Third-time Charmer Joe D-Amore Barbershopper of the Year
With due deference to the long gap between his first two BOTY wins (1986, 1987) and 2012, and the illness that plagued his early winter this time – and long after exhausting our capacity for giving him awards – this icon of barbershopping would have to shoulder yet another one for the good of the chorus.
Was it his indomitable will enabling him to, for example, start a champion chorus on the one hand, and tackle debilitating illness on the other, among other things, that did it? How about his one-might-say cautious willingness to resume the responsibility of Music VP of the chorus in 2010, all unknowing, just before the music director resigned and he was in the center of a maelstrom? Assistant section leader of the basses? Soloist at the Christmas and spring shows? What of his masterful co-chairmanship of the Director Search Committee and its culmination in the selection of a new director that may rocket us to even greater fame in the millennium’s second decade?
Having my quill pen slapped at least once for slighting Music Director Justin Miller’s progenitors (his Mom), I hasten to place Marcia D’Amore at the top of Joe’s list of angels. Almost 20 years since they met (June 1993) and married (September 1993), no one can separate their formidable achievements together since.
With strong roots in the Italian-American community (mother from the old country; did he learn Italian? “Only the bad words”), growing up in El Sereno, son of a presser in the ladies garment industry and graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, the young Joe might have aspired no higher than a musical hot dog emporium (as he once did!), or taking opera lessons. Instead, after six years with the U.S. Navy, Joe became a police officer with the Pasadena PD, did almost 10 years, was injured on the job and turned to the administrative and writing skills he had been nurturing all along, winding up today as a project manager for Pearson Learning Solutions, managing curriculum development for colleges across the nation. Does organizing a champion chorus seem like a natural aptitude for him?
Apart from some limited high school glee, Joe’s musical bent lay dormant until his late 20s when he caught the barbershopping bug, joined the Crown City Chorus in Pasadena and has never looked back. My consultations with MOH co-charter members and emeriti Bill Roth (Hall of Fame) and Marlin Niesley, and emeritus Joe Palmquist (BOTY), confirm that Joe was the main spark, super salesman and even dictator when the Masters of Harmony first began; and they credit him with persuading Dr. Greg Lyne (Hall of Fame) to take over as music director in December 1987, launching our swift rise to the top.
A three-time Far Western District quartet champion (Standing Room Only, Finale, VocalEase) and current division champ with American Pastime, Joe has coached both quartets and choruses, and generously lends his time for vocal production classes and extra choreo rehearsals to those in need. Joe won the original International chorus bronze medal for MOH in 1989, two more with The Phoenicians in 1994 and 1995, and International championships with MOH in 1990, 2002 and 2011. He has left us and come back twice, unhesitatingly welcomed.
Joe D’Amore was inducted into the Masters of Harmony Hall of Fame in 1992. There are no silver stars on the HOF for continuing extraordinary achievement. But by way of recognizing his unceasing gifts to us, Barbershopper of the Year for 2012 ain’t bad!
