An Oct. 10 send-off concert in Cloverdale will have the award-winning Westcoast Harmony Chorus singers hit the stage before their trip to another international competition, this time in Kansas City.
Later in October, starting on the 28th, the North Surrey-based group will travel to Missouri for the 2024 Sweet Adelines International convention of harmony choristers.
Two years ago, in 2022, Westcoast was named sixth best chorus in the world at the Sweet Adelines competition, their highest ever score and placement. Months later, in spring 2023, the group won the Western Canadian championship in Saskatoon to qualify for a return trip to the international event.
Led by music director Anne Downton, Westcoast is billed as an “a cappella chorus with over 60 members of varying ages. We love to sing a cappella, primarily in the barbershop style," says a post on westcoastsings.com.
"We rehearse every Wednesday evening in Surrey (at Parkland Community Church), learning new, challenging repertoire, from traditional barbershop to contemporary pop and rock arrangements."
On Thursday, Oct. 10, the group will perform its international "contest package" at Shannon Hall at Cloverdale Fairgrounds (6050 176 St., Surrey), 7:30 p.m. doors. Admission is by donation for the concert, to also feature guests Prime Time Quartet and Rhapsody Quartet.
In Kansas City, Westcoast will have close to 70 singers on stage, 10 of which have never performed internationally, according to Kelly Collins, the group's marketing co-ordinator.
At the 2022 Sweet Adelines competition in Phoenix, Westcoast sang their way to fourth place in the Sweet Adelines semifinals, in a field of 26 competing choruses from around the world. That top-10 score took Westcoast to the finals, where they came away with the sixth-place medal.
The achievement was reason to celebrate after more than two years of Zoom rehearsals, followed by outdoor rehearsals, indoor rehearsals in hula hoops, masking and COVID cancellations.
"I think we all are still on Cloud 9,” Collins said at the time, after returning home from Arizona. “I am very proud to say, for the first time in our chapter’s 57-year history, Westcoast Harmony made the Top 10, which put us on the finals stage the Saturday evening. We are proud to be the sixth-place chorus in the world of Sweet Adelines!”
In Phoenix, the chorus sang versions of Johnny Nash’s I Can See Clearly Now and Serena Ryder’s Sing Sing, among several other songs. Video of the performance is posted to Youtube.
