Three Arcadian singers were part of the recent International Chorus Championship won by Southern California’s Masters of Harmony in Kansas City.
It was the eighth consecutive championship for the 121-member Barbershop singing group that includes Ron Larson, Dan Place, and charter member Rich Stanford. Place and Larson are two of only 12 members of the group who have been part of every one of those championship teams, each collecting all eight gold medals.
Larson, chairman of the Arcadia Public Library Board of Trustees in 2010-11, recently chronicled the group’s latest success on July 8 for Westunes, the publication for Barbershop Society members from the western United States.
He writes that Masters of Harmony was formed as a small group of men in 1985 singing close harmony in the a cappella style and featuring a dynamic repertoire that encompasses music from the classics to jazz, patriotic to sacred, and rounded out with standards and Broadway pops. The group quickly won four International Chorus Championships during the 1990s.
Earlier this summer Masters of Harmony performed a Championships tune-up performance at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse. Then it was on to Kansas City where this year’s championship competition was stronger than ever. After presenting fresh performances of songs such as “Alabama Jubilee” and “Stranger In Paradise” with new choreography and other changes, MoH won by five points (out of 3000) over Minnesota’s Great Northern Union.
— By Scott Hettrick