Southern Accord offers parking lot harmony

By Dale Woodard on June 29, 2021.

Herald photo by Dale Woodard - Southern Accord Chorus members Nicola Wood (foreground) and Betty Baldwin sing a selection of songs at Car-bershop Saturday night at McNally Community Centre.

The audience was in park, but the harmonies were in overdrive Saturday night McNally Community Center.
Gearing up for their first performance in over a year after the COVID-19 pandemic put the brakes on 2020, the Southern Accord Chorus held a unique live event.
In this case, chairs were replaced by vehicles and the clapping of hands was swapped out for full-on horn honking as Southern Accord Chorus hosted Car-bershop – a barbershop style, four-part a cappella harmony in a drive-in format, following pandemic protocol of required distancing.
With rows of cars filled with appreciative music lovers, Southern Accord Chorus members also sat seated in their vehicles, fully mic ‘ed up and singing an hour-long set of tunes ranging from Hooked On A Feeling to Sweet Caroline as chorus’ director Jill Mcleod conducted the proceedings.
No matter what the format, Carol Quan, president of Southern Accord Chorus, said it was good to be back and singing live, even if it was hidden behind a windshield.
“Some time in 2019 was our last performance,” said Quan. “So this was really fun. This is a really unique thing for a big group to do. I think solo artists have a little more leeway, but for a big group to have some method of rehearsing and then be able to sing together and hear other, because we can’t really practise our music and sharpen those harmonies, until we could hear each other. So the FM transmitter was wonderful. It worked very well for us.”
Sweet Caroline even drew a little crowd participation with audience members honking their horns in time to the “bah, bah, bah” portion of the song.
And when each song finished, the horns appreciatively blared.
“It’s different, usually people are clapping,” said Quan. “But they were very enthusiastic, so that was great to have lots of friends and family at our concerts.
“That’s what we rehearse for. We rehearse every week. Even through all of COVID we would still get together at least once a week. But until you sing for an audience you don’t get that feedback and that thrill of sharing our music.”
Motorists attending the concert were asked to flip their radio dial to the 90.7 radio frequency with the FM transmitter connecting the audience and the performers.
“The parking of the cars was the real hard part because we all had to back into our spots and we really had to figure that out,” said Quan. “It took us seven weeks to figure out the best place for all the cars. We lucked out and were able to connect with Jason (Eveleigh) from Sonic Multimedia who worked so hard in setting up all the sound for us. We had seen another group who had done something kind of similar, but Jason figured out what he thought would work best for our group and was just phenomenal. The hours they spent, they would come at 5 p.m. on a rehearsal night and not be done until 10 p.m. for us to rehearse for about two-and-a-half hours. So it was a lot of work and a lot of technical expertise, but all came together for a really nice night tonight.”
With their performances shut down over the past year due to the pandemic, the Southern Accord Chorus turned to Zoom conferences for rehearsals.
“We were very steadfast about that, our director is very technically adept,” said Quan. “We would Zoom rehearse every Wednesday night, our usual rehearsal time. But it was challenging because we couldn’t hear each other. So we were practising music tapes. We have an advantage that all of our music is online, so it’s in parts. I could listen to my bass part and practise at home and then we could listen to a four-part (piece) when we were rehearsing.
“They say that people who have been practising on Zoom and listening to all those learning tracks actually sing more in tune after that. So maybe that will help us if we sing better after this long 15 months.”
Quan said the idea for Car-bershop came from a group in the States who were doing something similar.
She also saw a group called Luminous Voices from Calgary do a show in High River that was also along the same lines.
“They had 12 singers in their cars and they did a concert,” said Quan. “Once I saw what they could do, it just seemed like we could do this if we figure out the logistics and the cost. We had lots of support from the community and lots of very good sponsors for the concert. So we’re very fortunate to have that kind of support in Lethbridge.”
With COVID regulations lighting up, Southern Accord Chorus will next be performing July 17 as part of the Arts In The Park program the City of Lethbridge is sponsoring this summer. Their stage time is 3:30 p.m.
“That will be fun and it’ll be another step difference in the COVID program,” said Quan. “We need to make sure all of our chorus people are comfortable singing in whatever stage we’re at with all the COVID regulations. We’ll probably sing with mics because we’re used to that. We didn’t use to sing with mics. That will about the same music we did (Saturday), lots of fun and more chance for the public to come hear us.”

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