Looking Back on the M-AD Prelims in Reading, PA April 15-16, 2016

(Many thanks to Randall Eliason for his coverage of this year’s contest weekend.)

Quartets that include Harmonizers among their members made an outstanding showing at the Mid-Atlantic District Prelims on April 15 and 16. With the quality of the quartets in this District, attending Prelims is almost like going to a mini-International!

 

After the first round on Friday night, four quartets that include Harmonizers -- Da Capo, Last Men Standing, Warehouse Flats, and Forecast - had made it into the top ten and earned the right to compete in the finals on Saturday night.

 

Handsome Reward (Mike Edison, Michael Gilmore) just missed making it into the top ten and had the honor of being the mic testers for the Saturday night finals.

 

A relatively new quartet, Cabin Fever (Alan Kousen, Calvin Schnure, John Santora) competed in the Seniors competition on Friday night, and made a strong showing. In a Steve Harvey moment, the emcee announced from the podium that they had won the Seniors’ competition - but the scoresheets later revealed that they were actually second place! The quartet has announced they are considering changing their name to Miss Colombia.

 

Friday night also featured a Mixed Quartet (two male and two female singers) competition, and the second place award in that category went to Just 4 Fun, which many of us were surprised to see includes our own Kevin McKenzie.

 

In addition, Friday night included the Youth Quartet qualifying round, and two MAD Youth Quartets, Students of the Game and Brothers in Arms, qualified to compete in the Harmony Foundation Youth Quartet Contest in July.

 

Daytime on Saturday featured the District's Youth Adjudication, with about 10 high school quartets (both boys and girls) competing, including an excellent girl's quartet from Gaithersburg coached by our friend Sheryl Berlin.

 

During the quartet finals on Saturday night, Da Capo (Anthony Colosimo, Andrew Havens) came in first place with an overall score of 83.8.

 

Last Men Standing (Mike Kelly) came in 5th, with a 78.2.

 

Forecast (Dan Cook) came in 6th, with a 74.4, and

 

Warehouse Flats (Steve White) came in 8th, with a 72.2.

 

Five MAD quartets qualified to compete at International in Nashville this summer: Da Capo and Last Men Standing, along with Route 1, Gimme Four, and Frank the Dog.

 

Sunday morning was the House of Delegates meeting, which featured remarks by BHS CEO Marty Monson. Many Harmonizers are active in the District leadership, and we were well represented.

 

It was a great weekend, and all of the Harmonizers participating made us proud!

 

Until next time – editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week during the 67^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd