NORTHEASTERN dISTRICT
2024 WESTERN REGIONAL cONTESTS

MAY 3-5, 2024
WARRENSBURG, NY

Venue: Warrensburg High School 103 Schroon River Rd, Warrensburg, NY 12885

What is happening at the Regional Contests?

INTERNATIONAL CONTESTS

  • International Contest Quartet Qualifiers (Both Regions)

DIVISION CONTESTS

  • Chorus Champions

  • VLQ Champions

  • Overall Quartet Champions

  • Most Improved Quartet Champions

  • Novice Quartet Champions

  • Senior Quartet Champions

  • Youth Quartet Champions

DISTRICT CONTESTS

  • District Contest Qualifiers (Chorus)

  • District Contest Qualifiers (Quartet)

  • District Contest Qualifiers (Sr. Quartet)

Order of Appearance

PLATEAUS & SMALL CHORUS QUALIFICATIONS

Contest Judging Panels

Contest Entry:

  • ALL choruses and quartets must be registered with BHS.

  • A chorus is defined as having 9 or more members.

  • Existing quartets and choruses will receive an invitation to enter the contests.

  • The invitation is automatically generated by the Barberscore.com program and sent to all registered quartets.

  • Quartets, VLQs & choruses registering with the Society after January 1, 2023, should contact Alan Lamson (DVP-Contest and Judging)

  • New choruses and quartets should plan accordingly since response time from BHS Customer Service can vary.

  • Once registered, a representative can file a contest entry at barberscore.com

  • The entry form will ask contestants to select preferences for “Feedback” and the judges from whom they would like feedback. 

  • The contest entry will not be accepted by Barberscore.com unless Feedback preferences have been indicated.

  • Deadlines for Entry:
    Eastern Regional: March 23, 2024
    Western Regional: April 3, 2024
    Sunrise Division: April 11, 2024

CONTEST NEWS & REMINDERS FOR 2024

  • NEW: The quartet qualifying score for the district contest has been raised to 65.5 (equivalent to a 786 score for a double panel), up from the previous qualifying score of 63.5.

  • The 2024 International Quartet Contest ‘target score’ remains at 78. The ‘minimum score’ remains at 74.

  • NEW: Choruses are now defined as having an on-stage presence of 9 members.
    Previously, it was 12 members.

  • VLQs remain defined as on-stage presence of 5 -11 members.

  • NEW: An ensemble of 9, 10, 11 members from the same chapter will have to declare whether it is a chorus or a VLQ. It cannot be both.

  • NEW: A group of 9,10, or 11 who are not all from the same chapter must be a VLQ.

  • District qualifying scores for choruses remain unchanged at 58.3
    (a 700 score for a double panel).

  • NEW: Contest Entry can only be made by a person designated as a ‘chorus manager’ by the Chapter or as ‘administrator’ by a Quartet. Check your chapter/chorus/quartet information in the BHS Member Center to verify the accuracy of your group’s designee.

Are you a VLQ or a Chorus?
You can’t be both

Contest Judging Categories

Musicality

Musicality is defined as the song and arrangement, as performed. The Musicality Category judges the suitability of the material to the barbershop style and the performer’s musicianship in bringing the song and arrangement to life.

The Musicality judge is responsible for adjudicating the musical elements in the performance, judging the extent to which the musical performance displays the hallmarks of the barbershop style and the degree to which the musical performance demonstrates an artistic sensitivity to the music’s primary theme(s).

The sensitive handling of musical elements, such as melody, harmony, and embellishments, demonstrates musicality in a performance. A strong musical performance is one in which everything provided by the composer and arranger is skillfully delivered and effectively integrated in support of the musical theme.

Performance

These judges evaluate how effectively a performer brings the song to life. They judge the entertainment value of the performance, the art of the performance.

One significant goal of any art form is communication. A barbershop performance refers to how the artist communicates his/her message and vision via the transformation of a song into an entertaining experience for an audience. The performance of a song is the artist’s gift to the audience; whose experiences, memories, and imagination transform that gift into an emotional experience. The performers’ goal is to create a high level of entertainment through the performance. The means to that end are as varied as the personality, abilities, and creative skills of the performers.

Singing

In the Singing category we judge artistic singing in the barbershop style – listening holistically for ringing in-tune voices that use a free, beautiful, and rich vocal quality, which is wonderfully unified and vocally expressive.

Judges in this category evaluate the degree to which the performer achieves artistic singing in the barbershop style: the production of vibrant, rich, resonant, technically accurate, and highly skilled sound, created both by the individual singer’s use of good vocal techniques, and by the ensemble processes of tuning, balancing, unity of sound and precision. They listen for a sense of precise intonation, a feeling of fullness or expansion of sound, a perception of a high degree of vocal skill, an elevated level of unity and consistency throughout the performance, and a freedom from apparent effort that allows the full communication of the lyric and song.

Determination of Division Novice Quartet Status

A quartet must meet all seven of the following requirements: (NED Operating Code, Paragraph 9.4.3):

  1. Have at least two quartet members who have never competed in a District Quartet Contest, and

  2. Have at least two quartet members who have never competed in a Society Preliminary Contest, and

  3. Have at least two quartet members who have never won any quartet contest at the division level (quartet champion, novice quartet champion, seniors quartet champion), and

  4. Have no more than one quartet member who has won any District quartet championship, and

  5. Have no more than one quartet member who has qualified for the Society's International Quartet competition, and

  6. Have no more than two quartet members who have completed at a higher-level contest (district or International), and

  7. Have no quartet members who have won Society Quartet Contest medals.

INTERNATIONAL QUALIFICATION SCORES

The following outlines the present Minimum Scores and Target Scores required for quartets and choruses to qualify for participation in the corresponding International Contest. REFERENCE: CONTEST & JUDGING HANDBOOK

BHS INTERNATIONAL QUARTETS
Target Score: 78
Minimum Score: 74

BHS INTERNATIONAL
SENIORS QUARTET
Minimum Score: 61

BHS INTERNATIONAL
CHORUS
Target Score: 80
Minimum Score: 74

BHS INTERNATIONAL
SENORS CHORUS

Minimum Score: 61

Spring Prelims for quartets will allow a quartet to compete for a qualifying score for International.

  • NED is offering the opportunity at both regional contests so that our quartets do not have to go out of the district for a second chance at qualifying.

  • Quartets will be given two opportunities in NED, and they can be in any Spring Prelim anywhere in the Society.

  • Any quartet achieving a score of 78 or higher will automatically qualify. 

  • Should no quartet in the NED achieve the Target Score, then the highest scoring quartet from the District will be invited if they have achieved the Minimum Score of 74 and they received that score at an NED Preliminary contest.

    Choruses and Senior Quartets prelims occur in October at the Fall Convention

WATCH THE CONTESTS FROM WHEREEVER YOU ARE

The contests will be live streamed from Hyannis to your device.
To watch, you must subscribe at Acaville.org
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