CACHET
Sally McLeish • Shawnna Bilyeu • Tove Hoch • Jeannie Vercillo

Hello, Region 11. We’d like to introduce our new quartet to you. We are Cachet.  You know our lead, Shawnna Bilyeu, because she was in the winning Novice quartet (Champagne) in 2006, and she is on the front row of Channelaire. Her golden voice sings the “Defying Gravity” solo in Channelaire’s International Finals package. You know our tenor, Sally McLeish, from her many years in the regional champion quartet, Angel City. You know our bass, Jeannie Vercillo, from Angel City and many other great quartets, as well including her most recent past quartet, Serious Treble. You know our baritone, Tove Hoch, from her years of singing tenor with Proposition 4 and then, more recently, regional champion quartet, Naturally.  Oh yeah, and we come from 4 wonderful Region 11 choruses: Channelaire, Agoura Hills Harmony, Verdugo Hills, and Santa Monica.

We only know a few songs, but we do have one matching outfit and we’d love to sing for you if you ask us!

Back to Top

CHEERS!
Barbara Gregg • Viena Garanchon • Jacquie Fernandez • Amanda De Lucia

Cheers! is thrilled to be your second place medalists! We want to give special thanks to our chorus, Channelaire, who –led by Mary Ashford – kept weekly tabs with us on our possible wildcard status. The chorus even held a special moment of silence in our support prior to that last round of contests as we held on to that #10 wildcard spot! It took the very last contest to take us out of the running, but we thoroughly enjoyed our chance to dream and hope! Thanks to our coaches, Kim Hulbert, Judy Ashmore, and Lynne Smith for helping us prepare for Spring contest!

We have started our next round of coaching with the talented Jeff Baker. In June, we had fun singing at Channelaire’s Cabaret Show!

In January, we were asked to sing for 800 consultants of Premier Designs Jewelry at their regional convention. Premier only spotlights performances by singers who are themselves distributors, and Jacquie (who is a consultant) sent in an audition CD. Other performers at this event sang solo numbers to a music track, so an a cappella performance barbershop-style was a true novelty! Imagine our joy as the audience watched us perform with their mouths literally hanging open. Our first number was greeted with a huge standing ovation, and our ballad, “Over the Rainbow”, drew tears to our audience’s eyes. We were invited to sing for the company’s founders. We were so honored to introduce our style of music to 800 women of all ages!

Back to Top

DOLCE
Elaine Casperson • Erin Lunn • Dede Nibler • Wendy O’Connor

Wasn't contest just yesterday? Where in the world does the time go?

It's been quite a summer so far for Dolce! Wendy's oldest son graduated from high school and is off to San Francisco State, while Elaine had a terrific time in Canada visiting her daughter and darling grandchildren in June. Dede's sisters came out from Chicago and the whole family (grandkids, too!) all spent some quality time at their cabin. Even Erin's had her share of 'kid time' as her great-nephew Chad (16 already, yikes) has been staying the summer working with her hubby.

We have been able to squeeze in a little rehearsal time and also got to work our new contest tunes with Shirley Kout, who is just terrific. Dolce performed on the Gold Note Chorus show and we had a great time singing Lida Rose with the guys (and sharing a dressing room with the Crush!)  Good times, good times.

Back to Top

PLAN B
Pam Consoli • Lorna Katz • Glenda Lee •
Jane Wolff

Unfortunately, not all of Plan B will be there for the Summer Sizzler. Lorna is totally bummed that she will not be there because she will miss the Aloha party! She was born and raised in Hawaii (left in 1983 when she was 22 years). Nevertheless, Plan B wants to send our best wishes out to all of the Novice quartets that are competing!  Just go out there, sing your heart out and have fun!

Back to Top

RIO
Karen Betancourt • Dani Avalos-Prigge • Alisa Zichterman • Diane McGrath

Río has had an eventful few months. Contest was bittersweet, as we bid our dear baritone, Alisa Zichterman, farewell. She was married in June, and moved with new hubby, Dave Peters, to Alexandria, VA. We had a ball fixing their wedding gift from us – a Wii console, in which we created Miis of Karen, Dani and Diane in quartet colors so she'd remember us!

Our big news is a new baritone! We welcome Laura Tripp from Celebration Chorus! Río decided our greatest joy as a quartet is performing in our local community, so we held auditions with local singers, and were thrilled when Laura fit the bill. She's madly learning our repertoire, so be sure to stop us and meet Laura. We'll be glad to sing you a song. Or, better yet, come sing with us Kahunas around the pool Saturday night.

Novice quartets – enjoy the stage and make it yours this weekend. We wish all our International competitors – Channelaire, Voices Unlimited, Spirit and Shimmer! – an awesome contest. We know you'll do us proud.

Back to Top

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

Shimmer! sends Kahuna Mahalos to Region 11 and the Channelaire Chorus for the fabulous Regional weekend this past April. We also thank our fellow members in the Winners’ Circle for the incredible amount of support throughout the weekend.

Are you suffering from sinus headaches or clogged nasal cavities? Do you dream of resonance in even those hard to reach nasal areas? Well dream no more by reaching for your very own nasal genie lamp called The Neti Pot. Available in two styles, the Neti Pot can be yours for only $20. The ceramic Neti Pot is the perfect appointment to your bathroom décor, while the Shimmer! blue plastic Neti is your perfect travel companion. Along with Neti Pots, we also sell sugar and sugar-free Pastilles, Shimmer! and Nightlife CDs. Please look for us over Summer Sizzler and find out just how easy it is to gain optimum resonance.

Back to Top

SIRENS
Melissa Hockenberger • Shelly Wilner • Debra Hockenberger • Lisa Kneebone

Hi Region 11! We are Sirens, a new quartet, and we’re having lots of fun singing together. We have some great gigs on the horizon and have already had the pleasure of singing for a birthday party on a private yacht, another Cirque du Soleil variety show – this time at the Getty Museum (with Tove Hoch standing in for Melissa), fundraiser and charity events, as well the Santa Monica Oceanaires cabaret show, and of course our mama-gypsy-chorus show, Santa Monica's "Viva La Diva!" It was so great to see everyone there!

We might not all be able to make it to Summer Sizzler, but our bass, Lisa, is on the Winners' Circle Show quad and we know they are planning an evening you will not forget!  Lisa will reprise her Queen Dido role MC'ing the show on Saturday night as Queen Po Po, that's pronounced with a long "O". Lisa will also be reunioning with Naturally in "Sing with the Kahunas" to help raise money for our Hawaii-bound quartets.

Even if we don’t get to sing for you this summer, we will definitely see you at contest next Spring. In the meantime, you can visit our lovely website (created by Shelly's lovely husband, Adam Wilner), to stay posted on our upcoming events: www.sirensquartet.com.

Back to Top

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

Upon returning home, Patti, being jealous for attention, had her throat slit to get her neck bones screwed together. The surgery went very well and she is back singing tenor like a lark. Phew! (We thought we’d have to replace her when she started singing bass during her first week of recovery.)

May 6, we sang on the Del Sol High School show and were an encouragement to the girls’ barbershop choir – a budding YWIH program. They loved ringing tags at the afterglow with Wildfire! Keep watch! Soon they’ll be competing at Regional YWIH! Next, Wildfire entertained at two senior centers for Mother’s Day luncheons. We chuckled watching the seniors mouth every word of our songs. It was very handy in case we had a senior moment ourselves! On May 31, Jan had a bit part as an election candidate in the men’s Gamble-aires Chapter show. Wildfire was the featured quartet.

Back to Top