Swedish quartet captures college barbershop championship
That good old-fashioned American tradition, the barbershop quartet, has left the continent.
Trocadero, a quartet from Sweden, beat out 23 other young quartets from around the world to capture the college championship Tuesday evening in Pittsburgh, leading a foreign takeover of the collegiate division. Four of the top five quartets hailed from outside the United States.
Singing jazz standard “I Love Being Here With You” and “This Is My Beloved,” the quartet posted A-level scores comparable to those in the open division contest, which begins Wednesday.
Trocadero continues a tradition of Swedish domination in the college contest, as the fourth Swedish quartet to capture the crown in the past eight years. The quartet consists of David Holst, tenor; Jakob Berggren, lead; Sam Andren, bari; and Filip Sibien, bass.
As champion, the quartet earns bragging rights, notoriety, and a springboard to the big contest, which has increasingly been dominated by past college champions, and offshore quartets such as current world champs Musical Island Boys of New Zealand.
The top five college quartets were, in order:
- Trocadero, Society of Nordic Barbershop Singers, Sweden, 1490 pts./82.9 %
- ‘Shoptimus Prime, Guelph ONtario and Bffalo, NY, 1479 pts./82.2 %
- Yonge Guns, Ryerson University; University of Guelph; University of Toronto, 1442 pts./80.1 %
- Blindside, Barbershop Harmony Australia, 1422 pts./79 %
- Flightline, Cal State Fullerton & Fullerton College, 1416 pts./78.7%
The barbershop convention continues through the week. Full details and schedule are at www.barbershop.org