Youth Harmony Music Festival set for Saturday

For the second consecutive year, the Mighty Oak Chorus and College of the Sequoias will host Visalia Youth Harmony Music Festival Saturday at College of the Sequoias.

The educational all-day event is open to any student, high school to college, free of charge. At the end of the day, a concert will be held for the public.

“We’re inviting the chorus singers from high schools throughout Tulare and Kings County area to learn and sing the latest craze — Acapella music, singing by harmonizing voices and without instruments.

“We have obtained a couple of quartets — Heavenly and The Crush — to come and coach,” said Bud Case, organizer of the event. “One group will work with the men and one with the ladies. Each group will learn two songs, and one song jointly — with arrangements for male and female performances.”

Last year, the workshop attracted 50 students — half of them female.

“That is why this year we arranged for a lady quartet group — Heavenly — to join us and work with the young ladies with their voicing,” Case said. “We needed the lady quartet because the arrangements need to be appropriate. I was surprised by the interest of the young ladies.”

The group is hoping to attract 100 students.

“Being a musician is not a requirement. They can have limited musical talent. This is a wonderful opportunity for them.”

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and is followed with the groups working on learning the music.

“Over the day they will rehearse and learn to perform,” Case said. “We’ll expose them to the training involved in acapella harmony, Barbershop style. We’ll record it too.”

All expenses are paid. The program is free to students and to music educators that attend with them.

“This is not a money making opportunity or venue,” he said. “This is an attempt to educate a young generation of a style of music we enjoyed as a hobby. We would like to see a piece of Americana music continue. This is one of the ways to attract students to it.”

At the end of the day, more than 50 high school students will perform acapella, Case said.

The “Show of Shows” will also feature a few numbers by Heavenly and The Crush — two award-winning quartets.

The Crush, from Southern California, is the 2010 Barbershop Harmony Society Far Western District Quartet Champions and the 2011 Barbershop Harmony Society International Finalists.

Heavenly, from Sacramento, placed third in the Sweet Adeline’s Regional Competition and second in the 2011 Sweet Adeline’s Rising Star International Competition.

Tickets for the evening performance, limited to an audience of 400 people, are $5 a person, children age 12 and younger, $2.50.

The show begins at 7 p.m. Saturday at the College of the Sequoias Theater, 915 S. Mooney, Visalia.

For more information, call Bud Case at 901-4615.

Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045. Follow her on Twitter @Avila_recorder.