2002 Spring Contest

When the curtain closed there was no doubt in anybody's mind... The South Cook Singing Men of Note, under the direction of Bob Tuohy, were the Spring Chorus Champions. Dick Yano, director of the North Shore Chapter remarked that "When you guys [Singing Men of Note] sang the first chord I knew that this was the winning performance." The chords were there, the faces were there, the attitude was there and the involvement was there. South Cook bettered the nearest competitor by 58 points, achieving a total of 766 points.

The chorus started with their rendition of When You and I Were Young, Maggie, a heartfelt story of a man who, just after the civil war, peers over one of the battle fields seeing destruction of the lands where he and his wife had taken loving walks earlier in their lives. The song is filled with happy remembrances as well as anger for what the war had done to their lives, and ending up with the thought that they would remember the best of times.
	The chorus then performed Give My Regards to Broadway, a rousing, quickly paced up-tune portraying the hope of an immigrant hoping one day to be part of the Great White Way. The song was filled with stage presence moves assisting the audience in getting involved in the song and its message.. When done, the house was filled with deafening applause. And when the curtain closed, the chorus members celebrated in mime celebratory activity - they had done what they came to do, and that is to give the best performance they could.
Using standards of the previous year's fall contest points, the scoring by the Singing Men of Note would place them solidly into the top 10 positions in the district, which will be their aim this coming fall. Director Bob Tuohy thanked each member individually for their effort in the performance, but is, by no means, resting on his laurels. He is already in the process of preparing for the task ahead - to keep the Singing Men of Note in the fall competitions. .

In other convention weekend action, Three quartets from the chapter entertained at the Illinois district Jamboree on Saturday morning. The Convertibles, as last year's jamboree winners, started off the festivities performing some of their Do-Wap type harmonies. Old Shep and His Irish Pups then put on a performance which entertained all, peaking with the same hat doesn't fit everyone routine. Last of the chapter quartets to perform was Without A Prayer, a brand new quartet, having only practiced 2 weeks for the festivity. They finished forth in the judging with their rendition of a set of four priests up to a little mischief (Picture Right).
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