The ScotianAires chorus and quartet Tonic! have retained top honours at Atlantic Canada’s most prestigious competition for women barbershop singers. Both were repeat champions at the Harmony Inc. 2019 Area 1 Convention and Contests (AC&C) held at the end of May in Sackville, NB.

Among the 57 women on stage for the chorus were six first-time participants. Newcomer Lynda Vaughan describes the experience of singing with the ScotianAires. “It has been an amazing experience singing on the stage with these champions, something I never dreamed of, even one year ago. I only started attending rehearsals this January so it's been a bit of a leap for me but I have been richly rewarded.”

Choruses sing two selections in the competition and receive marks for singing, music and performance. Director Sue Kember was particularly pleased with the singing scores because singing had been an area of focus for the group leading up to the competition. “It was an incredible feeling to know that all our hard work was rewarded”, Kember remarked. “It is so wonderful to work with these amazing women who keep the music alive with their desire to improve and who also maintain and enjoy the special camaraderie that is the ScotianAires!”

Tonic! took home the first-place Wona Wright Memorial Award and also the Karen Gordon Memorial Award, presented to the quartet with the highest performance score. ScotianAires’ quartet enJOY! was right behind them in second place and the newest competing quartet from the chorus, Arpeggio, earned a fourth place ribbon.

The weekend also included education sessions and coaching and a “Fun Night” of singing planned around this year’s theme…”A Night on the Red Carpet”. The ScotianAires dressed up as the high school students from “Grease” and sang an a cappella arrangement of “We Go Together”.

The ScotianAires, Tonic! and enJOY! all qualified to compete against choruses and quartets from across North America at the International Convention and Contests (IC&C) to be held in Sandusky, Ohio in November, 2019.