A Cappella Workshop
We just wrapped up this year’s A Cappella Workshop in San Antonio with director Madison Shortes and Cosmic – our 2023 International Rising Star Champion Quartet. Visit our Facebook Page to see photos and clips from the event, and we look forward to seeing you again next year! Past workshops have taken place in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and New Orleans — we carefully consider venues and locations each year. If you would like to be added to a notification list for our future events, please contact our Regional Youth Coordinator and/or follow our social media accounts linked at the bottom of this page.
Youth Quartet Contest
Quartet Competitions are a great way to challenge young singers to hone their individual vocal skills while navigating complex a cappella harmonies in this exhilarating team sport. Each member is solely responsible for their voice part, which results in higher development of personal accountability within the group. Four voices come together to create a dynamic and unified sound.
Great Gulf Coast Region 10 hosted a Young Women in Harmony competition every year from 2002-2019, but circumstances out of our control created a break beginning in 2020. After a few years rebuilding our program, we have relaunched our youth quartet contest!
Congratulations to our 2024 Region 10 Youth Champion Quartet: INTERSTELLAR!
Competition History
Cosmic
International Rising Star Champions – 2023
Catrina Tulowiecki (Bari), Madison Padgett (Bass), Holli Houtz (Lead), Cheyenne Gonzalez (Tenor)
Current International Rising Star Champion Quartet – Cosmic – is comprised of music teachers with a passion for vocal youth education. In addition to their choral directing experience, they have over a decade of collective years in competitive quartets and hold memberships in 5 different barbershop chapters, including A Cappella Unlimited, Metro Nashville, Motor City Blend, Sound by Southwest, and MI-X!
Interstellar
R10 Youth Champion Quartet – 2024
Elizabeth Castillo (Bari), Steely Bastian (Bass), Anabel Bordelon (Lead), Mia Benavides (Tenor)
Interstellar will be representing Region 10 at the 2024 International Sweet Adelines Rising Star Contest in Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 26, 2024! In 2023, three of the members competed at Rising Star under the name Supernova, earning the Stars to Watch award! These talented young singers were introduced to barbershop by their Cedar Creek High School choir director, Madison Shortes (of Cosmic Quartet).
Fermata Nowhere
R10 Youth Champion Quartet – 2019
Reya Mosby (Tenor), Bella Ontiveroz (Bass), Savannah DeCrow (Lead), Blythe McGinnis (Bari)
Fermata Nowhere began as a group of friends who reunited with their middle school choir director to pursue a newfound passion for barbershop! Having been introduced to barbershop a few years earlier by The Ladies’ baritone Kim Newcomb, (the assistant choir director for their middle school from 2014-2016), these girls quickly fell in love with singing tags and ringing chords. Since winning the Youth Champion Quartet title, the quartet has taken a step back from barbershop to focus on collegiate endeavors, but they will forever cherish the memories they made singing together within SAI!
Saving Grace
R10 Youth Champion Quartet – 2012, 2013, 2018; 2022 & 2023 R10 Champion Quartet
Kieley Morales (Bari), Marisa Garza (Bass), Andrea Walker (Lead), Elise Zufall (Tenor)
Saving Grace began as a barbershop experiment in 2011 as “Grace Notes” with four girls who grew up in the Texas Children’s Choir. They’ve come a long way since then! Champions of the Region 10 Youth Quartet contest in 2012, 2013, and 2018, these fine young ladies competed at the Sweet Adelines International Rising Star contests in 2012 (Denver CO) where they received the “Stars to Watch” award, again in 2013 (Lowell MA) placing 3rd, and in 2018 (Tulsa OK) where they placed 2nd! Since they graduated from the Youth Division, there have been some personnel changes, but we’ve kept the final youth formation here for historical memory.
The Belle Tones
2017 R10 Youth Champion Quartet, 2017 R10 Novice Winner; 2018 R10 6th Place Quartet
Chloe Storm (Bari), Abigail Storm (Bass), Emma Morelli (Lead), Alyssa Morrow (Tenor)
The Belle Tones discovered Sweet Adelines on Youtube through videos of GQ (International Rising Star Champions). Their 8th grade choir teacher prepared them with a GQ Medley for the 2016 Capital City Show Choir Competition in Austin, Texas and their video went viral with the GQ fanbase on social media. Since then, they’ve taken 1st Place in the Region 10 Youth Quartet Contest in 2016, 7th in Region 10’s Regional Quartet Competition in 2017, 6th in the same competition in 2018, and 6th in the 2018 International Rising Star Quartet Competition in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they won the “Stars to Watch” award.
The Ladies
2016 Region 10 Youth Champion, 2016 International Rising Star Champion,
2018 Region 10 Quartet Champion, 2023 International Quartet Champion
Kimberly Newcomb (Bari), Caroline Hunt (Lead), Ashley Rohovit (Bass), Quincie Snook (Tenor)
The Ladies won the Region 10 Youth Quartet Contest on January 16, 2016 in their debut performance. They went on to win the International Rising Star Quartet Competition on July 13, 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand! In March 2018, The Ladies became the Great Gulf Coast Region 10 Quartet Champions, setting a record score for their home region. The Ladies have taught all around the country at various a cappella and barbershop camps, and entertained audiences around the globe. The Ladies most recently placed 6th at the 2022 Barbershop Harmony Society international quartet competition, and later the same year won the Sweet Adelines International quartet competition, making them the 2023 Queens of Harmony. As music educators and long time barbershoppers with 53 years of combined barbershop singing experience, they have enjoyed spreading the love of harmony with musicians of all ages, and look forward to continuing to do so in the years to come!
A Cappella Workshop Highlights
In June of 2024, a brilliant bunch of young singers joined us for a one-day a cappella workshop in San Antonio with director Madison Shortes and Cosmic – our 2023 International Rising Star Champion Quartet! The girls worked on vocal skills, enjoyed sectionals led by the members of Cosmic, and performed for our barbershop audience at the end of the day.
A talented group of young singers met in Houston at our 2023 “Let’s Sing Again” Summer Meeting for a one day a cappella workshop with Queen Caroline! Youth Coordinator Laura DeGraw and International Queen of Harmony Caroline Hunt planned the Saturday workshop for singers up to age 25. Together with the help of an incredible teaching team (including Katy Dane and Saving Grace Quartet), the youth chorus learned and performed 2 songs for our Summer Regional Meeting! It is never too early (or late) to introduce a new singer to a cappella harmony!
Our LOVE YOUR VOICE workshop was an awesome event at our 2019 Summer Regional weekend with The Ladies! Our Young Women In Harmony Chorus performed under the direction of Caroline Hunt, followed by our Young at Heart Womens’ Chorus (Region 10 Members) under the direction of Kim Newcomb, and finally the combined choruses together. Our youth participants got an opportunity to sing in a chorus of mixed generations, 85 strong! It was awesome. The Ladies spent quality time at Summer Regional with our youth participants, working on vocal skills, confidence, stage presence, and choreography. What a fabulous experience!
We have had some incredible youth workshops in Region 10. The youth program welcomes young singers (under the age of 26) to join in and experience the joy of singing four part barbershop harmony with us! In addition to our Regional workshops and competitions, we launched an annual youth chorus workshop in 2016, and the ensemble pops up at our regional events each year as an outlet for our youngest members and an opportunity for young singers in our community. Our youth chorus was invited to participate in the 2017 Midwinter Youth Chorus Festival of the Barbershop Harmony Society, and 20 young girls under the chorus name “Southern Belles” traveled to San Antonio, Texas with Katy Dane (Director) and Laura DeGraw (Youth Coordinator) in January 2017. Their performance earned them a rating of “Excellent” from the Midwinter judging panel, and an experience they will never forget.
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