Life In Harmony

Last Saturday, our daughter Amy spent the day at Westminster College. She spent the day participating in the Utah Youth In Harmony Festival (UYIHF) workshop. This is an annual event put on by local Barbershop Harmony groups to introduce Barbershop singing to Jr. and Senior High School students in the Salt Lake Valley.

The sponsors were the Beehive Statesmen, and the Mountain Jubilee Chorus. Both of these groups are affiliated with the Barbershop Harmony Society. These two fine groups volunteered their time, and committed their resources to benefit the youth who participated. We are so grateful to them for giving of themselves to our children.

Amy had a great time. She is already excited about coming back to the festival next year.

There was a program in the evening, which we attended. There were a couple of numbers from a quartet from the Beehive Statesmen, and a couple of numbers from the Mountain Jubilee Chorus as well. A quartet from the Mountain Jubiliee Chorus, called Bounce also performed. They all did a great job. They were so good, that I wanted to sing right along with them.

Amy got to learn a couple of numbers, that she performed along with the other girls who attended. The boys who attended the festival also got to learn and perform a couple of songs as well. Finally both youth, and some of the adults all got to perform some numbers together, which were really fun to see and hear as well.

Amy participates in the Concert Choir at her Jr. High School. Amy does very well in all of her classes, but she likes Choir the best. I attribute Amy's love of choir to her teacher.

Her teacher, Ms. Nudd, was able to recruit more than 50 of her students to participate in the festival. She was so good about organizing everything. She had carpools from their school, to transport the kids to Westminster College, and stayed there all day to be there as a support for her students, and to help out with the program as well. Since Ms. Nudd had the most students of any school in the Salt Lake Valley in attendance at the festival, she won a cash prize, to help pay for the music department costs at her school. Way to go Ms. Nudd!

We had such a great time at the concert. The music filled my heart and soul with such joy. It made me realize how much I miss having singing in my life. I wanted to get down on stage and sing along with them.

I checked out the website of the Beehive Statesmen. They have open rehearsals on Wednesday nights. I'm tempted to pay them a visit sometime. If nothing more, maybe I can volunteer to help out with the Utah Youth in Harmony Festival next year.