Page 28 - Summer 2023 Tags and Swipes Newsletter

Tags and Swipes, Summer 2023

Island Grove Chorus

Wasn’t it great to be back in Springfield? It felt like everyone at our regional contest in May was saying
that! For Island Grove Chorus this was our first competition since 2018, and it wasn’t just great to be back;
for so many of us it was great to be there for the very first time. IGC had seven singers on stage (out of
fifteen total) performing in their very first regional competition! Four of those singers had joined us within
the last year. We had two new leads, two new tenors, two new basses, and one new baritone. Our director
was new, too; Mary O’Loughlin has sung with IGC for years, but this was her first competition as a
frontline director. And IGC kept up with our contest tradition of giving bridal veils to our contest newbies
to wear around until they finally sang onstage.

Even our veteran singers found new challenges with this competition. IGC has performed in the Open
Division for our last three competition appearances, but this year we competed in the International
Category. Since we returned from our holiday break in January, we worked hard on our ballad and uptune,
with coaching assistance from a group of wonderful friends and supporters of IGC: Gail Jencik, Chris
Powers, Becky King, and even our director emeritus Pat Hoitt. They helped us tune up our sound, refine
our presentation, and sing as a unit. We owe them all a huge debt of thanks for their time, patience, good
humor, and hard work with us.

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North Atlantic Region 1 Sweet Adelines