(written by Donna Balkan)

The ScotianAires and its quartet Tonic! both won first place in their respective categories at Harmony Inc.’s 2016 Area 1 Convention and Contests (AC&C), held in Sackville, NB on June 2-5.

The ScotianAires received the highest score of the six competing choruses in the chorus contest  with their songs “This Could Be the Start of Something Big” and “What’ll I Do”.  ScotianAires director Sue Kember also won the Don Regan Memorial Trophy as the director of the chorus showing the most improved score from 2015.

Tonic!, which is made up of four ScotianAires members – Marion Fraser-Pritchard, Cathy Hunter, Adele Merritt and Mary Gareau – beat out eight other quartets to win both the first-place Wona Wright Memorial Award and the Karen Gordon Memorial Award, which went to the quartet with the highest presentation score. Their two contest songs were “Nevertheless” and “I Love Being Here With You.”

In addition to placing first in the chorus competition, the ScotianAires won an award for the greatest growth in membership over the past year.  Last fall, the chorus sponsored a program called “Find Your Voice”, which provided free singing lessons to women interested in trying out barbershop singing.

This was an amazing year for the ScotianAires and a wonderful experience for all the participants, both on and off the stage,” said ScotianAires director Sue Kember. “Our singers worked very hard throughout the year to get their performance to this level, and their commitment, dedication and talent really paid off.”

Both the ScotianAires and Tonic! will move on to compete against choruses and quartets from across North America at the International Convention and Contests (IC&C) in Providence, Rhode Island in November.