CURTAIN CALL
Penny Parisi • Laura Smith • Jan Steese • Jackie Wheatley

HAPPENSTANCE competed at the Novice competition last August and placed a very respectable 3rd place. We had so much fun that we decided to keep the foursome together but we weren't thrilled with the name. After weeks (or was it months) of searching book titles, billboards, race horse names (you'd be surprised how many registered quartets are named after race horses), catalogs and magazines we finally took a vote and chose CURTAIN CALL. We are all proud members of the VERDUGO HILLS SHOWTIME CHORUS and are looking forward to our first regional competition with 6 members on stage. Our lead, Laura, is expecting twins in June.

We've had some wonderful coaching from our very own Gerry Papageorge, Dede Nibler and Lynne Smith. We performed on the VHSC Christmas Show, as well as for the City of Burbank and a fundraiser for the Pasadena Symphony.

We appreciate the love and support we have received from our wonderful VERDUGO HILLS sisters. Best wishes to all the competitors this weekend.

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SKY HIGH
Diane Rothberg • Lee Hays • Kathy Laderman Wright • Sandy Gilson

Greetings Region 11! SKY HIGH is flying high with excitement as we head for competition this year. Preparing for contest has been a challenge: with our new baritone we represent two different regions, three different choruses, and live about 90 miles apart. We don't enjoy the drive to rehearsal but we sure enjoy singing together!

Speaking of the pure enjoyment of singing, we had a great time at our first public performance together at the HARBORLITES CHORUS "Diva Day" Young Women in Harmony Festival. We were featured on the evening show at the end of the day-long festival. What a thrill to be on stage with 300 high school singers, enjoying a day of learning barbershop harmony.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our choruses, CHANNELAIRE, SOUTH VALLEY SOUND, and HARBORLITES for their love and support. We couldn't do it without our coaches: the magnificent Lynne Smith (who can slut up our hair up any time she wants), and our "Teeny-Weenie Queenie" Judy Gordon with her golden ear. And we can't forget Pam Pieson and Gerry Papageorge who helped us with our placement, standing and vocals!

Best of luck and "Break a lip!" to all the competing choruses and quartets, especially our "sister" quartets; a.k.a, CHEERS!, EXTRA! EXTRA!, JOYFUL NOISE, PIPE DREAMS, SOUND SOLUTION, SWEET SYNERGY and mic-testers, SHIMMER!

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TAYLOR MADE
Erin Lunn • Karen Fish • Kristi Bispo • Wendy O'Connor

Wow, weren't we all just in Vegas watching CHANNELAIRE, SHIMMER! and XTREME rock the house? TM's had fun hanging at Region 12 AND Region 11 events - loved our coaching with Charla Esser and Peggy Gram of RUMORS and always have a blast with buddy/coach, Carole Kirkpatrick. Beth Smith keep us 'puffy' and we were thrilled to spend some 'face' time with Renee Porzel! TAYLOR MADE also owes a heartfelt thanks to our 'in house' showmanship coach, Linda Wong, and our wonderful choruses for their loving support to us – we love you lots.

Our little 1 lb. 2 oz miracle baby (and namesake) Taylor, is really growing up! She's scooting around getting into everything she can reach, just like any almost two year old. Taylor's Grandma, Karen, got sidelined with a hysterectomy in January and thanks her Mom, husband Lonnie and kids Michelle, Gregory and Kristi for helping. Wendy's been busy with sons Brendan (16) and Pearse (15) who are both active in the award winning El Diamante High School band and Erin manages to fill her 'extra' time riding snowmobiles with hubby Greg, then writing about it as editor of SnowTracks magazine. Kristi never slows down managing to move into a new home and sing in a YWIH quartet this year, in addition to serving on the Voices team, training her mustangs Chance and Shenendoah, and being wife to Tom and mommy to little Taylor.

TAYLOR MADE hopes everyone who takes the stage this weekend has an absolute blast!

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OOH LA LA
Barbara Adams • Mikal Sandoval • Jonni Anderson • Judy Hatch

This season's article features our bass, Judy. She recently reached a milestone. Let's just say she's the same age as Tom Hanks and Martina Navratilova, 25 years younger than Barbara Walters, and 25 years older than Britney Spears. 100 people gathered to help her celebrate this event last November where there was food, drinks, a program and dancing to cap off the evening. The program/roast featured many of Judy's siblings, plus a special song written by her brother, Tony, and performed by OOH LA LA with him singing bass. Partygoers were singing praises for weeks! Since the other girls cheated on Judy with her brother, she responded in kind with SERIOUS TREBLE for a singing holiday evening of fun.

Quartet coaching with Laura Pallas is always a joy, and we're learning Italian!

OOH LA LA wishes great success to all the competitors out there this weekend. And you might want to give condolences to the "old" broad.

Whatever Lola wants!!

Stay tuned for next season's spotlight on Jonni. Same La La time, same La La channel.

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PIPE DREAMS
Stacey Conchelos • Debbie Curtis • Monica Tautkus • Dianne Aldrich

We're excited to be competing together this year for the very first time. Despite a string of illness, we loved working with PB&J twice in recent months – Jeff and Patty Cobb Baker, and then coaching with our favorite showmanship diva, Lynne Smith.

Since first getting together at the end of October, we've been having a great time getting to know each other. Debbie, Dianne and Monica sang together for four years in SHOW STOPPERS, so Stacey's been the one trying to learn all our quirks! She's delightful and hilarious – and she's the quartet "caterer", making goodies for us for every rehearsal at her house . . . brownies, chocolate chip cookies, latkes, sandwiches . . . YUM! And thanks to Mark, Tony and Andy, the men in Stacey's home, for putting up with lots of barbershop and laughter.

We so appreciate the support of our choruses: CHANNELAIRE, HARBORLITES, HIGH SIERRA, and VERDUGO HILLS. We loved performing on pre-contest shows for both CHANNELAIRE and VERDUGO, and at the Quartet Dress Rehearsal Night at HARBORLITES.

We look forward to performing for you this weekend. Good luck to all our sister quartets in Region 11 and in Region 21 (next weekend)!

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REUNION
Marilyn McCandless • Judi Crowley • Suzi Zukowski • Kris Lundquist

It's not every day you get to meet a true Hawaiian Star! During our quartet retreat at the Marriott Kauai Waiohae Beach Resort, we were privileged to meet and sing with Troy Lazaro, who had just been named "2006 Hawaii Star Champion Singer" (their version of "American Idol").

Troy works at the resort, and asked us to perform for him and assembled guests. It was a wonderful experience. Most memorable was when we were concluding our visit to the island and Troy sang "Aloha Oe" to us. We know we'll be back, and we know we're steadfast fans of this wonderfully talented singer.

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SIERRA SOUND
Dianne Tuttle • Cheryl Borthick • Francine Stirling • Debby Fieber

What an honor it is to represent the KERN VALLEY Sweet Adelines in the upcoming contest. We are so blessed to be supported by these wonderful ladies. Our "Christmas in Kernville" song, arranged by Dede Nibler, and recorded in the composers studio in LA, was a sell-out here in the Kern River Valley. Not knowing how folks would feel about purchasing ONE song on a CD, we printed 200 and sold out. WOW! So now, Kernville, along with New York, Chicago, San Francisco, has it's own song, thanks to Butch Dubarri and Ed Sanders, who composed the song.

Singing Valentines this year was a breeze, cause in the past we've been the only quartet to deliver them for Kern Valley. Nearly 80 last year and all on Valentines Day. This year we have been blessed in the chorus with another quartet who helped us deliver our beautiful gifts in song. We sang to a mother, whose son, Nick Gordon, was leaving for Iraq 20 minutes after we sang. What an honor that was. And then the husband who left that morning in the dog house. Boy!!! Did he get out quick! Last year we sang to a woman who had just lost her husband, the valentine a gift from friends. Lots of tears. This year, a song delivered from a secret admirer. Tears of JOY! It truly is a joy to deliver those romantic songs.

We'd like to thank Lynne Smith, Laura Pallas and Peggy Hels who have helped us each become better singers. What a great time we had with each one offering different ideas to help us perfect this wonderful craft known as barbershop. We wish all competitors the best.

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SERIOUS TREBLE
Melissa Hockenberger • Shelly Wilner • Debra Hockenberger • Jeannie Vercillo

What a roller coaster ride this year has been. Jeannie had open-heart surgery, Debra had some health issues, and Shelly is pregnant. We thought of changing our name to Serious Tribulations, but. . .too long. During Jeannie's recovery, we cancelled all holiday gigs, except two, when we found subs: We sang with our former bass, Marde Snedeker, for one, and with OOH LA LA's bass, Judy Hatch, for the other. It was a ton of fun, and we really thank them for supporting us. Jeannie has been amazing through this whole process. She was barely able to sing two songs in mid-December, and now she's jumping back onto the contest stage. Do the words "energizer bunny" mean anything to you?

Despite the health challenges, we feel that we've really grown musically, thanks to our coaches: Erin Howden, Kim Hulbert, Alan Gordon, Lori Lyford, Laura Pallas, and Beth Smith. We've been invited to participate in the Torrance Invitational Song Festival along with the Torrance Civic Chorale and Hollywood Master Chorale. We hope you'll come to the show on Saturday, April 14 at James R. Armstrong Theatre in Torrance (310-781-7171). We'll have flyers!

Best wishes to all competing quartets, and love to our sister quartets: BRISTOL FASHION, CURTAIN CALL, PIPE DREAMS, WILDFIRE, OOH LA LA, and YWIH Regional Champs, SWEET SYNERGY. How awesome to share the stage with you! Finally, thanks to our choruses, friends, and families for your constant support.

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SHIMMER!
Patty Cobb Baker • Missy Pearce • Judy Ashmore • Mary Ashford

SHIMMER! is thrilled and honored to be this year's mic testers. After 15 years of competing, we are very happy to enjoy the Quartet Contest from our seats in the audience.

With the close of this year's busy holiday season, we were back in the coaching saddle again. We kicked off 2007 in Queenly style with Sandy Robinson Marron. We then hit the trail for Lynne Smith and circled back to boot scootin' Jeff "for-oo-wuh" Baker.

Our special thanks to the terrific choruses we proudly represent - CHANNELAIRE, HARMONY SHOWCASE, SOUTH VALLEY SOUND and HARBORLITES.

We would also like to recognize the Winners' Circle for all that they do over competition weekend, including the Thursday night quartet reception hosted by SHIMMER!, the Friday night champagne celebration reception for the Top 5 quartet medalists, and the flowers for the quartet champions.

Thank you, CELEBRITY CITY, for hosting this year's Harmony Roundup regional weekend. Yee haw and happy trails to all competing quartets and choruses!

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WILDFIRE
Patti Goin • Mary Jo Wheeler • Delia Price • Jan Sloan

WILDFIRE is pleased to introduce our new baritone, Delia Price! Delia's a dual member with VERDUGO HILLS and CELEBRITY CITY (and on CELEBRITY CITY's front row). She's been learning music like crazy, while getting approvals for major renovations to her house in California, moving to Las Vegas, and planning her wedding to Bill Lusk. Whew!

We all had a busy holiday season, with lots of performances. Caroling at Opportunity Village, a holiday event to support a local charity, was a definite highlight.

We're staying in touch with the Russian quartet, LADY MIX, by exchanging e-mails and MP3 greetings for special occasions.

We've enjoyed coaching with our own Jim Halvorson, Lynne Smith, and Gerry Papageorge. WILDFIRE wishes everyone their best performance this weekend, and we look forward to seeing old friends and making new friends!

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