Old School Quartet Blog

CINCINNATI

2009-06-27T00:00:00-07:00

CINCINNATI SCHOOL

Old School performed at the Greater Cincinnati harmony festival with Moxy Ladies.

(more to come)

CINCINNATI

2009-05-16T00:00:00-07:00

CHORUS: Southern Gateway Chorus

Old School was proud to be asked to sing on Southern Gateway's 54th annual spring show. There was a show and an afterglow Saturday night and a Sunday afternoon performance as well. It was a busy weekend for our lead Joe as he is the director of the chorus. Joe was pulling double duty all weekend but seemed to hold up great under the pressure!

(Saturday night show in Cincinnati)

Along with the chorus OS was thrilled to share the stage with The Roaring 20's quartet in which Joe's father Mike Connelly is the baritone. The 20's have been a very popular quartet for decades and have finished in the top 5 medalists at international many times.

Also on the show is a new quartet called Lucky Day. They just qualified and will be competing at the international in Anaheim this year. We had a great time with them and look forward to seeing them backstage in July. In this new quartet is tenor Roger Ross who won a gold medal with Joe in Keepsake and baritone Paul Gilman who won a gold medal with Joe and Kipp in the Interstate Rivals and also one with Marquis.

(Lucky Day on the show)

It was kind of a coming home feel as we had many friends and family there. Also, sitting in the front row for the afternoon performance was Jay and Kathy Hawkins. Jay sang bass and won with Joe, Kipp and Paul in the Rivals and won a second gold with Paul in Marquis.

Joe and Paul co-direct Southern Gateway they have the chorus singing VERY well! It was a great show and OS wishes Gateway all the best in Anaheim.....we'll be out there rooting for you! Thanks for the great hospitality guys!

(Singing Tomorrow is Promised in the parking lot Sunday after the show)

AKRON

2009-04-04T00:00:00-07:00

CHORUS: Derbytown Chorus

Old School was thrilled to have the chance to share the stage with the Happiness Emporium, 1975 International Champions. We hold this quartet in very high regard. Proving their championship quality by maintaining musical excellence for over 3 decades and being absolute champions OFF stage as well which is a credit to each of them.

(Old School and Happiness Emporium)

The shows were Friday and Saturday night. For the second week in a row Joe's luggage did not join him at his destination. This time however, it did NOT make it to him until 2am so for the Friday night show, we sang in our street clothes. That actually almost prompted a riot as Akron is very close to Cleveland so there are a lot of Indians fans there. The Indians and the Yankees are a HUGE rivalry. So, as we stepped on stage, Jack made sure to point out his Yankees sweatshirt and poked a little fun at the Indians. It was all in good fun!

(Friday night show...no luggage)

After the Saturday show we were fortunate to meet Gary Ward son of Scotty Ward from the Buffalo Bills!

(OS and Gary Ward son of Scotty Ward from the Buffalo Bills)

Since Akron was within a 5 hour drive, Kipp brought his wife Kim and their kids Kila and Keegan. It was a fun afternoon at the pool and hot tub before the Saturday night show. The kids each sang a tag. Keegan did his favorite, Run To The City Of Refuge and sang it WITH the Happiness Emporium who were the ones to make it famous. IN fact, it was arranged by Bob Dowma who is the SUPER tenor in the HE.

On Sunday OS went to "Big D" Darryl Flinn's house for a 3-4 hour session. D was the master as usual bringing out the best in us vocally AND from a presentation stand point. It was great to get "contest ready" with D as we will be competing May 2 in the prelims to try and qualify for the international in July in Anaheim. Thanks to D and his lovely wife Meredith for their hospitality!!!

(OS and Big D Flinn)