High Spirits Harmony celebrates their 10th anniversary this year with a huge gala concert this month.
Formed in 2014, High Spirits Harmony focuses on a cappella harmony across a range of musical styles including contemporary pop, barbershop harmony, folk and classical. High Spirits Harmony’s slogan, ‘live, laugh, sing’ perfectly sums up this group’s work ethic. Whilst their focus is on enjoying music and excellence in performance, the vocal group also aims to inject a sense of fun into their rehearsals.
Alice Norman, one of the creative minds behind the formation of High Spirits Harmony, recently spoke to Glam Adelaide’s arts editor about the vocal group and how they were originally formed.
“It honestly was as simple as my friend and I talking to each other one day, and I suggested we should start our own choir! We found a music director almost immediately and gathered some people we knew who were singers. There was twelve of us when we first started, with no money behind us and no resources – we just sang in people’s lounge rooms and just slowly built up our membership. It’s really just grown from here. There has been a huge amount of work ever since, but it has been very rewarding.”
Over the years High Spirits Harmony has celebrated many success stories, none more so than winning a gold medal in the Barbershop Harmony Australia women’s chorus competition at the 2024 Pan Pacific International Convention.
“We never thought that would ever have happened! Quite a few years ago we were invited to be guest performers at the Pan Pacific International Convention. It originally didn’t have a category for all female vocal groups, so it was nice to be asked to do a guest performance. Then a few years ago, they introduced a women’s category so we decided to compete properly in this division. Our musical director at the time was very passionate about barbershop music and really worked us hard. It was the best experience and being there with people from all over the Pan Pacific who all shared the same love of singing was just wonderful. To come away with that trophy as well was the icing on the cake.”
We asked Alice if she would believe ten years ago the achievements the choir has had over the years.
“No, I don’t think so. I mean we’ve always been very organised and we’ve always had a strategic plan and a vision but we never really dreamed of being recognised at an international level. We’ve had a lot of members over the years come and go, but we always have a lot of fun. That’s one of the things that makes us special. We have fun, but at the same time we work hard.”
Alice shared with Glam Adelaide how people who might be interested in joining the choir can apply.
“We are an audition based choir, so if someone is interested people can apply on our website. There’s an expression of interest form on there, and then we get straight back in touch with them and we sort of explain what we are, and some people proceed and some don’t. Following this we have a voice placement where people get assessed and worked out which part they might be in, and then it sort of goes from there. It’s a very welcoming environment and we love seeing the choir grow – which is something we are hoping to continue to do.”
On Saturday 25 May at the Burnside Ballroom, High Spirits Harmony will be holding a 10th Anniversary concert that promises to be a night full of celebration and a few surprises.
“Audiences are going to see some bits of High Spirits Harmony they’ve not seen before. We’ve pulled in some experts in different fields to work with us. We’ve got somebody coming in to add some choreography for a few of our songs for example. We also have some of our previous music directors coming in, which is very exciting. Our first music director is coming back to direct us for a medley of songs that we did when we first started. The music director that took us overseas and helped us win the competition is flying back from Melbourne just for the night to direct us on the competition set that we did. We also put out a call to any of our ex members who wanted to come and join us and we’ve got eleven who have already come to rehearsals and they’re coming to join us in an absolutely groovy rendition of Shake Your Groove Thing. We also will be performing some new songs that no one has heard from us before. People who’ve seen us before will definitely experience some new things with us on the night.”
High Spirits Harmony 10th Anniversary Concert
May 25 at 7.30pm
Burnside Ballroom
Tickets and further information can be found at: https://www.highspiritsharmony.com
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