San Diego County Youth Barbershop Chorus

The Barbershop Harmony Society hosts an International Youth Barbershop Chorus Festival (IYBCF) at its Mid-winter Convention in January each year. (See trailer.) The next competition will be in Tucson, AZ, on January 21, 2012. This flyer describes the festival. Our Youth Chorus, Pacific Suns, attended the 2011 contest. We will continue to rehearse and perform around the county this year to sustain the chorus and build our repertoire. We will announce plans here about application and rehearsals.

The International Youth Barbershop Chorus Festival is open to male choruses of 12 or more singers. The average age of the chorus must be 25 years old or less, with no singers over the age of 30. Membership in the Barbershop Harmony Society is not a requirement for any competitor or director. 

Each chorus is adjudicated on three songs.  Two of the three songs must be contestable by Barbershop Harmony Society contest standards.  The third selection can be any song sung a cappella with any number of voice parts. It may be in a foreign language, and vocal percussion is permitted.

Choruses can represent a high school or university, as well as be a combination of high school, collegiate or other singers meeting the age requirement. We have gathered a group of young men from several high schools, plus some under-31 adults who love to sing to form Pacific Suns Youth Barbershop Chorus.

We have adopted the name Pacific Suns as a recognition of our location and three barbershop choruses in the county with these words in their name. The implication that they are our "sons" is also intentional. The above logo reflects the prospects for a bright future, as does one of our repertoire songs, It's A Brand New Day, a fitting theme song.

On January 28-30, 2011, we attended the 4th Annual IYBCF in Las Vegas, NV. It was a wonderful bus ride up and back, with singing and videos playing each way. We had 20 singers on stage, singing It's A Brand New Day; Wait 'Til The Sun Shines, Nellie; and Crazy Little Thing Called Love. The chorus sounded good and relaxed further into the experience with each song. The chorus was directed by Allan Webb, a member of the La Jolla chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

Please note: The schedule of rehearsals is:

Due to school budget issues, teacher re-assignment and other factors, we have not continued to rehearse. Next rehearsal will be held at Zion Avenue Community Church, 4880 Zion Ave., San Diego,
on TBD after the Tucson contest. We will be picking new songs, working on current songs, and discussing plans to recruit more members.

Michael Maury, the baritone of Evolution, a men's a cappella group, has joined the staff, so we will be doing barbershop and contemporary a cappella.

You are welcome to come to rehearsals and learn what it's all about. We will be learning new songs for continuing activities of San Diego County's Youth Barbershop Chorus. Come sign up, sing along, meet singers from all over San Diego.

Tentative dates for future performances are:
TBD

Parents of high school students are welcome to attend and find out the goals of the program.

You are encouraged to spend some familiarization time on the songs, which are available below.

If you are under 18, you MUST have the following form filled out by your parents. Bring it to your first rehearsal or mail it to
Paul Girard
6632 Belle Haven Dr.
San Diego, CA 92120.
SDCYBC Parental Consent

Get your sheet music and learning tracks.
For a password to the music and learning tracks contact the Youth Chorus Manager .

For International Youth Chorus information visit the Barbershop Harmony Society's YC page.