Chorale Barbershop / Barbershop Chorus

 C’est fou, mais cela fait déjà 10 ans que je suis membre de la Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS), l’une des organisations les plus reconnues dans le monde du chant a cappella.   À l'été 2015, ma femme, notre fils et moi vivions en Virginie.  J’étais pigiste à domicile et je m’occupais de la maisonnée, mais la vie commençait à changer.  Notre fils venait d’être accepté dans une école prestigieuse, et ma femme venait de recevoir une offre de professeur à Montréal débutant en 2017.  Pour que notre garçon puisse terminer son éducation en Virginie, il a fallu que je… prenne mon envol hors de la maison.   Je devais donc trouver un emploi à plein temps.  Après sept années de travail à distance depuis le Texas jusqu’en Virginie, j’avais perdu un peu mes repères sociaux et j’avais besoin de me réintégrer dans la communauté locale.  Un soir d’été, en réfléchissant à l’activité la plus joyeuse que je pouvais imaginer et à la façon dont je pourrais ...

It’s hard to believe, but I’m already in my 10 th  year with the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS), which is one of the pre-eminent organizations in the world of a cappella singing. In the summer of 2015, my wife and I were living in Virginia with our son. I was freelancing from home and cooking for the family, but circumstances were changing. Our son had recently been accepted to a prestigious high school, and my wife had just been offered a professorship in Montreal starting in 2017. To help our son finish high school in Virginia, I had to step up… or rather, step out… of the home. I needed to get a full time job. But having worked remotely from home for 7 years since relocating from Texas to Virginia, I had lost my social skills. I needed to get involved in my local community again. One summer evening, after pondering the most joyful activity I could imagine, and how I might best contribute to the local community, I had one of the clearest eureka (a-ha!) moments in my life. Tatsu...

  C'est avec une joie immense et une impatience palpable que nous annonçons le début du compte à rebours pour notre spectacle annuel de notre 65e année d’existence ! La Chorale a c appella South Shore , également connu sous le nom de Chorale Barbershop South Shore Saints, est fière d'être membre de la Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS). Nous sommes la seule chorale d'hommes a cappella au Québec dédié au chant dans le style barbershop, c’est-à-dire, des chansons arrangées en harmonie à quatre voix (ténor, lead, baryton et basse). À notre connaissance, nous sommes aussi la seule chorale de la BHS à interpréter des chansons en français dans ce style ! Notre longue histoire d'engagement envers la communauté, depuis notre fondation en 1960, témoigne de notre dévouement à servir les communautés de la Rive-sud et de la Grande région de Montréal. Parmi nos réalisations, nous avons coordonné le printemps dernier le tout premier camp «  Harmony eXplosion Camp  », une ini...

With bated breath, we are ecstatic to announce that  the countdown until our 65th Anniversary Show begins today !  The Chorale A Cappella South Shore , also commonly known as the South Shore Saints , is a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) , and the only men's a cappella chorus in Quebec that strives to sing songs in the barbershop style, that is, songs arranged in four-part harmony (tenor, lead, baritone, and bass).   To our knowledge, we are also the only men's BHS chorus that sings French songs arranged in the barbershop style !  As our long history of community involvement since our founding in 1960 shows, we remain steadfast in serving our communities on the South Shore and Greater Montreal Area. Most notably, the chorus coordinated the first ever Harmony eXplosion Camp this spring, a BHS-initiative to support young singers in the Northeast District, for the first time ever in Quebec (at Saint-Lambert High School), and will be doing so again nex...

On a beautiful autumn evening last Saturday, September 27, the South Shore Saints (aka Chorale A Cappella South Shore) held their first and only Spaghetti Supper of the year.  Post-pandemic, we have held this fundraising event biannually, once in the spring and again in the fall, to cover registration fees for members participating in the spring regional and fall district conventions, respectively. This year, however, the chorus decided not to attend the spring regional convention in Lake George, NY, in large part because more than a few members were hesitant to travel across the border due to tensions with our neighbours to the south. And because attending the fall district convention is contingent on having qualified in the spring (which we had done for the past 3 years running, returning with the most improved chorus award each time), we had suddenly lost our justification for holding our cherished Spaghetti Suppers.  Yet every seemingly unfortunate event usually comes with...