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7/31/2006
Dear Friends and Family,
After
a wonderfully rewarding 10 year stretch of spreading harmony in the Barbershop style,
the 1997 Mid Atlantic District Championship quartet, Premiere, has
decided to retire. We hope to sing on the Wildwood, NJ, Mid-Atlantic District Championship Jamboree on October 7th. During our retirement performance we will be
thinking of all of you, our friends, families, MAD
and International quartet compatriots, home chapters, show chapters, amazing
coaches (most recently the incomparable team of Cindy Hansen, Greg Lyne, Freddie King, and Rick & Sue Taylor), fans,
judges, and all the wonderfully appreciative audiences for whom we have
performed over the last decade. We are indebted to each of you for your
constant support and kindness, the enduring friendships, the avid competition, the
laughter late into the night, the excellence of your guidance, the thrill of
your applause, the cheesecake, the ringing of so many chords together with you
on the glows and shows. Of course, we do not know what the future holds
for our individual quarteting experiences, but this time has been truly
singular in our lives in the affection and encouragement you have so freely
given each of us and the joy of singing we have shared together.
For
those of you who have gotten to know Premiere just recently, we’d like
to share with you some history of the quartet:
Premiere formed in January 1996 at the home of Dennis Malone,
our founding baritone. Denny had won the SPEBSQSA International Quartet
Championship in 1983 with the incredible Side Street Ramblers. He also sang with Fred Womer in The Bingo
Brothers earning the 1994 MAD
Quartet Championship and finishing 10th at International that year.
After three years with Premiere winning the 1997 MAD Quartet Championship and placing as high as 13th
in International, Denny and his family hastily decided to move to the Denver area just to get
away from the rest of us. He now refuses to sing baritone and, more importantly,
still owes us $20 each for bad bets on the Cowboys.
While
replacing Dennis was a daunting task (“I’m Malone Because I Love You”), we asked
our coach and long time mentor, Freddie King, baritone of the 1970
International Quartet Champs, the incomparable The Oriole Four, and past MAD
Champ and top 10 International quartet The Pro’s and Con’s, to step into
Denny’s spot. Though “The King” had big shoes to fill, well, you know the
rest.
As
all of you can imagine we had a grand time with “Shoes,” as Fred King is affectionately
known by many, watching him make people laugh and cry at the same time with his
classic teeth routine and frog stories, and enjoying rare quite moments during
rehearsal where The King would share his appreciation of the Champs of years
past. With Shoes on baritone, the quartet headed to International three
more times. Here are the incredible stats: Shoes’ top 20 finish in 1999 and
International performances in 2000 and 2001 put The King in the top 20 for five
decades, and marked Freddie’s sixth decade (and fourth millennium) on the
International quartet competition stage, respectively, and this doesn’t even
include his time in his great senior quartet, SAGE. What an honor and privilege
it was to join with Fred in the making of history and afterwards to see Shoes
eat beans. With a heavy adenoid, The
King stepped down from the quartet in 2001, yet another victim of too much time
in confined spaces with Fred Womers’ footwear.
Following
on the heels of competitive and musical giants like Malone and King, any baritone
would be shaking in his shoes. Paul Grimes, a long time friend of the
quartet, was sufficiently naïve to join the revolving baritone parade and share
his polished musical and vocal talents with us. Paul had many years of barbershopping
experience in the Evergreen District and more recently with MAD favorites such as Coast to Coast, King’s
Ransom, and Inferno. After Premiere’s competition
hiatus in ’02 and ’03 (and, geez, did that
surgery hurt), Paul earned Premiere a berth in three more Internationals
marking his first experiences on the big stage, most recently distinguishing
himself in ’06 for best baritone execution of onomatopoeia.
It’s
been a particular honor to represent the great MAD
and our incredible home chapters of Alexandria, VA, Dundalk, MD, Centreville, VA, Baltimore, MD, Harrisburg,
PA, and Gondwana,
ER. We cannot thank you enough for teaching us the craft, for coaching us
with patience, and encouraging us in so many ways. The MAD has been an incredible source of learning, and
we’d like to say a special thanks to Ron Knickerbocker for so many great quartet
experiences at MAD Top Gun schools
and Harmony College East.
Many
of us know the thrill of ringing one in a cinderblock stairway where a massive
dominant seventh chord echoes forever. Fewer of us have been given the
joy of having an audience rise to their feet in appreciation of a heartfelt Sonny
Boy or Auld Lang Syne. We will
always be thankful for each of you. Your
love and applause will remain in our hearts and memories for a lifetime.
You’re Friends in Harmony,
Fred Womer, Rick Savage, Paul
Grimes, and Bill Clark
Premiere
P.S. In case you’re not bored
yet, Premiere’s recent quartet bio is
included below to cure your insomnia. Though
it’s a bit redundant, we hope it gives you a 40 winks and a smile.
________
Premiere’s four singers have over
90 years of SPEBSQSA membership. That’s a boatload of skimmers, white
patent leather shoes, and orange ruffled tux shirts in the closet.
A
perennial quarter- and semifinalist in International quartet competition and
the 1997 MAD Quartet Champion, Premiere has placed as high as 13th
(1997 in Indy), which is great since we strongly prefer prime numbers.
This year we were aiming to place 1597th, our favorite Fibonacci
prime as it also commemorates the year Bali
was discovered. Regretfully for our coaching team, we came fairly
close.
Fred
Womer, lead
Our
lead and the most youthful member of the quartet, Fred, has been barbershopping
since 1987 (and he has the credit card receipts to prove it). He is a
two-time winner of the Mid Atlantic District Quartet Championship title with The
Bingo Brothers (a quartet name chosen only narrowly over the more
politically correct The Tiddly Winks Siblings)
and later with Premiere. In 2005, Fred married a professional
optometrist – she had to be an eternal optometrist to marry Fred. (You
saw that one coming, right?) He is
currently a full time college student earning a degree in computer
networking, whatever that is. If you suspect Fred is odd (and you'd be
right), just ask him how, at the age of 7, he dealt with a lounge singer
who'd refused to sing Copacabana.
Rick
Savage, tenor
Rick
came to the quartet from a long line (like that at the DMV) of Mid-Atlantic
quartets, most recently Surround Sound and International Semifinalist Copyright
'86. The perennially best dressed member of the quartet and proud
grandfather of two, he continues to perform in the front row of the Alexandria
Harmonizers, a position he took over from Millard Fillmore. Rick now sings
tenor as a result of a tragic luge-sharpening
accident. For a while there, Rick’s vocal skills could only be
appreciated by canines, ungulates, and cetacea.
Though Rick is suitably patient with lounge singers with gaps in their Manilow repertoire, do not wear white after Labor Day unless
you’re willing to risk his ire. Discuss.
Bill
Clark, bass
Several
years after becoming hooked on barbershop in college singing with the Boston Gentlemen quartet, Bill began his
Society barbershop chorus and quartet career in the Meriden, CT chapter
and with Chordial Invitation.
Once exiled from Connecticut
after run-ins with a state trooper and a weasel (probably a baritone), he
covertly joined the Alexandria Harmonizers and sang together with Rick in Surround
Sound. The proud father of two young sons, Bill is near fluent in Barney-speak
and often quotes Dr. Seuss. As a biotechnology R&D manager in New Jersey, he spends
most of his time trying to discover something. Anything.
Really.
Paul
Grimes, baritone
Originally
from Oregon, and sometimes still from Oregon, Paul began his
musical career as a cellist (i.e., while playing a large stringed
instrument, he was confined to the cellar). After Paul joined the Society
in 1984 as a lead, his chorus director quickly realized that Paul had an ear
for the baritone part, and he hasn't been normal since. The chorus
director, that is. Paul’s MAD
quarteting history includes several MAD
favorites such as Coast to Coast, King’s Ransom, and Inferno. Good
thing Premiere already had a quartet
name before Paul joined us. A computer network
project manager (whatever that is), Paul counts four beagles as part of his
nuclear family, all of whom somehow put up with his latest musical excursion,
the bagpipes. Yes, seriously.
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