Southlakes Harmony is a small, relatively new chorus with members drawn from neighbourhoods on the beautiful shores of south-west Lake Macquarie. After a couple of years of rehearsing as an informal group (and being identified in this journal as a Club at Large) we have recently completed registration as a new BHA Club.

Formation of the chorus in 2016 was an initiative of Keith Harding and Stuart Adey, who will be known to many readers. Keith sang lead with Hills Harmony and the quartet “Basis” for many years, while Stuart’s barbershop experience includes singing bass with both Soundwaves and Novatones. They saw the potential to create an opportunity for men from the southlakes area to participate in barbershop singing closer to home than neighbouring choruses up and down the highway at Newcastle and Gosford.

While most members have some previous singing experience, for several of us this is our first exposure to singing in the barbershop style and so we have much to learn. For the first year or so, as a group of 6 or 7, we rehearsed regularly, relying on guidance from our members with barbershop experience and we made modest progress. We also benefitted from and appreciated occasional assistance from members of others choruses in our region who joined us during rehearsals in the early days to help get us started.

Last year we had the very good fortune to be joined by Ian Miller as our Musical Director. As many readers will know Ian is a vastly experienced and highly qualified singer, director, judge and BHA executive and has been a prominent figure in the Australian barbershop community over many decades. His arrival has created the opportunity for us to more rapidly improve our performance standard and broaden our repertoire.

While we have slowly built up our numbers and now have 12 members, we would benefit from many more voices. We occasionally perform at community events in our area, usually as part of a more diverse musical program. There is still much progress to be made in order to reach our potential and make a more significant contribution to the cultural life of the southlakes region.

Paul Stapleton
Secretary
Southlakes Harmony Chorus