The 2022 Midwinter Convention got fully underway yesterday with an afternoon full of classes and emotional first concert featuring the return of the barbershop convention and beautiful voices on stage and off. Kicking off today at Noon Pacific is the Midwinter Chorus and Quartet Festival and we caught up with one of the performing quartets, First Class.  Tell us more about First Class. Who are you? How did you get started? First and foremost, we are a quartet comprised of barbershop diehards. We have all been enjoying this hobby for a very long time as quartet singers, chorus members, and as musical leaders. Wendy, Stacy, and Kristin sing in Vocal Standard Chorus. We are all section leaders and Stacy is the assistant director. Maria directs Song of the Lakes chorus in Region 2 and is a BHS board member. Kristin also sings in Take 4 quartet. So, we all pretty much eat, sleep, and breathe barbershop. The quartet formed in January of 2020 right before the pandemic and Maria joined our quartet family in September of 2020. We represent both Sweet Adelines (Regions 2 & 5) and BHS (Central States District). We were all looking for a new musical adventure and everything just clicked. With the top trio living in Kansas City and Maria living in Michigan, we are a long-distance quartet but the fun we have together makes it worthwhile. What made you sign up for the festival this year? We love BHS conventions! Also, the prospect of singing for real live people was very appealing. We love the idea of participating in a festival and value the opportunity to gain feedback to help us improve as an ensemble. How has your preparation been? Any tips on COVID creativity? Being a long-distance quartet that formed during a pandemic has absolutely forced us to get creative. We have rehearsed on Jamulus, had quartet masked rehearsals (we even recorded our holiday music video masked), had trio rehearsals in KC with Maria zooming in. I think our main tip for COVID creativity is to say that a lot of things can be accomplished virtually: business/planning meetings, talking interp, Jamulus rehearsals etc. If your quartet is not comfortable meeting in person there are still ways to make progress. What are you most looking forward to in Pasadena? We are honestly most looking forward to the joy of the live barbershop experience. We can’t wait to hear some of our favorite barbershop ensembles and to be able to share our musical product with others. This will be our second time performing for a live audience.   We’re looking at Midwinter as a great opportunity to bond as a quartet, see old friends, meet new ones, support all of the performers and of course…sing. For live people. Did we mention we’re excited about that?! What else do you have planned for 2022

So what do you do if you want to sing at a barbershop convention but your group's not on stage?

Source: BHS.org

On Friday July 5th, 27 choruses, will compete for a coveted spot in the top 5 of Barbershop Harmony Society’s 2019 International Competition. One of the recent favorites, and a top 5 finisher the past 2 years was Parkside Harmony of the Mid-Atlantic District. 

As the first day of school photos start flooding your feeds, it’s hard not to feel a little grief over the passing of another summer. Today, we’ll take you to Cape Cod, where the boys of summer, Hyannis Sound, have been entertaining audiences in the warmer months for almost 25 years.

Jacob Collier is known for a lot of things: his intense love and understanding of high-level music theory, his insane jazz collaborations and covers, and of course, his Mozart-esque prodigious brain.

Lone Star State natives Home Free have released a new song, "God Bless Texas," and set up a crowdfunding page to benefit relief efforts for those affected by Hurricane Harvey.

Voices Only founder Corey Slutsky says he wishes he could take credit for the idea behind his series of "best of" a cappella albums. However, Voices Only was actually the brainchild of Brock Harris, founder of the USC SoCal VoCals.

David Fowler recently put out a medley of the new Superfruit album "as performed by" Pentatonix.

Italian supergroup Cluster has been melting our faces and our hearts for over 10 years.

While in Honolulu with Take 6, FloVoice took a field trip to the Hawaii Public Radio studios to bring you a behind-the-scenes at their "All Things Considered" session.

You know them. You love them. 

It started over a year ago when David Fowler began doing impressions of Superfruit duo Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi for fun at a party with a cappella people, and it was surprising how believably he could sing like them in some instances.

By McKay Crockett

Moments before the doors opened for their seventh show at Honolulu's Blue Note Hawaii, Take 6 went live on FloVoice's Facebook to answer your questions this past Friday!