1st place International on line newsletter 2010 and 2003 We are harmonizing members of the Barbershop Harmony Bulletin is published by the Manhattan Kansas Chapter and Chorus Volume 39, Number 1 Karen Nanninga, Editor and Publisher Winter 2016-2017 Inside this issue Presidents Message Youth Festival Page 2 In Memory of Page 3 Show Information BOTM Awards Page 4 The Little Apple Chorus 2016 Quartet Info BOTY New Members Page 5 Page 6 Convention Photos Page7 Installation Banquet Page 8 Show Photos Show Photos Misc. Photos Calendar Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Harmony for the Holidays On Saturday December 10, 2016, The Little Apple Chorus presented their annual Christmas show in McCain Auditorium on the campus of Kansas State University. Besides the chorus, there were guest appearances by the KSU Brass Quintet, First United Methodist Church Rhapsody Ringers, Flint Hill Children s Choir, K-State Singers, Christmas Magic and Santa Claus himself. And a special appearance by Timeless A Cappella. It would have been hard to find a seat and there was a very large audience and from the reports I (editor) heard, every one enjoy it. The chapter and chorus meets every Thursday evening at 7 p.m. at the Harris Activity Center on the corner of Poyntz and 6th Street, Manhattan Kansas.
Winter 2016-2017 InCider Press Page 2 InCider Press, a monthly publication, is the official publication of the Manhattan, Kansas chapter of the Central States District (CSD) of the Barbershop Harmony Society. The Manhattan Chapter is the home of the Little Apple Chorus. The chapter and chorus meet every Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. at the First Methodist Church Activity Center on the corner of Poyntz and 6th Street, Manhattan, Kansas. For more information about meetings or joining call or write to the Editor. (see below) Chapter Officers 2016 Immediate Past President..Mike Shepherd President......Mark Robb Executive VP......Steve McKinzie VP Public Relations........Mike Sexton VP Music...... Andrew Kvasnica & Performance...Aaron Pauls, Asst..Ken Lang Asst. VP Chapter Development & Membership..... Ben Listharke......Bob Swenson, Asst....Steve McKinzie, Asst. Treasurer......Gary Mott.Denver Marlow, Asst. Secretary....Chuck Marr....Darrell Parks, Asst. Board Member....Leonard Purvis Mail order show tickets Board Member / Uniforms.........Tom Neill Show Chairman Board Member/Chorus Mgr.....Don Thomson Contact/ Booking Board Member... Harvey Kiser Youth in Harmony Chairman...Harvey Kiser...Price Pickard Appointments Musical Director...Michael Brown Associate Musical Director..Don Thomson Assistant Musical Director.....Ken Lang Librarian........Bob Ridley Singing Valentine Chairman.....Mike Shepherd Bulletin Editor....Karen Nanninga Web Master..... Bart Bartholomew www.littleapplechorus.org Bulletin Editor Karen Nanninga 1379 26th Road Axtell, Kansas 66403 Phone: 785-736-2870 email: taren@bluevalley.net Unless carrying a byline or some form of credit to borrowed sources, all items in this bulletin are by the editor and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the chapter or board. All photos in the bulletin are by the editor, unless otherwise identified. All chapter officers are expected and chapter members are encouraged to contribute their ideas on a regular basis. Re-Marks Mark Robb President This past year was an exciting and challenging one. Our Spring Show signaled the end of Ken Lang s long tenure, 39 years, as our Chorus Director. Ken still contributes greatly to the success of the Chorus as an Assistant Director, bass singer and this coming year as Board Member and Music VP.. We sang with the Municipal Band in the park again this year and spent three Sunday mornings singing in area churches. Thanks to Denver Marlow for organizing those Sunday morning journeys. We welcomed a new Director in August, Michael Brown. Michael has injected the Chorus with new enthusiasm. He brought with him not only enthusiasm and knowledge but several new members as well. We just completed what appears to be our most successful Christmas Show ever. This was Michael's first show as Director and the first appearance on a show for nine members as well. Congratulations to all of them. As I said, this may have been our most successful Christmas Show ever. We will not have final figures on attendance and net proceeds for some time, but it seemed to be one of our largest audiences. Thanks to Don Thomson, Tom Neill and all those who worked hard on the show to make it a success. We turn our attention to Singing Valentines and our 40 th Spring Show. Don has a plan for a very special show worked out and it should be great. To insure the success of Don s plan, we will all need to do our part. We need to work hard on memorizing the music so that we can freely perform it on the show. There will be tickets and program ads to sell and many varied tasks to be taken care of. The Spring Show is our largest fund raiser of the year and the fact that this is a special 40 th Show makes it even more important that we all step up and do our share to help. Thanks to all who went the extra mile to make 2016 a good year. Thanks to all who served on the Board and various Committees. Thanks to all who sold tickets, program ads, delivered Singing Valentine, set up chairs and risers, and took care of refreshments each week. Special Thanks to Bob Ridley for taking care of our music library. Thanks to Karen for producing our newsletters and thanks to all the spouses and family members who do so much to support us in this hobby. Step up and pitch in this new year. Let s have a great 2017. 2017 Youth Festival By Harvey Kiser Our chapter has a tentative date for our 2nd Youth Festival. The date is October 7 th, the first Saturday. The KSU football team is playing in Texas that day. The Little Apple Chorus wishes to co-sponsor the festival with the School of Music, Theatre and Dance of K-State as in 2015. The School s faculty will meet in March to plan their 2017-2018 academic calendar. Until the academic calendar is completed, the date for the Festival remains tentative. An email request has been sent to two quartets to serve as our teaching quartets. One is a Society s barbershop quartet and the other is a Sweet Adeline quartet. In 2015, 86 students participated in the Festival. 28 of them were young men and 38 were young women. The students came from the 8 th though the 12 th grades. The students came from eight schools from Rossville and Topeka to Salina and south to Lost Springs. We anticipate more students will participate in this year s festival.
Winter 2016-17 InCider Press Page 3 Reflections on Tom Hart by Ken Lang My first encounter with Tom Hart was at a summer picnic in Bill Rullifson's back yard. I believe it was the summer of 1976. An old classmate of mine who I quarteted with in High School convinced me that I needed to attend. Dave Brown was his name and he introduced me to the director of the newly formed Barbershop Chorus, Tom Hart. After a few burgers and beers, I believe Tom suggested that I should attempt to join in with three other guys and sing a song. After all, I was a vocal teacher and should be able to sing about anything. Well Dave remembered that we sang Lida Rose in high school and just happened to know two other guys who might know it. I think this was all planned from the beginning. So, I joined Dave Brown (Br), Bill Rullifson(B), and Bob Swenson(L). I threw in what I could remember of the Tenor. I will always believe that the Flint Hills Four became a quartet due to Tom's pre-picnic planning. I started attending the chapter meetings immediately and after a few rehearsals, Tom gave me a song to work with and threw me in front of the chapter. I remember that I didn't care for the song much, but he was the boss and I started learning about barbershop directing. By the way, its quite different from formal choral directing. Tom did not have a lot of musical training, but he agreed to give it a go when the new chorus was forming. Tom sang in a quartet with his son-in-law, Bill Hanson, but most of his directing experience came from church choir in Westmorland. Tom never wore a frown, and directed with a smile plastered to his face that any chorus would love to have on the front row. You could see his love of barbershop by singing in the chorus. It was a little harder, however, to interpret what he was wanting the chorus to do. He was the first to admit that he was no director, but agreed to the task just to get the chorus off the ground. Our Charter Show was in 1977 and Tom led us through it with flying colors. It was soon after that when Tom approached me to take on the directing responsibilities. He was willing to help when I had school conflicts, and there were several. Over the next few years, I learned a lot from Tom about barbershop interpretation, chord balancing, vowel matching and much more. He always said he knew how it should be done, but would just rather have somebody else teach it, preferably a teacher. Well, I could go on about all the sing-outs and trips in the camper and experiences that came after that, but when all is said and done, there was no better chorus pal than Tom Hart. He continued to sing with us until he just could no longer do it. We are all better for knowing him and sharing his love of barbershop with us. Memories of Loren Alexander Cam Beatty The Little Apple Chorus lost an invaluable member and many of us lost an invaluable friend with the passing of Loren Alexander on January 7. He'd been a member of the chorus for about ten years, and was active in rehearsals and performances. In addition, he was instrumental in giving life to our Barberpole Cat program, organizing training and practice sessions and encouraging guys to earn credit for learning the basic barbershop repertoire. Loren was a lifelong learner, and one of my strongest memories of him was seeing him on his daily walk around Meadowlark Hills listening to and singing along with CD tracks of songs he was learning for the next show. If ever there was a dedicated chorister and barbershopper it was Loren Alexander, and his contributions will be missed not only by the Bari section but by the whole chorus.
Winter 2016-17 InCider Press Page 4 Our Spring Show in 2017 will be our 40 th Anniversary Show! The date is Saturday, April 8, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. and the show will be held in the McCain Auditorium on the Kansas State University campus. I gave a preview of the show at our Installation Banquet/Christmas Party and will not go into the details of the show as I did there. But I will list the songs that we plan to present at this historic event. FIRST HALF Sound Celebration Play That Barbershop Chord Bring Back Those Days/Soft Shoe Song Ragtime Cowboy Joe A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody Where Have My Old Friends Gone? New Ashmolean Marching Band Order of Spring Show songs Don Thomson SECOND HALF I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked Do You Hear the People Sing? You re A Grand Old Flag Here s To the Heroes TAPS Teach the Children To Sing I d Like To Teach the World To Sing Learning tracks are available for several of the songs. If you haven t already, you can check them out at our next rehearsal. This show should be a lot of fun to prepare for as well as to present. The songs are quite easy to learn and are very sing-able, but it will take some work. Good attendance will be imperative. Hope to see you at the next rehearsal! The BOTM s of the month Mark Robb President Congratulations to last year s Barbershoppers of the Month. These men were recognized for their exemplary contributions toward fulfilling the goals of our Chapter, District and Society. January Mike Shepherd 3 Years of leadership as President February Don Thomson Producing Christmas show & Chairing Director Search Committee March Steve McKinzie Program Ad Sales Chair April Ben Listhartke Work with Guest Night and Membership May Ken Lang 39 years of Directing and Leadership June Denver Marlow Work on Summer Church Sings July Darrell Parks Refreshments August Michael Sexton PR work and advertising September Leonard Purvis Bass Section Leadership and Keeper of the Pitch October Bob Swenson Bringing International Caliber Quartets to our Stage and a lifetime of leadership and commitment to Barbershop and our Chapter Bob Swenson Gary Mott Mike Sexton Here are photos from the last four months of 2016 of the BOTM s. You can look across the article to the left for their contributions to win the award. November Gary Mott December Tom Neill Work as Treasurer and ticket sales manager Show Chair and Uniform Manager Leonard Purvis Tom Neill
Winter 2016-17 InCider Press Page 5 Quartet news and happenings The Charades Leonard Purvis Bass Apple Core tet Myron Calhoun Tenor After several months with no performances, the Charades had a busy week in December. After almost performing on the Christmas show, we sang for the vesper services at Meadowlark Hills on December 11 th. Then on the 15 th we sang for an AARP luncheon and the installation banquet that evening. The following day found us singing at Stolzer House and Collins House (we had a nice visit there with former member Harold Brown) at Meadowlark again. Later that evening we were singing for the Stephan group at First Methodist Church. Now we are brushing up on a couple of love songs in preparation for Sing Valentines. Manhattan Music Machine Don Thomson-Tenor The Manhattan Music Machine has not performed for several months. Most of you are aware that our lead, Bob Swenson, is battling cancer and has not been able to perform. The good news is that for the most part, our quartet has been able to keep our rehearsal schedule, and we are planning on participating in the Singing Valentines and start accepting invitations to sing sometime toward Spring including an appearance on our Spring Show. Please keep your prayers going for Bob for continued success with his ongoing cancer treatments. Apple Core Tet has been registered for 24 years which means it was formed in 1988. Your Editor asked Myron for some information on the members thru out the years. Below are his recollections. The first members of the ACT were: TENOR: Myron Calhoun LEAD: Steve LaPatka BARI: Bob Swenson BASS: Leonard Purvis Myron don't keep track of when people changed, but, somewhere: Bob Ridley became LEAD and Mark Lamberson became BARI; perhaps both changes happened when Steve LaPatka moved? Steve Siegele became BARI, probably when Mark Lamberson moved? Bill Hanson became LEAD and Bob Ridley became BARI; perhaps both changes happened when Bill Hanson joined? and, for a few years, Jim Gardner and Myron replaced each other periodically! Update on ACT from Steve McKinzie Myron, Bob, Leonard, and I continue to rehearse weekly, working on a few new tunes and brushing up on the old ones. Generally singing Just for the fun of it according to Bob Ridley. We enjoyed singing a couple of songs at Chapter Meetings and the Annual Banquet in December including Turn Your Radio On and Do You Hear What I Hear a couple of new tunes for us. We continue to brush up on Valentines, peek at a few Spring Show songs and have an upcoming performance on Sunday April 2 nd.
Winter 2016-17 InCider Press Page 5 Nine new faces at the 2016 Christmas Show Steve McKinzie Steve McKinzie is awarded the BOTY for 2016 from Harvey Kiser, 2015 BOTY 2016 BOTY Awardee Barbershopper of The Year Harvey Kiser There's nothing quite like your first time on the "Big Stage", and nine of our members took the stage at McCain for the first time on the Christmas show! What an exciting show and a great experience for all nine of these gentlemen. So here are your First Timers: Haydn Basher, Michael Brown, Jake Childs, Nate Hancock, Frank Hwang, Keaton Petite, Price Pickard, and Rick Roenigk. Great Job guys! Congratulations and Welcome Aboard we're glad to have you with us! And in case you hadn't noticed, the Chorus looks pretty good with a little less gray hair. This year s BOTY awardee, like cream in milk, rose to the top of the finalist list. It is with pleasure and an honor to have presented at the chapter s 2016 installation of officers the 2016 Barbershopper Of The Year to Steve McKinzie. Members in this chapter/chorus provide leadership in singing and administration. With the presentation of the 2016 BOTY award, we are honoring, Steve, as one of us who has contributed this year in many special ways. He learns music quickly He is a quartet member Participates in our Singing Valentines operation with his quartet Helps with the management of our risers Solicits financial support from other businesses and persons Suggests new ways of doing things Welcomes visitors and members every week Just has such a friendly and pleasant disposition it is contagious Volunteered to accept the delivery of a new set of risers Helped organize for publishing our spring 2016 spring booklet He volunteered to chair the program ad sales campaign. A truly large and important task. Serves on our board of directors And provides quiet leadership as our Executive Vice President
Winter 2016-17 InCider Press Page 6 Convention Photos Harvey and Janet Kiser and Terry and Karen Nanninga attended the CSD fall convention in Cedar Rapids Iowa in Oct. They all enjoyed good music. The photo to the left is some tag singing in the lobby of the hotel. There are three different states represented here. You probably know Leonard Kinsey and Terry Nanninga. We even had some members attend the International Convention at Nashville Tennessee. They are left to right: Janet and Harvey Kiser, Allison with her parents Joyce and Gary Mott, Joan and Don Thomson are behind them, and Telva and Bob Swenson.
Winter 2016-17 InCider Press Installation Banquet The new officers are installed. To see the list, look on page 2. The installation banquet was well attended, with lots of good food and entertainment. Page 7
Winter 2016-17 InCider Press Page 9 [tüåéçç yéü à{x [ÉÄ wtçá The combined chorus and K State singers Flint Hill Children s Choir, Rhapsody Ringers Little Apple Chorus Timeless A Cappella. KSU Brass Quintet
Winter 2016-17 InCider Press Page 10 Show Happenings Just Photos
Winter 2016-17 InCider Press Page 11 Other Happenings The singers at Tom Harts funeral with their own pocket square cop Tom Fish A Chapter golf outing, the first ever. Editor was told Pat was selling tickets and don t know about the other. Soldiers
Thanks to the following for articles Karen Nanninga 1379 26th Road Axtell, Kansas 66403 Calendar for the Little Apple Barbershop Chorus January 26 Chapter meeting February 2 Chapter meeting February 4 District Leadership Conference St. Joe February 9 Chapter meeting February 14 Valentines Day February 16 Chapter meeting February 20 Board meeting February 23 Chapter meeting Ken Lang, Mark Robb, Cam Beatty, Steve McKinzie, Don Thomson, Harvey Kiser For Photos, Mike Shepherd, Steve McKinzie, Harvey Kiser and Roger Hammerschmidt. District and International dates April 21-23: Spring Convention - Wichita, Kansas July 5-9 International Convention Las Vegas, Nevada October 20-22: Fall Convention