Janet Gilbert At the dress rehearsal for Sunday's Annual Concert of the Heart of Maryland Chorus, 40 men ranging in age from 14 to 79 suddenly break into what can best be described as a "vocal raspberry." The men's lips are pursed forward comically, vibrating a tone in perfect four-part harmony.
"That's bubbling," explains Riley Nichols, 14, a tenor from Hammond High School who will be performing in the show with his quartet, Chopper 4.
Kevin King, music director of the barbershop choral group since 1988, elaborates on the technique. "I learned it in college from one of my voice teachers. It reminds them to support the tone."
King, 49, illustrates by singing a phrase from "Silent Night," and it's lovely: on pitch, perfect rhythm, beautiful tone. He sings it again, and the phrase is instantly fuller and richer, not merely louder.
"You know how basketball players might wear weights on their ankles [when working out]?" King says. "When they take them off they feel like they can fly. It's all about muscle resistance."
These are the kinds of things that the members of the Patapsco Valley Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society put into practice at their weekly Tuesday night rehearsals in Catonsville.
"It's like a big group voice lesson," King said.
Ellicott City resident Tom Nisbet, 42, came to the group by chance. He happened to mention to a neighbor that he enjoyed singing barbershop in high school. The neighbor knew someone in the society, and the connection was made. Nisbet sings bass and belongs to a quartet called 3 Wise Men with tenor George Korch, 53; lead Jeff Whall, 52; and baritone Joe Chilcoat, 53.
Chilcoat explains the group's name: "We just counted how many [wise men] there were in the group."
"It's truth in advertising," Nisbet says.
Because Columbia resident Korch is traveling on business, the quartet recruited another wise guy for Sunday's show from the chorus, Cloverly Elementary School music teacher and tenor Kris Zinkievich, 41.
3 Wise Men has been singing together for about a year, and entered its first competition in June in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at the Western Division Contest of the Mid-Atlantic District.
"It's amazing how much we've learned singing in a quartet," Nisbet says. There are technique issues, such as simultaneously "turning the diphthong" or singing a vowel the same way to achieve a blend.
