The international convention is always a good occasion for press coverage. We really like this item in Orlando Magazine.
“Kealan Rivera says he’s made more than half his friends by spontaneously singing with them.
The Delaney Park resident and member of Orlando’s Orange Blossom Chorus says people in the barbershop quartet community constantly meet new people by singing easily-learned tags, which is the final four to twelve bars of a song. To Rivera, it’s a social outlet like no other.
“Singing with people you know and love is awesome. It gives you a feeling you can’t get anywhere else,” he says.
At 20 years old, Rivera is part of a surge of young people joining barbershop groups across the country. In 2017, about 28 percent of new members joining the 80,000-member, international Barbershop Harmony Society were 25 or younger and around the same percentage were ages 26-50. In 2001, only 10 percent of new members were ages 25 or younger.”