The Long and Winding Road
A busy time for The Newfangled Four
Our busy season began with a trip to Minnesota to sing with the Great Northern Union in February, and what a great time that was! We spent four days in an amazing home stay, where we were fed and kept out of the negative-degree weather. We had the pleasure of singing for three different high schools in the Apple Valley area, promoting the GNU and the show we were performing on, as well as spreading the barbershop gospel. The friends we made took us wherever we wanted to go, including many local restaurants and the Mall of America! We were very honored to have had the time to participate, and it was quite the experience for four native California boys to be out in the bitter cold. Luckily, we had the opportunity to warm ourselves up the very next weekend by performing on the Sandblaster Chorus’s 37th Annual Show in Palm Desert. Thanks to them, we were able to run through the motions one more time in preparation for the Far Western District Spring Prelims the following weekend in Riverside.
Without missing a beat, we found ourselves in Reston, Virginia, trying to qualify for the upcoming International Quartet Contest. Our lead, Jackson Niebrugge, had a school commitment the weekend of the Prelims, so we flew out to the Mid-Atlantic District to try our luck. The weekend turned out to be very successful, as we netted our highest qualifying score ever and secured a spot within the Top 20! If that wasn’t enough, we found our new friends and family at the MAD to be the highlight of the trip, and we are thrilled to be vicariously representing them all as well as our beloved FWD in July! Despite not being able to participate as a quartet in Riverside, that didn’t stop Joey Buss, Jake Tickner and me from singing with our brothers in Westminster the very next weekend. It was one of the only weekends the quartet wasn’t committed to doing something, so I found the added free time to be quite relaxing. It was certainly a pleasure getting to catch up with so many old friends we haven’t seen since Bakersfield, as well!
As soon as April rolled around, we traveled to Pittsburgh on behalf of the Society, tasked with promoting the International Convention in 2015. As part of the job, we visited four local schools, singing for their choral programs. We were glad we got to be in front of all these kids and hope that we made some sort of impression on them as musicians, singers, and potential barbershoppers. We also had a lot of free time to explore the city, something we don’t get to do often while traveling. Between all the local cuisine and baseball games, Pittsburgh is such an amazing and beautiful city, and we’re here to tell you to look forward to International in 2015. And just like that, we found ourselves flying to Centerville, South Dakota, where we had our latest show with the Tri-Valley Chorus. For being such a small town (somewhere around 900 people), we had quite the audience; about half the town showed up! The chorus and audience members were quite spectacular, and we also got to share the stage with Salty Dog, a quartet from the Central States District!
Our quartet commitments are a bit lighter since then, and as for the rest of this quarter, school will be ending soon enough, which will open up our availabilities so we can actually start preparing for our debut at International. We’re also actively preparing with our brothers in the Masters of Harmony towards the run for a ninth gold medal. Our journey as champions has definitely been rewarding as well as tiring, but we can’t wait for what lies ahead for The Newfangled Four, and we can’t wait to do this all some more!
