The Pitch Pipe - October 2008 - (Page 27) quartet beat Our focus for this fieldtrip was just to sing and give people an opportunity to ask questions. We would stop wherever a few people were gathered and asked if they would like to hear a song. We didn’t hand out literature but offered a business card if they wanted more information. In many cities you need a permit for handouts and we just wanted to keep this simple and entertaining. Located just south of the art museum are the festival grounds where there is an annual lakefront fair called Summerfest which is listed by Guinness World Records as the largest music festival in the world. Summerfest attracts more than 1,000,000 visitors a year to its 12 stages. Summerfest spans 11 days at the end of June and beginning of July. Then there are Polish, French (Bastille Day), Greek, Italian and German festivals in July while African, Arabic, Irish, Mexican and American Indian festivals wrap it up from August through the first week of September. Our choruses, Harmoni-Q (now Milwaukee Showcase) and Crosstown Harmony had the pleasure of performing at Polish Fest and Italian Fest in the past. A new attraction was our next stop — Discovery World. This handson children’s science museum is a must see when you are in Milwaukee. It also features the Denis Sullivan, a replica of a three-masted, Great Lakes schooner, operated by Pier Wisconsin as an educational and scientific research ship. It offers many types of excursions including a two-hour trip during which you can participate in sailing the boat. We stopped to entertain the group waiting for the next sailing. We told them our mission was to enlighten and entertain. Since the group was now whining about how far we had walked and how the lead (that would be me) had lied, I suggested we head for Miller Valley. Maybe a brewery tour and a frosty glass of (root) beer would soothe their ruffled feathers. What a pleasant day. We came, we sang, we … oh, no, the brewery tour isn’t open on Sunday! JUKEBOX Goes Back to School JUKEBOX with Phil Buch, director of Choral Services, and other Wausau West High School Music Department staff. After hearing JUKEBOX perform in November 2007 on the Center Point Chorus’ show in Stevens Point, Wis., teacher Phil Buch rushed backstage after the show and invited the quartet to come to his school, Wausau West High School, in Wausau, Wis., to teach and share the barbershop style with his students. The five classes of high school girls and boys were incredibly well behaved, attentive, and talented. JUKEBOX sang for them, told them about four-part harmony barbershop style, demonstrated overtones, taught them a tag, and then asked each class to sing their own music for JUKEBOX. The bond between the students, Buch, and JUKEBOX was instant as they all share the love of music. Buch was especially excited because he knew that JUKEBOX would be a great model for his female students; he had only brought in men’s groups up until then. The students commented on what an unexpected and spectacular experience it was for them. They wrote about how overwhelmed they were by JUKEBOX’s glorious singing that day and realized that this would be a viable option to keep singing after high school and college. Submitted by Dawn Peters, JUKEBOX and Melodeers Chorus, Region 3 October 2008 27
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