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

Congratulations to our new regional champions, Sirens quartet and Channelaire Chorus. Also congratulations to Cheers!, Spirit, & Taylor Made quartets and also Verdugo Hills Showtime Chorus for scoring high enough to win wildcard spots for international competition. Add in our 2008 11th place Int’l medalists Shimmer! and you can see that Region 11 is mighty talented and will be well-represented in Nashville!

We’re still riding high from our first regional contest and our 4th place medals, and we couldn’t be prouder of Shawnna for winning the novice lead award.  We're so fortunate to have access to great coaching in our region, and we'd like to thank Alan Gordon, Laura Pallas & Patty Cobb Baker for helping us on our journey. We’re not all in Bakersfield this weekend (Shawnna is at Erin Howden’s seminar) but we’ll be singing at the Verdugo Hills Chorus’ Ice-Cream social on August 16 and we’d love to see you there.

Thanks to Central Coast Celebration Chorus for hosting this weekend’s Denim and Diamond’s weekend. A big “yee ha” to the Winners’ Circle for putting together a fabulous Saturday night show and afterglow celebration, featuring not only the Winners’ Circle Chorus, Celebrity City Chorus, and our Nashville bound quartets, but also the fabulous quartet, The Perfect Gentlemen!

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CHEERS!
Barbara Gregg • Viena Zeitler • Erin Zeitler • Amanda De Lucia

What a whirlwind adventure the last few months have been for Cheers! We were honored to compete in March with all of you and were ecstatic to receive our second place ribbons.  Our excitement grew as the wildcard slots for Nashville came closer to being finalized and we shared a very special toast when we received the official invitation. The caliber of singers in this region is phenomenal (FIVE International competing quartets!) and the well wishes we have received are appreciated beyond words.  For each of us, it is our first time on the International stage as a quartet and we hope to make you proud!

In preparation for the big event, we've been busy learning new songs (and you thought we only knew two!), performing (the Strawberry Festival in Oxnard with the Channelaire Chorus), and taking advantage of the amazing coaches in our region (Winner's Circle Quartet Workshop).  We will also continue growing with help from Judy Ashmore, Patty Cobb Baker, and Diane Porsch before we cross that International stage.

As always, stop us for a chat or a song and don't forget to ask us about our fundraising efforts for Nashville!

A very special thank you to all of our sisters in harmony in Region 11 who have shown unwavering support as we plug our noses and jump into these uncharted waters. We love you!

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

We’ve been a busy foursome (surprise, surprise!). We were proud to perform and assist in judging a high school a cappella competition in Fresno and work with Ron Black in April - it’s great to have him back in California.

Dede finished her ‘stint’ as music director (and star tap dancer!) in the 21st Annual “New  Wrinkles Review’ playing to packed houses for 18 performances and followed that with a dance recital (a tap dance number using a walker, no less!)  Now it’s ‘mountain time’ as she and Tim spend most of their summer up at Huntington Lake. 

Elaine happily finished up another year of teaching and has been racking up the airline miles by jetting to Canada to see her favorite grandbabies, Connor and Julia – ask her to show you pictures, they are THE cutest (and gifted, and talented and smart….) and they really are!

Wendy’s youngest son, Pearse, graduated from high school this year and is off to San Jose State so she’s been a very busy lady helping him get registered and find housing. The O’Connor house is going to be very quiet with both boys gone this fall! 

Erin’s excited to be back on the RMT as Communications Coordinator and looks forward to spending time with her great niece and nephews over the summer, it’s time to RIDE!! 

Have a great summer everyone and we look forward to seeing you at FALL FESTIVAL when Voices Unlimited will be hostessing for the first time!  We can’t wait!!

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HOT TOPIC
Penny Parisi • Patti Loitz • Judy Moore • Tina Buell

We are Hot Topic and can't wait to sing for you this Summer! Let us introduce ourselves: 

Patti Loitz is our lead, hailing from Verdugo Hills as Lead Section Leader with lots of quartet experience. Penny Parisi is our tenor, also from Verdugo and Assistant Section Leader, with lots of quartet experience. Our Bari is Judy Moore, representing Harborlites, with lots of quartet experience. Our "pedal tone" Bass is Tina Buell, a recent addition to Verdugo Hills, with lots of quartet experience. 

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OOH LA LA
Barbara Adams • Leah Rippetoe • Jonni Wood • Judy Herr

Ooh La La!  What a busy few months it has been for the La Las, and hardly a moment to sing! The 3 California girls enjoyed a Mother's Day weekend visit to sing as one of the CCC performers at a Spring Festival at the botanical gardens in Las Vegas. If you have never been to their gardens, we highly recommend it!  It's a beautiful property. The singing was fun too! But you know the La Las can't just stop with a nice performance...no, no, no!  We took this opportunity to celebrate Judy's pending nuptials with a bachelorette party at Paris. (But of course!) We had a blast and left our unique impression upon everyone we met.

Two short weekends later, Leah and her husband Rip, came our way to attend Judy and Lowell's wedding. Ooh La La was honored to be a musical part of the evening with a special song we learned just for the occasion. And for those who are wondering...Judy did make it through the song without crying...just barely! It was a perfect day, and a beautiful private wedding in Upland. Their reception was a month later in El Segundo, and boy what a party! Those Hatches (and Herrs) sure know how to celebrate! Congratulations to Judy and Lowell Herr!

So for those of you wondering why we aren't singing around this weekend, Judy is busy nesting with her new hubby in the home they bought together. He handed her the key on their wedding day...isn't that the best wedding gift you ever heard of?

The rest of us are SUPER busy with work and life in general. In this economy, we are thankful to have work in addition to our rich and rewarding lives.

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RIO
Karen Betancourt • Dani Avalos-Prigge • Laura Tripp • Diane McGrath

Río is having the best time singing together! Since contest we’ve been really busy along with our Celebration Chorus, getting ready for our recently presented 1930s show. We all had a grand time, and the audience was enthusiastic about it. We also like performing in our community – Christmas is already starting to fill up!

We were thrilled when the Winners’ Circle again asked us to be one of the “Sing with the Cowgirls” quartets at the Afterglow around the pool Saturday night. We hope to see all of you out there – come sing a song with us!

We hope for a great experience for all the novice quartets, and wish all our Nashville-bound competitors a peak performance on stage – enjoy the journey!

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

Shimmer! says “yee haw and welcome to Summer Sizzler”. We are so excited to be back with all of our singing friends.

Last year Shimmer! flooded the nasal cavities of the region with the Neti Pot. With the marked increase in regional nasal resonance, we've decided to focus on another important component of singing! It is said that the eyes are the windows to our souls and the key to selling a song is with the eyes. Shimmer! has the perfect eye gear to enhance those eyeballs. Stop by our Summer Sizzler Shimmer! Sales Shack for the latest trends in ocular fashions including mascara warmers, contact lens cases and glasses cases in the hottest fashion styles. The perfect stocking stuffers! Are you in a pickle cause you got a tickle and you gotta sing? Reach for relief with our famous line of Pastilles.  And for that long ride home, how about a Shimmer! or Nightlife CD.

Patty, whom we fondly refer to as “Tulsa Time Tenor”, is staying very busy in her role as Chair of the Regional Leadership Coordinators on the International Board. We are so proud of her!

Shimmer! will be attending and singing at the Region 21's seminar weekend in July featuring Dale Syverson.

With Nashville a mere four months away, Shimmer! is continuing to hone our craft with the talents of Kim Hulbert, Lynne Smith, Jeff “Sing Better” Baker and our very own exceptionally talented voice teacher Patty!

Good luck to all Novice Quartets. I'll be rooting for you as Judge Judy “Ears of a Bat” Ashmore will be in pit and both Patty and Missy will be singing in their own novice quartets.

Visit Shimmer! on MySpace and Facebook and while you’re on Facebook, come visit Pitter and Shimmy in YoVille!

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

We are so happy to be your Champions! What an honor it is to be preparing for Nashville to represent this great Region.

While still on Cloud 9 (or should we say "Cloud 11"), we’ve floated in on the Valleyaires Chorus show and the Santa Monica Oceanaires show, where we met Helen Carrier, 90-year-old lead of 1957 Region 11 Quartet Champions, Crown City Coronets (and her tenor, Louise Pewsey) and had a wonderful time reminiscing with them about their quartet life back then (see story elsewhere in this issue of News@11).

Our big news is that we've just released our first CD, "Sirens." Action-packed with a little barbershop and a little barber-not, we hope you pick up a copy. Also, stop by our table in the lobby, where we will be selling all kinds of yummy food, drinks, and denim & diamond accessories along with our CD. We did consider having a mud wrestling pit and a kissing booth, but alas, none of the OC Times guys were available this weekend. 

Here's a perfect thing to do on a hot summer night: come to the Orange Empire Chorus benefit show where Sirens will be guest performers along with Westminster Chorus on August 15th. Enjoy the music at an outdoor amphitheater, where the show will culminate in the Disneyland fireworks show! All proceeds go to the BHS Youth In Harmony program, so it's for a great cause. Click here for the flyer: http://oechorus.org/pearson.html

Oh, and here's a perfect thing to do on a warm fall night: come to our fundraising party on Saturday, September 26 at the home of our dear friend, Lora Goodpasture (who actually came up with that OC Times joke). It will be tons of fun, so save the date!

Congratulations to all the Nashville-bound quartets related to Region 11: Shimmer!, Cheers!, Spirit & Taylor Made. What an amazing depth of talent here in Cowboy Country! How awesome to share the stage with you!

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SPIRIT
Gerry Papageorge • Pam Pieson • Corky Harvey • Catherine Berriz

Writing these brief updates for the region is always a great opportunity to express our sincere thanks.  We continue to be so grateful to our choruses, Verdugo, Agoura Hills Harmony and Harborlites, as well as this great region for your constant encouragement and support. Singing is one of the best things in life and we are so blessed to sing for you and, in large part, because of you.

We've been invited to Nashville as Wildcard #5 and we have accepted the invitation!  It has been so fun to work on our music together, especially with the assistance and expertise of Jean Barford, Dale Syverson and our own Nick Papageorge.

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TAYLOR MADE
Angela Borba • Karen FIsh • Kristi Bispo • Lysanda Lee

HI Region 11! A lot has happened over the past few months after being awarded 3rd Place in Region 12’s Quartet Contest we unfortunately had to say good-bye to our Bass and long time friend Shelley Culp. We’ll miss you Shelley, but we are excited to welcome our new Bass, Lysanda Lee from Region 12’s Mix-UP Quartet. Lysanda has been a great addition, bringing years of barbershop experience and great energy to the group.

We’re all keeping busy, Angela has been putting her Master’s Degree to good use teaching music in an Elementary and Middle School, as well as the Danville Girls Choir. Karen, is headed to Erin Howden’s Visual Leadership conference in Canada this summer, followed by a 2-week road trip to the North East with the fam. Kristi’s daughter, Taylor, is officially brainwashed… whenever she gets in a car she wants to “listen to a Barbershop” on the radio. Talk about a Barbershop Brat!! Kristi and Tom are also looking forward to adopting two children hopefully later this year.

In May, Taylor Made received the best news so far, when we were invited to compete as Wildcard #10 in Nashville, which of course means a summer filled with rehearsals, coaching and lots of fundraising. We want to thank Region 11 for all your love and support. We can’t wait to represent Regions 11 & 12 at International! Taylor Made would also like to give big congratulations to Shimmer! Sirens, Cheers! and Spirit – good luck in Nashville!

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TOP FLIGHT
Theresa Schonbach • Kelly Robison • Kathy Wright • Karen Laderman

Wow! What an inaugural journey!

Top Flight would like to thank Region 11 for helping to make our first trip together on the Regional stage such a fun one. It was a great contest and our "novice" Kelly had such a fabulous time that she wanted to go back and do it again, just for the thrill. Karen and Kathy were welcomed back so warmly that it reminded us all of just what a special group of women make up Region 11. We must thank our coaches, Laura Pallas, Lynne Smith and our "teeny weenie queenie" Judy Gordon, and our choruses, RiverOaks and Harborlites, for their love and support. And we have to give a special "shout out" to Dot Calvin and Dave Briner for their contest arrangements: not only were they great fun to sing but we loved coming off-stage to a big thumbs-up from Dave for doing justice to his music. That was a joy!

We wish we could all be present at Summer Sizzler but, unfortunately, work gets in the way. Kelly is a professional masseuse after all, and a lot of people want to schedule their appointments on the weekend. Don't they know we have singing to do? But we must wish a soaring experience to all the novice quartet contestants in Bakersfield — especially Sweet Tarts who is borrowing our tenor!

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

Since Regional competition, Wildfire sang at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve in May, and performed at the Liberace Museum as part of their Second Sunday concert series. They also sang at CCC’s installation banquet, a birthday party, and a July 4th celebration. Wildfire has been coaching Delux quartet from CCC, and will team coach High Sierra Chorus in late July.

Mary Jo, Jan, Patti and Delia serve on the chorus music team as section leaders. In addition, Patti is the associate director and coordinates the DCP program for Region 11. (This tenor is not blond!)

Lead Mary Jo Wheeler is a retired USAF Master Sergeant, currently working on Creech Air Force Base as a telecommunications infrastructure project manager. When not working or singing, she spends time with her husband, 2 German Shepherds and 3 cats.

Tenor Patti Goin is an HR manager at a company that runs the Nevada Test Site and other facilities for the Department of Energy. She collects hippos (over 600), and her husband likes elk … hence “elkhippo” is her email handle.

Bass Jan Sloan, a domestic Goddess, just became a new grandma in March. Baby Teigan is the delightful daughter of Jan’s son and daughter-in-law from Oregon, and sister to Dylan. Jan’s daughter, Tiffiny, and 2 granddaughters, Megan and Mackenzie, live in Las Vegas.

Bari Delia Price is retired, and that says it all!

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