FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS CONTACT
Brian Lindvall
president@voicesofgotham.org
New York, NY, July 22, 2015 – The Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) announced on Friday, July 17, 2015 that Voices of Gotham Men’s A Cappella Chorus (VoG) has been awarded a BHS Outreach Grants Program - Innovation Grant, underwritten by Harmony Foundation, Inc. The award was given in support of VoG’s ongoing Arrangers’ Lab program, VoG’s resident studio of experienced and novice composers dedicated to the creation of new music in the barbershop harmony and contemporary a cappella styles.
In 2015, the Arrangers’ Lab program will provide its member composers training symposiums conducted by luminary barbershop arrangers. The Arrangers’ Lab will also present public performances of new scores developed for Voices of Gotham and its affiliated barbershop quartets at its events, including its annual Tin Pan Alley Barbershop Quartet Contest.
The BHS Outreach Grant Program received 34 applications for late 2015 funding, with 7 applicants for its Innovation Grant program.
The BHS Grants Program supports a wide variety of outreach activities that promote singing, including programs for seniors, adults, and youth; partnerships with other music organizations, education programs in schools, community-based choral initiatives, and programs for underserved populations. The BHS Outreach Grants Program Innovation Grant supports projects that provide innovative solutions to identified BHS priorities, including new member recruiting, coaching programs, BHS member inter-organization activities, performance events, and barbershop arrangements of modern songs.
As described on their website, the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) is the largest all-male singing organization in the world with nearly 30,000 members worldwide, and whose mission is celebrate the American musical tradition of barbershop harmony, promote fellowship among men of good will, provide new opportunities to experience the joy of four-part a cappella singing, and introduce and sustain music in the lives of people everywhere. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, the BHS is home to the Old Songs Library, the world’s largest privately held collection of sheet music, including 125,000 titles from the Tin Pan Alley period of American music from 1885 through 1929, the historical heydey of barbershop harmony.
The Barbershop Harmony Society’s 2015 Innovation Grant is supported with underwriting from Harmony Foundation, Inc., whose mission is to share and support singing as an extraordinary means of improving people’s lives.
ABOUT VOICES OF GOTHAM
Founded in 2008, The Hell's Kitchen, NY Chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote the rich American tradition of men's barbershop harmony. As a chapter of SPEBSQSA, a.k.a. the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS), we are part of a 25,000 member international organization that promotes barbershop as an art form, enriches lives through singing, and provides service to our communities. The chorus performs, competes, and does business as Voices of Gotham (VoG). VoG is ranked by the BHS as one of the top ten barbershop choruses worldwide. With over 80 members and growing, VoG is a dues-paying organization that includes high school and college students, professional actors and musicians, and men of all ages, socio-economic, and cultural backgrounds who enjoy raising their voices in song. Learn more about us at www.voicesofgotham.org.