Brian Lindvall
President, Voices of Gotham
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By Brian Lindvall
Voices of Gotham President 2014 & 2015
To all of our incredible friends and family: Thank you for making 2014 an unbelievable year for Voices of Gotham!
2014 saw a series of major “firsts” for our growing chorus: Our first appearance at Carnegie Hall (alongside the phenomenal women of Ronninge Show Chorus), the production and release of our first album (available physically and digitally), the launch of our new website, and our receipt of a grant from the New York City Cultural Development Fund! We also wrapped up an ambitious fundraising project which—thanks to your generosity—raised over 20% past its goal. Perhaps the most immediately apparent “first” is our matching uniforms; for the first time in our history, we are now all sporting the same suit. If you would like to contribute to our organization financially this year, we welcome your assistance! Visit our fundraising page here.
The year also saw the successful continuation of several Voices of Gotham traditions: our 4th annual Tin Pan Alley Novice Quartet Competition, an extremely well-attended series of Guest Nights, a spring show with sister chorus Sirens of Gotham and featured guests FRED and GQ, our highest-ever participation at the International Convention in Las Vegas, and a record number of competing quartets representing Voices of Gotham at our annual District competition.
One of the unifying themes for Voices of Gotham this year has been our desire to become a resource for the Barbershop Harmony Society, and we are proud to have taken several great strides toward that goal. We provided several online articles designed to assist other choruses, and were honored to participate in a Society-wide panel (“Successful Stories from Successful Chapters”) in Las Vegas and to lead a seminar (“Strategies for Success”) detailing a selection of best practices in Social Media, Branding and Marketing, Membership, and strategic planning. One of our members, Doug Brown, was even elected to the International Society Board.
This year also saw the departure of our founding director Larry Bomback, now in Philadelphia with his wife and daughter—and leading a brand new chorus! Larry has left behind an extremely strong organization with incredible potential. Throughout this leadership transition, Eric Engelhardt and our extremely talented Music Team expertly managed the artistic development of our chorus, while Braden Lynk led a Director Search Committee to help secure a new Director for our chorus. The warmest of welcomes to our new Director Bill Stauffer, who will guide VoG to ever-greater heights in 2015 and beyond!
An especially hearty thank you to 2014’s Board of Directors for their tremendous leadership throughout the year. Their contributions have been innumerable and their guidance transformational to our chorus. I have been so fortunate to work with this group of men throughout the year and look forward to their continued leadership in years beyond.
To a healthy and harmonious 2015!
Brian Lindvall
President, Voices of Gotham