Vocal Majority (VM) is a Dallas, Texas-based men's chorus of over 150 singers, who bill themselves with the tagline "Pure Harmony." The VM got its start when founder and first Marketing Director, Bob Arnold, gathered together 12 singers in December of 1971; it has since grown to over 150 members. VM is the performing chorus of the Dallas Metro chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS). Vocal Majority has won thirteen International Chorus Championships, a Barbershop Harmony Society record. The first eleven gold medals (1975, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006) were earned under the direction of Jim Clancy, who retired from International competition after 2010. The most recent championships, in 2014 and 2018, came under the direction of Jim's son Greg Clancy, the current Musical Director of VM.
Vocal Majority has released over twenty recordings and has traveled extensively domestically and internationally. Most recently, in May 2015, VM was the featured guest performers at The British Association of Barbershop Singers (BABS) Convention in Llandudno, Wales.
Several members of Vocal Majority have also won the International Quartet Championship with the quartets Max Q, Acoustix, Side Street Ramblers, Dealer's Choice, Rural Route 4, Rapscallions and Old School. In July 2017, VM vocal coach and member Tony DeRosa, who performed with the group in their 2014 International championship performance, won his fourth Quartet Championship, this time with Main Street quartet.
Vocal Majority, Jim Clancy, and Greg Clancy have all been inducted into he BHS Southwestern District's Hall of Fame.
Competition
Barbershop Harmony Society contest rules do not permit any chorus to compete again for two years after winning an International Chorus Championship, so no chorus can win twice less than three years apart.[1] As seen in the list of championship years, Vocal Majority had one four-year span between wins, from 1975 to 1979, coming in second place to the Thoroughbreds in 1978. After that, they proceeded to win the gold at every International competition in which they competed for over 30 years, until 2009, when the Ambassadors of Harmony won the gold medal. In July 2010, Vocal Majority again earned a silver medal at the International Chorus Championship in Philadelphia. Clancy announced prior to the 2010 competition that it would be his last as director.[2] Jim Clancy continues as the Executive Director and principal arranger for the chorus.
Vocal Majority did not compete again at the International level until the 2014 competition, held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Because of past alternate-year competitions, the 2014 competition also marked the first time that Vocal Majority competed directly against eight-time champion chorus the Masters of Harmony of Santa Fe Springs, California. VM earned a composite 96.8% score from the 15-member panel of judges and took home their first gold medal since 2006, their twelfth overall.[3]
Vocal Majority's most recent competition was in July 2018 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. VM scored 2912 out of a possible 3000 points, a 97.1% score, and topped the Westminster Chorus by 42 points.[4] This was VM's thirteenth gold medal overall.
In July 2019, Vocal Majority performed at the BHS Convention in Salt Lake City as outgoing champions. Following the convention, VM performed once again with the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square (formerly the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) on their live worldwide television broadcast, Music & the Spoken Word.
In October, 2000, Clancy was honored by the Barbershop Harmony Society Southwestern District when a new trophy was unveiled and named in his honor as the Jim Clancy Chorus Champion Award.
Clancy served as the principal arranger and executive producer of the chorus' latest audio recordings, Freedom's Song, Love Songs By Request, VM X and The Vocal Majority With Strings– Volume II.
In November 2013, Greg Clancy, Jim Clancy's son, was named Musical Director of Vocal Majority. Greg joined Vocal Majority at the age of twelve, and literally grew up studying under the direction of his father.
Greg's accomplishments in the a cappella world are numerous. Greg currently holds the Barbershop Harmony Society's record for total number of gold medals won– 13 chorus gold medals (with VM) and one quartet gold (with Max Q). Greg sang tenor with Class of the 80's, Gatsby and Dealer's Choice and currently sings in Max Q, the 2007 BHS International Quartet Champion. Greg has coached several award-winning barbershop choruses, including Ambassadors of Harmony, Masters of Harmony, Toronto Northern Lights and Chicago's Northbrook Chorus.
Greg's vocation also revolves around music. He has been a first-call studio vocalist in North Texas' thriving jingle industry for over 25 years. He recently was promoted to GM/VP Creative at TM Studios, the world's preeminent radio music production house. At TM, a division of WestwoodOne, Greg composes imaging music for stations around the country, including KABC in Los Angeles, WMAL in Washington, D.C. and WLS in Chicago. Locally, Greg's music is heard branding stations KVIL, KRLD, KLUV and others. He has also composed many local retail jingle campaigns for area businesses. Greg also sings in and produces most of the vocal sessions taking place at TM and has produced/co-produced many of the Vocal Majority's audio recordings including The Music Never Ends, How Sweet The Sound, You Raise Me Up, Believe, and The Jim Clancy Collection.
What the World Needs Now is Love (VM Music Company; CD;2022)
We Wish You a Merry Christmas (VM Music Company; CD;2023)
Written history: Arnold, Bob (December 8, 2017). The Gold Medal Standard: Exploring The Power of Music and the Legacy of The Vocal Majority Chorus. ASINB07864L3R1.
The Barbershop Harmony Society, legally and historically named the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), is the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbershop music as an art form. Founded by Owen C. Cash and Rupert I. Hall in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1938, the organization quickly grew, promoting barbershop harmony among men of all ages. As of 2014, just under 23,000 men in the United States and Canada were members of this organization whose focus is on a cappella music. The international headquarters was in Kenosha, Wisconsin for fifty years before moving to Nashville, Tennessee in 2007. In June 2018, the society announced it would allow women to join as full members.
Acoustix is a Dallas, Texas-based quartet that won the 1990 International Quartet Championship of SPEBSQSA. They have all, at different times, been members of the Dallas-based Vocal Majority chorus.
Founded in 1985 with just a few dozen men, the Masters of Harmony is a 110-member men's chorus, based in Greater Los Angeles, California. Winner of eight consecutive gold medals (1990–2011) in international barbershop chorus competitions, the group possesses a diverse repertoire encompassing not only barbershop music but also classical, jazz, patriotic, sacred, standards and Broadway pops, and sings for various groups and organizations throughout the greater Los Angeles, California metropolitan area. The chorus won another barbershop international competition in 2017, bringing their total gold medal count to nine.
Gotcha! is an American barbershop quartet formed in 1996 by four members of the Masters of Harmony chorus.
Gas House Gang was a barbershop quartet that won the 1993 SPEBSQSA International Quartet Competition. They started singing as a group in 1987 in St. Louis Missouri. After winning the 1988 Central States District Competition in their first attempt, they began a steady climb up the International Competition ladder which culminated in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where they were awarded the 1993 International Quartet Championship.
The Ambassadors of Harmony (AOH) is a 120+ member men's barbershop chorus, based in St. Charles, Missouri. The chorus won International Championship gold medals in 2004, 2009, and 2012 – each time singing two arrangements by David Wright, under the direction of Dr. Jim Henry – and then again in 2016 and 2023, under the co-direction of Jonny Moroni and Dr. Henry. Their 2009 victory broke a nearly three-decade winning streak by the Vocal Majority.
The Westminster Chorus is a men's a cappella chorus based in Westminster, California. International Chorus Champions of the Barbershop Harmony Society in 2007, 2010, 2015, 2019, and 2024, and Choir of the World in 2009, they are composed almost entirely of men under the age of 40.
Vocal Spectrum is a barbershop quartet from St. Charles, Missouri. In 2004, Vocal Spectrum won the Barbershop Harmony Society's International Collegiate Quartet Contest, and on July 8, 2006, they became International Champions, winning the society's International Quartet Contest. A distinctive feature of the quartet is tenor Tim Waurick's ability to sustain notes for upwards of 30 seconds, and the tenor's and lead's incredibly high vocal range, featured in many of the group's recordings and live shows.
Dr. Greg Lyne was an American choral director, arranger, composer and vocal educator. Lyne worked full-time as a coach for choruses and quartets and as a clinician for musical ensembles of all types. He conducted over 300 Festival and All-State Choirs throughout the US, including Alaska and Hawaii, and in Canada, England, Scotland and Russia. In Russia, he presented master classes at the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music to European musicians. Lyne is the only American listed in the Russian version of Who's Who. He also served as a guest conductor of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.
Ringmasters is a Swedish barbershop quartet affiliated with the Society of Nordic Barbershop Singers (SNOBS). The quartet received first place gold medals at the Nordic Barbershop Quartet Contest in Stockholm, and won the Barbershop Harmony Society International Collegiate Championship in July 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee. On July 8, 2012, at the Society's International Convention in Portland, Oregon, they became the first quartet from outside North America to win the prestigious gold medal as International Quartet Champions. The quartet sings non-traditional barbershop harmonies with a contemporary touch. They still tour and perform all over the world.
Joe Connelly is a barbershop quartet lead singer, competition judge, chorus director, and full-time coach for various barbershop quartets. Connelly is the first man ever to have become a Barbershop Harmony Society International Championship gold medalist four times, first with Interstate Rivals in 1987 at the age of 22, then with Keepsake in 1992, with Platinum in 2000, and with Old School in 2011. In 2000, he had already become the first person to win the gold medal three times. Quartet-mate Tony DeRosa joined Connelly as a four-time gold medalist in 2017. A few other singers have achieved the honor of being three-time champions, including quartet-mate Kipp Buckner.
Max Q is the barbershop quartet that won the gold medal Barbershop Harmony Society International Barbershop Quartet Contest at Denver's Pepsi Center July 7, 2007. The quartet's run for the title is featured in the 2009 feature documentary American Harmony.
The Far Western District is a geographical district of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS).
The Heralds of Harmony is a Tampa, Florida-based men's a cappella chorus that has been entertaining Florida audiences in the barbershop style continuously since 1945, and is currently ranked among the nation's best male vocal ensembles. The Heralds are affiliated with the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) and are multiple-time Sunshine District barbershop chorus champions. They consistently represent the district at the BHS international chorus contest, where they ranked 2nd in the world in July 2024, at a percent higher than their 2023 3rd-place score.
Tim Waurick is a barbershop tenor singer and coach for various barbershop choruses and quartets. Waurick creates learning tracks – recordings in which one part is dominant and the others are sung softly in the background – for the Barbershop Harmony Society, Sweet Adelines International, and various other quartets and choruses around the world. His learning track company is named TimTracks. Waurick is one of the few barbershop enthusiasts who has managed to turn his hobby into a profession. He is known for his unusually wide vocal range and his ability to hold notes for long periods of time.
Musical Island Boys is the barbershop quartet that won the International Quartet Championship for 2014 at the Barbershop Harmony Society's annual international convention, in Las Vegas, Nevada. From Wellington, New Zealand, the quartet began in 2002 at Tawa College, and competed in its first international barbershop contest in 2004. They won the international collegiate contest in 2006 at Indianapolis, and won second-place silver medals in 2011, 2012, and 2013 international contests. Other awards include the New Zealand and Pan-Pacific Open Gold Medals at the 4th Pan Pacific Barbershop Convention in 2004, and second place in the International Open Barbershop Championships in 2011.
Main Street is a barbershop quartet that started singing as a group on March 20, 2011.
James Earl Henry, most commonly referred to as "Jim Henry", is a vocal music professor, barbershop bass singer, and co-director of the Ambassadors of Harmony (AOH). He is a multiple international award-winning quartet member, whose quartets have appeared nationally on the NBC, PBS, and Fox television networks. Henry is the current director of choral studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and a contributing author of widely used musical reference works.
Finest Hour is a British barbershop quartet. It won several the 2016 British barbershop quartet championship in 2016, and the 2017 European barbershop quartet championship. The quartet competed in the international Barbershop Harmony Society competitions in 2017 and 2019, where they placed 28th and 22nd respectively. They also hold the UK record for the highest qualifying score of 83%.
David Lee Wright is a mathematics professor, barbershop arranger, and Associate Director of the Ambassadors of Harmony (AOH). He is a noted a cappella historian and arranger, especially in the barbershop style where in 12 of 18 years from 1999 to 2016, his arrangements resulted in chorus gold medals at the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS) International Contest. Wright travels the world as a barbershop historian, coach, and mathematics lecturer.
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