Barrington High leads way in barbershop singing

Barrington High School regularly advances its student athletes in state level competition, but now another group is making a name for itself - the school's barbershop quartets.

These are not your grandfather's barbershop groups. The senior group calls itself the Testostertones, while the underclassmen go by Four of a Kind.

Both quartets sing from a newer palate of songs and perform arrangements of contemporary pop music as well as from the standard repertoire.

Either way, they sing it well, and strive, like generations before them, to nail their harmony.

At a regional competition at Huntley High School sponsored by the Elgin-based Fox Valley Men of Harmony Chorus, the Testostertones and Four of a Kind, took first and second place respectively.

The Testostertones now head to the state competition April 19 in Bloomington.

Members of that group are Mac Dassatti, Zach Johnson, Colin Smith and Lee Werner.

Four of a Kind is Alex Behrens, Robby Kipferl, Billy Raseman and Jonathan Thierer.

Nearly all of them will display their vocal talents in different roles starting on Thursday, when they appear in the school's musical, "The Will Rogers Follies."

At the Huntley High School competition, the Testostertones opened their set with "Happy Together," the '60s hit by the Turtles, but hit their stride with the closer, the Josh Groban pop hit, "You Raise Me Up," arranged for barbershop.

"We were locked in with nearly all of the key changes," says Dassatti of Lake Barrington, who sings bass. "When you can lock in the chords throughout an entire song, you know you've done well."

Four of a Kind, in contrast, performed a younger version of an old barbershop standard, "Goodnight My Sweetheart," before closing with one of their favorites, "Orange Colored Sky."

"It's the style of harmony, and the camaraderie that I like about it," adds Behrens, who sings bass in the younger quartet. "Musically, there's nothing else like it."

Barrington High School's choral director, Nancie Tobison, is not surprised her teenage students are excited about barbershop singing, which dates to the 1890s.

"They have an awful lot of fun with it," Tobison says. "They're really into it, so no, I'm not surprised. If it involves singing, they're all over it."

Tobison has sponsored barbershop quartets at the school for the last 14 years. She credits The Arlingtones, a barbershop group from Arlington Heights, with planting the idea, when they held a competition at the school aimed at drawing younger members.

At the time, Ron Arden, of Zion, was their director, and though he no longer directs the Arlingtones he has remained at Barrington to serve as a private voice teacher and barbershop coach.

"Barbershop is very challenging to sing," Arden says. "It's always harder to sing, unaccompanied than unaccompanied. But that's what these guys like. They like being in charge."

Arden points to the resurgence in a cappella boy groups, and the emphasis on close, tight knit harmony, as well as the high school's strong fine arts program, which has resulted in the heightened interest.

"I guarantee that these guys will go on to sing in college, and will be singing in some form for the rest of their lives," Arden says. "I firmly believe that if we had more students exposed to this much music, we'd have a much more peaceful world."