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Listen up
Four KU men, known on the barbershop quartet circuit as Random
Harmony, made their vocal debut on Kansas area television
crooning "The Crimson and Blue" in a 30-second television
spot featuring KU during the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
After their debut, instead of packing for New Orleans during
the Final Four, the quartet headed to Lincoln, Neb., to represent
KU a different competition-the Central States District convention
of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop
Quartet Singing in America, where they placed second. In 2002,
the KU men won fifth place - one place short of qualifying
them to compete at the SPEBQSA national convention.
Beyond musical talent and ingenuity, barbershop quartet competition
judges look for style and presentation. The KU quartet prepared
for the 2003 competition "by watching other quartets
and seeing what works for the champs," Abel said.
The four, all in music programs, met at KU. Shaun Whisler,
Olathe senior, and Michael L. Brown, Perry senior, founded
the quartet in November 2000. Whisler, bass, and Brown, baritone,
sang in KU's Men's Chorus and realized that they both had
an interest in barbershop. In high school, Whisler sang tenor
in a group that finished third in the Kansas State High School
competition and that toured Europe in 1999.
Whisler and Brown recruited two more former barbershoppers
Josh Abel, Eudora senior and tenor, and Dustin Peterson, Douglass
senior, lead singer. By spring 2002, they were regularly booking
engagements, including a performance at the annual Vespers
program and the 2002 All University Supper. Random Harmony
also performed at the English premiere of Kurt Weill's "Die
Sieben Todsünden" in November 2001 in Corpus Christi,
Texas.
In the TV spot, produced by KU's Office of University Relations,
viewers hear Random Harmony's rendition of "The Crimson
and Blue" as campus scenes flash by. Their rendition
of the Alma Mater is a contemporary twist on traditional barbershop
that weaves a syncopated vocal strum into the lyrics.
Click
here, to view the TV spot and listen to the quartet singing
the Alma Mater.
As you listen to the group, you might try a judging tip from
the national SPEBQSA Web that suggests: "Close your eyes:
Do you hear a "fifth voice"? That ringing sound
is called an overtone, or expanded sound."
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