Fourth Annual Young Women and Young Men In Harmony Festival - Feb 10, 2018

4th Annual Young Women and Young Men In Harmony Festival –an exciting musical event for young singers up to age 26. The Festival will be on Saturday, February 10, 2018 at Princeton High School Performing Arts Center in Sharonville, Ohio and is a unique opportunity for young men and women to learn the art of singing four-part a cappella harmony in the barbershop style. The Festival will include classes, rehearsals, and coaching on vocal production and stage performance skills. It will culminate in the YWIH Festival Show in the auditorium on Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. The show, which is open to the public with no admission charge, will star the Festival participants and features award-winning barbershop singers from the Cincinnati community.

The fee for the Festival is $25 and includes classes, rehearsals, and coaching, advance copies of sheet music and a learning CD, lunch/dinner/snacks, a Festival T-shirt, and the Saturday night show. Full scholarships based on financial need are granted to the extent funds are available.

Young singers will love learning the intricacies of singing harmony in the barbershop style. It’s a unique style of close, unaccompanied, four-part harmony that requires good vocal skills, ear-tuning and musicianship, and it can be applied to ALL types of music – oldies, show tunes, contemporary hits, and more. With the rising popularity of vocal harmony groups, many young women have turned to barbershop to learn how to sing a cappella harmony. They have found there’s nothing quite like the challenge and fun of using just their voices to ring chords and make music with their friends.

YWIH Music Directors will be Joy Coleman Suellentrop and Troy Kaper.

Joy is what is fondly referred to as a "Barbershop Brat". This means she grew up in a family where father Paul and brother Zac sing barbershop. Joy sings baritone with Spot On! Quartet, which formed in February 2013 and won their first Harmony Inc. area competition that July. Spot On! won the Sweet Adelines Region # 4 contest in April 2017 and competed in Las Vegas in October, 2017.

Troy Kaper has been in love with barbershop since he heard the Buffalo Bills singing on an album called "Live in Las Vegas". In the mid 70s at Princeton High School, Troy started performing in a barbershop octet and has been singing ever since. Troy is a past district champion bass in Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS). He directed the Dayton Metro men's chorus and later Gem City Chorus of Sweet Adelines International (SAI). He was named 2014 Region 4 Coach of the Year. He currently sings with Southern Gateway Chorus and coaches the Cincinnati Sound Chorus.

YWIH Teaching Quartet will be Sing-A-Ma-Jigs Quartet and Reen Brothers quartet.

Sing-a-Ma-Jigs is a three time Region 17 champion and the 2015 3rd Place International finalist—not too bad for 25, 22, 21, and 18 year-old ladies! They all are Greater Cincinnati Harmony Festival veterans, where their love of barbershop was encouraged to flourish. Tenor Kyleigh Lash lives in Bowling Green. Lead Carlee Conrad and Baritone Caris Conrad live in Rising Sun. They are “barbershop brats,” who've been singing barbershop since they were able to speak. Bass Teresa Whitaker is in her third year of Medical School at the University of Cincinnati and a former member of Cincinnati Sound Chorus.

Reen Brothers quartet is from Greensburg, IN and is made up of brothers Stephen, 19, Dominic, 17, Bernie, 16 and John, 12. They won first place in the Johnny Appleseed District Youth Barbershop quartet contest in Columbus, OH in 2015. The three eldest boys were third place winners of the 2014 Cardinal District with their dad, Dr. Stephen Reen.

Register today!