Barbershop Cool Submitted by Lezah

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Well, it turns out that Vancouver is the home of the world champion barbershop quartet, Realtime.

Yes indeedy, on July 9, 52 quartets from all over North America (as well as England and Sweden) converged on Salt Lake City for the annual Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQA) convention.

The winning quartet is comprised of 34-year old Tom Metzger (Yaletown software company executive by day, barbershop singer by night), his brother Mark, Tim Broersma (who hails from just over the border in Bellingham, Washington), and Australian ex-pat John Newall.

This group doesn’t just sing for the pleasure of it: they usually do about one paid gig a month, and have appeared all over North America. They have also sung in Finland and are booked for a gig in Russia in 2007; their CD, Four Brothers, has already sold about 10,000 copies.

Believe it or not, barbershop singing is very popular, and there are about 40 different chapters of male and female – called Sweet Adelines – singing groups in the Lower Mainland. In fact, last fall a local female group called Brava won the world female championships.

For more information, contact www.singers.com/barbershop/real-time.html