass!

We attained our goal this year to sing more performances in the community and one of our favorite ones was just this past February when we sang for a gentleman on his 100th birthday, right after our coaching with Laura Pallas.

In the past month we’ve had visitors from the SACRAMENTO VALLEY CHORUS and also our own Kira Wagner and Karen Weil from ANTELOPE VALLEY SHOWCASE CHORUS.

Our Hot Pastrami booth brought us enough money to pay our way to contest this year. Weather for the Whiskey Flat Days weekend was in the 70s with gor-geous sunshine. Be sure to visit us if you are in the Kern River Valley – we love visits from our Sweet Adeline sisters.

Good Luck to all our sister choruses.

We are growing and so excited to be in Step 2 and that much closer to chartering. We have such a diverse group of singers from ages 9 to 73, from all types of backgrounds. We love singing with each other and it embodies what this organization is about!

February was a busy month for us and we had a successful Valentine's Day. We recently had our first coaching session in February as well. All of our chorus

members loved the experience. We were so thrilled to have Kim Patrick-Miernicki and Logan Patrick-Miernicki of PACIFIC HORIZON CHORUS share their rich knowledge of barbershop singing!

Many of our chorus members will see you at Regional Competition here in Bakersfield. While we will not be on stage this year, we will enjoy cheering you all on! Please stop by our Hospitality Room for singing, food, fellowship and fun!

2015 has been such a promising year and the best is yet to come! We wish you all success and happiness this year. – Teresa Salazar

Bella Novaa Cappella (prospective)

24

DarleneRogers

2 Sweet Adeline Power houses!

1 Fantastic Summer Sizzler!

It's a leadership seminar...

u 1/2-day with Presidents/TCs

u 1/2-day with Membership Chairs

u Roundtable sessions to discuss a variety of administrative topics

It's a musical seminar...

u Three 1/2-day vocal sessions with small groups – get personalized attention

u 1/2-day with Section Leaders

Plus... u Novice Quartet Contest

u Winners' Circle Show featuring LoveNotes (2014 International Quartet Champions)

KathyCarmody

K

E

Y

eep

ducating

ourself

July 16-19, 2015Watch for sign-up information in early May!

(REMEMBER: Registration is now FREE for Region 11 Sweet Adelines!)

25

Quartet News

Hot Topic is very excited to be singing 11th this year in the Region 11 Quartet Contest!

We have been busy performing for parties, groups, Showcase Houses and Singing Valentines. We even brought in a new mem-

ber to our chorus, VERDUGO HILLS, when we sang at one of the Pasa-dena Symphony Holiday Houses! We would like to thank Bobbette Gantz and Ryan Heller for coaching us this past year. Sporting new outfits, we look forward to sharing the stage with 21 other harmonizing quartets. It will be a HOT TOPIC time in the old Bakersfield house tonight!

Hot Topic

PattiPenny DeeEllen

Wow! BLOCK PARTY from CELEBRITY CITY has been busy these past few months preparing for contest. Between rehearsals we got great coach- ing with SAI’s wonderful Peggy Gram and squeezed in

a few performances to hone our skills and build our confidence. First, we sang at the Italian American Club as part of the floor show, then

in the bar at the request of former Lieutenant Governor Lorraine Hunt, and finally for a diner's birthday. Too fun! Fast forward a week and we were delivering Singing Valentines all over the valley, which culminated with performing as a "flash quartet" as part of Indigo Valley Church's Celebra-tion of Love. And THAT is how you PARTY LIKE A BLOCK STAR!

Block Party

CathieAmy JoCherylJan

Vocal Edge

StaceyCathySueDiane

Four edgy friends, four edgy voices, learning to sing as one. We come from a host of choruses: Lead Cathy Tautkus sings in RIVEROAKS; Bass Diane Luster is from AGOURA HILLS HARMONY;

Bari Sue Matus comes from SANTA MONICA; Tenor Stacey Seidman (formerly Conchelos) is currently CAL, but has sung in several Region 11 choruses as well as HARBORLITES. We’d like to thank our coaches for helping us find our edge: Laura Pallas, Karen Breidert, Shirley Kout, and Doreen Philbin. A special thanks to our resident coach, photographer, listener and friend: Dave Tautkus.

Debby gave us a great Christmas gift – she bought season passes for us to our local Great American Melo- drama and Vaudeville in Oceano. We've had a blast going to dinner and the shows together, and sing-ing to entertain ourselves during intermission.

We had a pretty busy December, singing again for thousands at the annual Vine Street Showcase in Paso Robles. We also had a few other performances before illness laid us all low.

Debby made her annual trek to St. Maarten, while the rest of us recovered from our various ailments. We've been busy since then, nitpicking our contest songs to have them as ready as we can make them.

We look forward to seeing all our Region 11 friends again, and will enjoy singing at all the hospitality rooms Saturday night. We wish our fellow competitors a peak per-formance on stage!

KMPR

KarenDaniDebbyDiane

26

Sierra Sound

KayCherylFrancineDebby

Quartet News

Our 2014 holidays were crammed with back-to-back gigs and, of course, the thinking is always that it would be marvelous to s-p-r-e-a-d them out during the year. We were together so much, we should have rented a motor home to cart our “stuff” and then cruise be-tween Ontario (Kathy’s turf) and Ventura County. Perhaps next year!

We had a blast singing for an audience of students from Kathy’s workplace, which is the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP). Kathy recently received a big promotion to Exec-

utive Assistant to the Dean’s Office of COMP. The casual gathering involved a variety of music provided by the students, and since Kathy is one of “the gang”, and now a Big Shot, they really wanted to hear her sing with her quartet. Well, their response was unleashed; COMP students rock!

Our annual commitment with the Holiday Homes Tour took us into a spectacular Lake Sherwood home, which we will purchase in our next life… :`> The Las Posas Shopping Center is a regular holiday stop where we drum up Christmas cheer. At Valentino’s, there was a “promised” pizza for us once our day ended. Happiness is finding a sweet young guy, who loves our music and feeds us! Yup.

Now that it’s contest time, we look forward to watching your finely tuned performances. ExTRA! ExTRA! wishes the 2015 competitors a marvelous musical journey!

Extra! Extra!

DebiLindaKathySandra

Tonality

ColleenJoanneVickyDonna

Another busy musical year, and we’re happy to be singing in our second contest together.

We really spread the holiday cheer at Christmas with many performances in our community, including Ethel M’s Chocolate Factory with its millions of beautiful lights and folks of all ages to sing for and the Magical Forest at Opportunity Village

and other community celebrations in Las Vegas. We sang at parties for Halloween (in costume) and Christmas. We love to watch the children's faces light up when they recognize a holiday song! We also recently entertained at the Italian-American Club of Las Vegas.

Any quartet needs some won-derful coaches, and we were lucky enough to have worked with Brent Graham, Peggy Gram and as always, John Mininger, who is our "live-in" coach. Thanks to all of them, we are continuing to learn and grow on our journey.

We have sung all over the state this year, singing for the DAR in Porterville last spring, the state convention of the Women's Clubs of California and also the Daughters of the Confederacy. We entertained the Lamont Chamber of Commerce in Kern County, and also made a cameo appearance in the Whis-key Flat Melodrama this year , singing as the " Boarding House Boys". We made a couple of stops in Pismo Beach to perform and even visited the CEN-TRAL COAST CELEBRATION. It's been a busy year representing KERN VALLEY CHORUS wherever we go and enjoying every minute of our time to-gether. The best to each competitor!!

27

Quartet News

Cheers!

BarbaraVienaBanksAmanda

Boy, has CHEERS! had some fun in the last few months. From navigating final contest preparation, to the whirlwind and inspiration of Internation-al competition in Baltimore, to juggling life and family and work through the holidays, we have been busy girls.

We were thrilled to share Baltimore with those of you who were physically there, and also with all of our wonderful sisters who emailed, texted, Face-booked, and cheered through their TV screens. Thank you, thank you to all of our SAI sisters (and brothers) for your support. It means the world to us. We were so proud of our time on the International stage, and improved over 80 points and 10 place standings from our prior best. So exciting!

Much of the credit goes to our wonderful coaches, Patty Cobb Baker, Mark Hale, and of course, our “keepin’ it honest” crew, Mary Ashford and Dave Tautkus. Thank you!

And our train keeps on chugging. While we are taking a year off of competition to recharge our batteries, singing is still in full swing. We had so much fun performing on CARPE DIEM’s inaugural show in March, and of course can’t wait to see you all at Regional!

We wish all of our sisters in song glorious performances on the con-test stage. Special love to our CARPE DIEM quartet sisters, CACHET, CHEMISTRY, and CRAZE, and a huge “break a lip” to Mary Ashford in her regional debut in her newest incarnation as CARPE DIEM’s director. Sing ‘em and ring ‘em, girls!

Caprice

SueKaitlynDedeSusan

We have had an exciting year. We were fortunate enough to be able to attend SAI International competition in Baltimore this year and we came away so inspired!

We have worked with some fantastic coaches: Shirley Kout, Kim Vaughn, and Connie Noble. We feel blessed to have such talented women help us refine our skills. We had a fun time singing Valentines to raise money for our cho-rus. We even sang to Fresno’s Mayor, Ashley Swearengin, on local TV!

Dede just returned home from 3 weeks of coaching in New Zealand. We are VERY happy to have her back with us and wish her the best on her upcoming retirement from directing VU.

Finally, CAPRICE would like to wish all competing quartets a glorious time on stage. We are proud to be part of such a caring and nurturing community of women.

You don’t lovesomeone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.

– Oscar Wilde

28

High-Tide

JoyceKatherineMaureenLillian

Donned in our patriotic at-tire, we opened the Veteran’s Day Tribute at Mark Twain Elementary School in Long Beach. Representatives from each branch of the military gathered with the students

and members of the community. Our common thread was to honor those who have served our country. It’s a privilege to be asked back year after year to do our small part in this meaningful and inspiring celebration.

While the East was experiencing be-low-zero temperatures, we were sere-nading Yacht Club members at their annual Christmas banquet. Picture this: 80 degrees. Large picture windows overlooking a “picture-perfect-postcard” of Downtown Long Beach. Sailboats, seagulls, Shoreline Village, and the Queen Mary. High-Tide Quartet singing “How’d You Like to Spend Christmas on Christmas Island?” Really, you’ve got to love the unique holiday spirit in Southern California! We do!

Best of luck to all the competitors in both the quartet and the chorus competitions! We’ll be in the crowd a-rootin’ for you!

We had a very busy and jingling Holiday performance season. It seems each year we perform more and more, and we are so thankful to have these opportunities to spread the joy (and pay for our music and coaching).

Now we are back to "competition mode", coaching and enjoying our work. Many thanks to Laura Pallas, Pam Pieson, Kim McCormic and Doreen Philbin for adding their special Oohs to our La La! We can't wait to put it all on stage for Region 21 in April.

We saw some of you at the R21 Quartet Workshop in January. It was really great! We hope to see more of you there next year.

Looks like OOH LA LA won't be at the Region 11 convention this year, but a couple of us will be cheering in the audience for all of our Region 11 sisters, wishing you the very best time on stage! We can't wait to hug you in person!

Ooh La LaBarbaraLindaJonniJudy

Thank you to SANTA MONICA CHORUS for hosting contest week-end’s “Viva Las Divas.”

In our Fall article, we announced the exciting addition of Catherine Berriz to our quartet and weeks later, Catherine was diagnosed with

breast cancer. She finished her chemo treatments and is now undergoing radiation therapy so our rehearsals haven’t gone exactly as planned. But we are looking forward to singing a few songs for you this weekend. So many Sweet Adelines have been impacted by cancer and we are grateful that Catherine is now cancer free.

We’ve had a couple of incredible coaching sessions with our long-time coach, Shirley Kout, and got to sing for an audience at the CARPE DIEM show and AGOURA HILLS HARMONY Friends & Family event.

We wish all quartets and choruses the best time on stage this weekend, especially our own choruses: AGOURA HILLS HARMONY, CARPE DIEM, and SANTA MONICA, and our chorus quartets: CHEMISTRY, CRAZE, FELICITY BLU, HARMONICITY, INVITATION and VOCAL EDGE.

Cachet

SallyShawnnaToveCatherine

Quartet News

29

Another whirlwind year has passed and we’re not sure how our quartet found time to rehearse, much less coach! We've all been traveling: Katie to Texas, Wendy and Erin to Vegas and Laura's been up and down California 2-3 times over the year.

When we do get together, we have so much fun and we espe-cially enjoyed singing out at a huge medieval gathering (espe-

cially because they let us borrow some 'garb'!). It was odd singing 'Darkness on the Delta' to a bunch of Vikings, but they were a great crowd!

We are so fortunate to have Dede Nibler work with us – she's not just a great coach, but a great friend to us all. Additionally, this year we had the distinct pleasure of working with Kim Vaughn. Wendy was excited to find out that Kim's husband knew Wendy's Dad from way back in the 'barber-shop' day. We just had to Skype him and we all had a good laugh over the stories he remembered.

Wendy had a big birthday and her co workers helped take the 'sting' out by throwing her an 'Irish Wake'. Unfor-tunately, Erin's Grandma passed away, just missing her goal of reaching 100 years old. Juanita attended every com-petition from 1993 to about 2013, and she used to crack us up with her running commentary. Katie's daughter, Hannah and her husband are part of the Cru Music Ministry and their performance was absolutely beautiful.

Looking forward to being with all our sisters in song this weekend and we hope everyone has a fabulous week-end, thank you to SANTA MONICA for being 'the hostesses with the mostesses'.

after Eight

ErinKatieLauraWendy

Chemistry

MaryCarolDianeJoan

It's been a busy year for CHEMISTRY. We each have done much traveling, including all winding up in Baltimore at International. There we cheered on our tenor Mary as she competed with HARBORLITES and set the stage on fire.

We are also thrilled to be part of newly-chartered CARPE DIEM CHORUS. While each of us has had our share of health and medical ordeals this past year, we are doing great now!

Here we are at our favorite Region 11 reunion time with all of our favorite people. We thank our choruses for their support and the fabulous Judith of Ashmore as our coach. We also wish all choruses and quartets the most rewarding experience on the contest stage.

I wouldn’t bethe person I am today

withoutSweet Adelines

Quartet News

30

after Five

SharonSuzanneRoxanneGini

AFTER FIVE creates delicious vocal cocktails! Here's our recipe: Blend in equal parts the velvet voice of lead Suzanne Largoza with the vibrant bass of Gini Gluck; stir in a dash of pizazz from vivacious bari Roxanne Jacobsen; then garnish with the vivid tenor of Sharon Fair! Cheers to good vibrations!

We have performed for several board-and-care facilities, the California Retired Teachers Association and the Gardena Senior Center.

We benefited from several coaching sessions during the year, which helped us improve our sound and showmanship. We were a featured quartet in our November chorus show, "Downton Shabby," dressed in shabby chic costumes to portray members of the Grandham family. Along with other chapter quartets, we performed for our chorus' holiday party, singing some of our seasonal songs.

Roxanne was "Maid Marian the Agrarian" in February, in the COASTLINERS' musical romp, "Robin and His Fallen Archers". Her husband surprised her with a bouquet of flowers at our chorus rehearsal the next night.

AFTER FIVE also performed at a mother-daughter tea held during the "Design For Dining" benefit event for the St. Francis Church Outreach Scholarship Fund.

We appreciate the encouragement and support we receive from our wonderful director, Caroline McLean, the L.A. SOUTH TOWNS SHOW CHORUS, and our fellow chapter quartets. We all root for each other's successes!

QuartetNews

31

QuartetNews

We were and still are thrilled to be the 2014 Region 11 Novice Champs. What started out as just a fun outing to give a couple of novices the experience of competing in a quartet has become a constant joy in all our lives. We've enjoyed singing on VERDUGO HILLS' 60th Birthday Celebration, as well as Divas and Desserts.

We've been thrilled to coach with Ryan Heller and continue to get wonderful wisdom from Linda Ragsdale and Diann Alexander, who is a professional voice teacher in Newbury Park. While we didn’t come

up with enough time and courage to compete this year at Regional Competition, we just never know what the future will hold.

We definitely wish all the competitors this weekend the sense of joy and fun we experienced in our first competition. May every note come out exactly as planned and may you feel fabulous about your time on stage!

No Regrets

DonnaTammyBobbettePat

ZEALOUSITY is anxiously looking forward to our contest stage debut in Region 11 as we compete for Evaluation Only.

Our quartet was put together at a Region 21's California Stage Day Quartet Matching session in January 2014 by Queen Kim Vaughn. We are from Regions 21 and 11: Tenor Linda Benefield, Baritone Cherie Peters-Brinkerhoff and Bass Denise Brinkerhoff are from SAN DIEGO CHORUS, and Lead Lorna Katz is from HARBORLITES CHORUS and GOLDEN SANDS CHORUS.

Since that day, we have sung at the Region 11's Spring Regional in the various afterglow rooms, at opening day of the San Diego Fair along side the SAN DIEGO CHORUS, entertained at GOLDEN SANDS shows, at SAN DIEGO shows, and most

recently at the Long Beach Qingdao Sister City Association's 2015 Chinese New Year’s Celebration. We would like to thank our coaches, Kim Vaughn and Pam Pieson, and all of our choruses. If you see us

during this competition weekend, we would love to meet and sing for you!

Zealousity

LindaLornaCherieDenise

Winners’ Circle is proud to welcome back CHEERS! from Baltimore, im-proving their personal best and placing 33rd in the International competi-tion! They are looking forward to throwing the Vegas Night party on Thurs-day night, hosted by the Winners’ Circle, for all 2015 Regional competing quartets that cross this year’s stage.

We also are looking forward to celebrating this year’s quartet champions on Friday night, immediately follow-ing the quartet competition in the Presidential Suite at the DoubleTree. This reception is open to all Winners’ Circle members and the new 2015 Region 11 quartet champions.

If this is your first time competing on the Regional stage, and you haven’t already turned it in, please fill out the Novice Awards Eligibility Form and return at the Quartet Briefing to be eligible for the Winners’ Circle Nov-ice awards, celebrating the 2015 novice tenor, lead, baritone and bass. These awards will be presented during the Parade of Champions on Saturday night following the chorus contest.

Once again, we are looking forward to a fantastic quartet contest weekend! See you there!

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HARMONYHOLICS and THE A TEAM had a wonderful experience at last summer's Rising Star weekend. We all flew into Boston together and Region #1 Sweet Adelines picked us up and drove us to the University of MA, Lowell campus to save us the cost of transportation to and from the airport. Region #1 did an excellent job of organizing the events of that weekend. HARMONY-HOLICS quartet received "Stars to Watch" ribbons for the highest score of a quartet whose average age is under 17. The girls were so appreciative of the

opportunity to have this unforgettable experience. Thank you so much for you generous donations. Our Region is stronger in the area of YWIH because of YOU! The HARMONYHOLICS now has 2 sets of sisters, and are now in the process of learning new music for the Rising Star contest in Scottsdale this summer.

We were so excited to have 7 quartets in this year's YWIH contest last October. Two quartets came from last year’s TRI CITY SOUND Youth in Harmony Camp and one was from AGOURA HILLS HARMONY. How is your chapter doing in the area of YWIH? Keep the topic alive in your staff meetings. One person can make a difference.

Cathie Sturm and I were contacted by International to have a YWIH chorus at the International convention. It was decid-ed to wait until next year so that we would have time to contact schools and establish relationships to create a very successful event. You can cultivate something this year in your chapter and invite the girls to sing on the interna-tional stage next year!! What an opportunity!

– Janice Kueppers, Region #11 YWIH Chair

Janice spent a wonderful day as guest clinician and guest director at last month’s Tri City Sound

Youth in Harmony Camp. What a thrill to introduce Barbershop to the youth in the Santa Maria area!

1955 – Region 11 was the only region to send its Regent to International Convention

1973 – The first International Chorus Competition was held in Washington, D.C. VERDUGO HILLS represented Region 11.

1994 – The BINGO card for seminar first-timers was established.

2001 – The R11NG e-group was created as a way to communicate effectively with Region 11 members.

QuartetNews

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