Artist Spotlight - Northern Blend Chorus
This month’s Artist Spotlight, Northern Blend Chorus, is an all female-identifying singing group that is currently recognized as Harmony, Inc.’s first place International Champion Chorus. The chorus, which joined Harmony, Inc. in 1985, is composed of members ranging in age from 12 to 88 coming from as close as Watertown, NY to as far away as Montreal, Canada and Ithaca, NY. Members also span many musical backgrounds from current music teachers, such as director Katie Taylor, to those who perform as a hobby and learn music by ear.
Our president, Joe Foy, sat down with youth member, Emily Massa, as well as the four members of the quartet, Lip Service: Ali James (tenor), Teralee Lashway, Jodi Castello (lead), and Mary Ann Wert. Lip Service started as a quartet of Northern Blend members in 2016 and has gone through a few interactions. At competitions, these four have ranked 3rd place twice. Both the chorus and Lip Service are 100% a capella, but members of the quartet commented how having only four members means that you can no longer hide behind anyone. Your part, whether that be tenor, lead, baritone, or alto is going to stand out. Jodi noted that female choir and quartet parts are different from choruses that contain male-identifying individuals, as many may be more familiar with the SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) parts, with soprano being the highest and bass being the lowest. With Northern Blend and Lip Service, bass is still the lowest, but tenor acts as the high “icing on the cake” and the lead gets to sing the melody.
The repertoire for Northern Blend is chosen by the music team which is composed of the director and section leaders, such as Jodi and Mary Ann. The team will often use YouTube as a resource for selecting preferred arrangements for traditional and modern songs. Some more modern songs in their repertoire include a selection from the musical, Dear Evan Hansen, as well as the movie musical, The Greatest Showman (as heard in the interview below).
Teralee commented that being a part of Northern Blend is like being a part of a family, and they are always looking for new family members. All you need to do is show up to their rehearsals which are Mondays starting at 7 PM at Stone Presbyterian Church in Watertown. The chorus does their best to accommodate members of all musical levels and members who may need to travel longer distances for rehearsals. Tracks of each part are available on the cloud for members to sing along to and rehearsals are always live streamed.
Emily, who is a kindergarten teacher that holds two bachelor's degrees from SUNY Potsdam, one in psychology, specializing in neuroscience, and one in history, specializing in indigenous woman’s medicine, said that the chorus provides her with “food and fuel for [her] brain” now that she is no longer regularly attending symposiums. Jodi mentioned that “we don’t always know, as adults, how to find something to do.” She was fortunate that one of her colleagues led her to Northern Blend where she could meet other members of the community that shared a passion for singing.
So if you identify as female and are looking to sing, Ali recommends that you “step outside of your comfort zone” and attend a Monday night rehearsal. One rehearsal doesn’t make you committed but, as Mary Ann said, you’re sure to be “bitten by the barbershop bug [and] you will never be the same.”
Watch the video below to see the whole interview and find out more about Northern Blend Chorus!
