Cody Choraliers to host singing celebration

The Cody Choraliers have come a long way since just two years ago.

Before, the barbershop chorus that has been a Leavenworth staple since the chapter was chartered in 1969 had always performed in regional competitions, but might not have been considered top contenders.

In the last few years, that has changed, and now the chorus boasts two years in a row of receiving the award for “most improved” chorus in their division at the international Barbershop Harmony Society’s District Chorus Convention.

“It’s an unusual feat,” Owens said, that only one other chorus in the district, which includes Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Iowa, has achieved.

The chorus, which also provides grants to area schools for music programs, has presented an annual concert for the last 42 years, according to Chapter President Mike Owens.

Owens said the Cody Choraliers have named their upcoming annual concert “New and Improved” in honor of their recent accomplishment. Scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 28 at the Lansing High School Auditorium, the concert will feature the chorus singing 10 songs as a whole, with performances from its quartets Last Free Exit, Escape!, Possum Holler Four, Purely Harmonic and ListenUp! interspersed.

The main event, he said, is a performance by Storm Front, a Colorado-based quartet that took top honors at the international competition this year.

That’s another first, Garrard said.

“We’ve brought in people and they’ve become champions the next year,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve brought one in after they’ve become world champions.”

The event is open to the public and Owens said barbershoppers from across the district are likely to be in Lansing that night to see them — both for their musicality and their showmanship.

“They are without a doubt the funniest quartet I’ve seen in all my years of barbershopping,” he said.

Garrard said he hopes the Cody Choraliers can achieve similar heights. When he was brought on as director, he said the he started to work with the chorus on fundamental elements like voice blending, pitch, vowels and sectional unity.

That first year, the chorus received a chapter high score of 66 on the BHS’s 100-percentile scoring criteria and was named the most improved chorus. The next year they earned a score of 70 and received that recognition again.

“Right now we’re solidly in the B range,” according to BHS’s criteria, Garrard said. “The next goal is to get to the A level.”

He said the chorus also wants to take the most improved chorus award again — a feat that is unprecedented in the district.

It’s going to take some work, Garrard said, tweaking some of the group’s fundamental skills and developing the artistry and showmanship the judges look for in top-notch acts.

The group will show off its hard work toward that goal during the concert Aug. 28, with songs ranging from gospel to 1960s rock. And they’ll be performed by a chorus that in the last year and a half has seen its numbers swell.

“We’ve been very lucky to have a good growth spurt,” with members now ranging in age from 13 to 86 years old, Owens said.

As the makeup of the Cody Choraliers has changed with that growth spurt, Garrard said he has noticed a change in the attitude of the members too.

“I would say the motto of the chorus has changed from just guys hanging out singing together to actually helping each other change each other’s lives,” he said.

It’s a good change, Garrard said. As a nearly lifelong barbershopper himself, he said he finds that the art that he calls “the world’s best kept secret” is not just good for the ears.

“The root of being part of a hobby is so you can rejuvenate your soul to go back to life as a better person, and this hobby absolutely does that,” Garrard said.