Local Singers Head to International Barbershop Quartet Competition
In one Hamilton living room, four musicians practice interweaving melodies and harmonies to create a complex and beautiful song. Cy Wood, Kim Newcomb, Jenni Sheets, and Kohl Kitzmiller, however, don’t play guitar or drums; they are all using their voices.
Half and Half is a local mixed Barbershop Quartet, a musical group known for their intricate blends of different musical ranges, including a lead singer, a tenor, a baritone, and a bass.
“Our name comes from the fact that half of us are boys, and half of us are girls,” says Wood. “Also, half of us live here in Hamilton and half of us live in the Indianapolis area.”
The quartet has gone from launching in 2018 to recently qualifying as one of two quartets to represent the United States in the International Mixed Quartet Competition. While their competition participation has been placed on hold because of recent public health concerns, their qualification demonstrates that they are among the best of the best in this form of barbershop quartet singing.
Wood, Kitzmiller, and Newcomb have been in multiple highly-successful barbershop quartets before, and their work is also connected to music. Wood teaches musical theater at Butler Tech School of the Arts, after spending many years performing himself in New York. Kitzmiller is a musical arranger and creates learning tracks, recorded music to help singers learn by ear. Newcomb also records learning tracks, alongside teaching voice lessons and coaching ensembles.
Sheets, a graphic designer by profession, has studied and performed in musical theatre throughout her life, but was a newbie to barbershop in 2018. When Wood introduced Sheets’ singing to his other two friends, the idea to form a mixed quartet began to take shape.
“We knew each other and had sung together before,” says Newcomb. “Cy showed us a video of Jenni singing ‘My Funny Valentine,’ and we were like, ‘she can belt! She’s really good.’”
The idea of forming a mixed quartet was hatched only a few weeks before one of the major barbershop quartet organizations, the Barbershop Harmony Society, announced a new initiative. The “Everyone in Harmony” movement opened the organization’s regulations to make barbershop more accessible to everyone. Traditionally, men sang with men and women sang with women in barbershop quartets, so the “Everyone in Harmony” movement came at a great time for Half-and-Half.
“Lots of people believe in equality and inclusivity, so the Everyone in Harmony movement, for us, as individuals and as a group, is really who we are,” says Sheets. “As it grows, those who don’t ‘get it’ now, will get it; they’ll see all the different kinds of people this is going to bring in, including people they’d never otherwise have gotten to sing with.”
The group practices at least two times a month and has performed in a variety of venues in the Midwest and around the country; Wood points out that from the beginning, they’ve jumped in feet-first to sharing their music.
“We first performed together only two months after we got our group together,” says Wood. “Our fourth practice was our first performance!”
Sheets’ initiation into barbershop has had a learning curve, though it has been easier to progress quickly because of the way the group works together.
“I’ve traditionally been a soloist, so learning to listen to three other people and blend was new,” says Sheets. “It helps that I trust them: their words are never personal, and they only want to improve our singing.”
She’s been impressed with the way that barbershop singing is a community where the participants trust and care for each other.
“I’ve started doing graphic design for the barbershop crowd; they’re very much a ‘for us, by us’ community,” she explains. “Once the barbershop community finds out you do something, they want to support you in it. They want you to succeed.”
The group appreciates seeing the elements of barbershop through new eyes as Jenni asks questions and discovers the differences between the rules of the genre and conventions that can be bent or changed.
“Our potential for growth is much higher with Jenni,” explains Kitzmiller. “If you haven’t grown up in it, you bring different things to it than people who have done barbershop a long time.”
The group enjoys each other’s company and are able to offer feedback and suggestions along the way with a constructive and positive attitude, which really helps the team dynamic.
“I’ve seen it where the four personalities don’t connect even if the quality of the singers is really good; I wouldn’t be willing to be in a group like that,” says Wood. “I wouldn’t want to be in a group where I didn’t love every single one of them.”
Follow the Half-and-Half journey online: their website is halfandhalfquartet.com and their Facebook is Facebook.com/halfandhalfqt