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A good month for female barbershop

29 Oct

A quick heads-up to all of our non-barbershopper fans out there… there’s some good barbershop harmony available on the web this week!

For those of you who aren’t a part of our crazy barbershop world, there are two female barbershop harmony organizations. One is Harmony, Inc., the organization to which Epic belongs, and our International competition is in mid-November in Orlando. The other organization, Sweet Adelines, is starting its International competition this week in Denver.

While the two organizations have different approaches to contest and judging processes, that awesome four-part harmony is consistent in both! If you’re interested in checking out the Sweet Adelines in action, there’s a FREE online webcast of events beginning on Wednesday.

The Epics will certainly be glued to the computer (so long as Hurricane Sandy doesn’t wipe out our Maryland and Virginia power), and we hope you can find a few moments to check out the webcast. You won’t be sorry!

Good luck to all of our Sweet Adelines sisters who cross the stage this week!! Have a blast, ladies.

 
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Posted by on October 29, 2012 in Contest

 

Orlando Send-Off concert

28 Sep

Hello everyone! It’s taken us the better part of the week to circle back around to this blog post, but we are still riding high from last weekend’s send-off concert with the Fairfax Jubil-Aires. Many of you may have seen that we posted some fun pictures to Facebook (and we’ll add a little gallery here as well), but we have to take a quick moment to go “on the record” after such a great night.

We had an interesting set of circumstances surrounding this concert that made it not-so-hot in the vocal department. Kris was struggling vocally to begin with and started the day with virtually no voice at all. She was literally eating spoonfuls of honey direct from the jar. And apple juice. And tea. And potato chips (XOXO, Ashley Wright!). After some meds and a breathing treatment, she started sounding more human and less alien by the second half of the day. Still, she was so frustrated with her vocal production that we eventually decided to stop warming up or running through our sets… might as well give her a fighting chance to have something left for the stage.

Then, Anne sucked in a big ole’ lungful of grass pollen at our afternoon gig, which was outside. That triggered a lovely asthma attack and she was still struggling to get a good breath in the evening at the concert.

You get the picture. Epic noises were not so hot. But we fought through and wowed the warm (and incredibly understanding) crowd with three outfit changes instead!

We are very grateful to the folks who helped us pull it off (Cliff, Obie, Cat, Tom, Debbie, Richard, Julia and the Epic families) as well as all the people who carved out a chunk of their weekends to spend with us. The support continues to floor us. And thank you to Shameless and ACME Chord Company for being a part of the night!

A huge virtual HUG needs to go to the men of the Fairfax Jubil-Aires chorus. Once again, these guys have become our adopted chorus and continually make us feel like a part of their family. They support us in so many ways and all of our successes are shared with them. XOXO…. EpicImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

 
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Posted by on September 28, 2012 in Performances, Special memories

 

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Ready, Set… Send-off!

13 Sep

Epic quartet, Fairfax Jubil-Aires, barbershop, quartet, chorus, competition, send-off

 
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Posted by on September 13, 2012 in Performances

 

Our #1 Fan!?!

09 Sep

We have been more than a little vocal about the fact that we met Robert Duvall back in May at the Virginia Gold Cup horse races. After we did our National Anthem hit, we were ushered around to various sponsors’ tents to meet some impressive dignitaries. In the course of that whirlwind tour, we met the kind, warm and engaging Mr. Robert Duvall.

Robert Duvall, Epic, a Harmony Inc. quartet, performs the National Anthem at the Virginia Gold CupHe enjoyed our music, sharing with us that the tunes we sing from eras gone by remind him of his younger years. Mr. Duvall is a musician himself and he comes from a very musical family. At the Gold Cup, he asked for our card and wanted to know if we’d join him at his Virginia farm the next time he was hosting a party. Naturally, we said we would move heaven and earth to make it happen!

Fast forward to about a month ago and the lovely Ms. Daisy, Mr. Duvall’s Virginia-based assistant, reached out to ask if we would perform on a Thursday evening for a party Mr. Duvall was hosting in his “party barn.” Um, yeah!

So here’s the coolest thing about all of this coolness. When Mr. Duvall’s wife, the unbelievably gorgeous Luciana Pedraza, first walked up to us to greet us, the words that came out of her mouth were along the lines of this: “Oh my goodness… it’s Epic! I finally get to meet you! Bobby has been talking so much about you. Thank you for being here tonight. He’s such a big fan. He has told me so much about you.”

Umm, oh my goodness.. .say WHAT?! Robert Duvall is Epic’s #1 fan?? We are in love. Forever and always!

We had a moment at one point at the evening when we all looked at each other with big eyes and an “are you kidding me?” sort of look on our faces. Shana said, “Who would have thought?” Who would have thought at the beginning of this epic journey that would have ended up having such amazing experiences together. Wow.

 
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Posted by on September 9, 2012 in Performances, Pictures, Special memories

 

Asking for your support

16 Aug

When Epic first got together, we knew right away that it would be difficult for some of the members of our quartet to keep up financially with the requirements of being in a competitive quartet. But we had a fantastic chemistry with each other and we liked the noises we were making together, so we decided that we would get together anyway and trust that hard work and dedication to the quartet would help us provide for each other.

Luckily, there is one member of Epic who is a shop-a-holic and is willing to front her own personal money for our crazy shoe habit and always-expanding wardrobe! So that means that the money we earn from our fundraiser events and from gigs is dedicated entirely to the business of the quartet–traveling to competitions, registering to be in those competitions and paying our amazingly talented arrangers for the rights to sing their songs.

Once again, we are asking for your support in order to get Epic to Orlando. The event registrations are due September 15 so we have set a goal to earn the money we need by September 1. We are again indebted to Julia Duke, a Thirty-One sales consultant, for putting all the proceeds into Epic’s pocket. We couldn’t ask for a better fan and a better friend!!

Please take a moment to check out our online party and consider placing an order to help us out. NEW THIS TIME… Thirty-One just launched icons as part of its team spirit line and OMG they have a CROWN icon!!! Yay!! If you are talented enough to have earned one, or if it’s your dream to someday earn one, why not get yourself a rehearsal/music bag with a CROWN and your name on it!!??? We love it!

You can also join our “event” on Facebook to show your support. We are more appreciative than you will ever know!!! Thanks for helping us support our dream!

 
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Posted by on August 16, 2012 in Uncategorized

 

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A look back at an Epic year

12 Aug

We’re in a sentimental mood this weekend so we took a look back through our amazing year. And even with all the cool things we’ve already experienced, we know the best is yet to come.

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Posted by on August 12, 2012 in Pictures, Special memories

 

Team Effort

26 Jul

Who knew we could be so excited about a recording of just one voice!? Today, Anne and Epic coach Richard Lewellen had a special coaching session to hammer out the interp for our new ballad. With less than four months until our International Contest & Convention in Orlando, we’re moving super-fast to pick up new contest songs.

Side note: We’re not trying to be intentionally evasive on the names of the tunes, but we want to maintain that fun element of surprise. So we’re not trying to tease, but we’ve gotta say… we are SO EXCITED about these charts! They are gorgeous and fun and fresh and totally Epic.

Back to the point! So Anne and Richard worked hard to make a lead learning track of our new ballad. And the following instructions came from coachie-poo Richard this evening… we’ll cut some of the blah-blah to get to the main points:

“… sing the melody with Anne and sing your part with Anne….do this over and over again … Please don’t cut corners.  [Blah, blah, blah....]  Again, please no short cuts. Thanks, you amazing women.”

Yes, sir!!

This stuff is so fun!

 

 
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Posted by on July 26, 2012 in Rehearsals

 

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A Captured Moment

03 Jul

At long last…it’s HERE! Our first official photo from our first official Harmony, Inc., contest!

Epic quartet, a barbershop quartet, Harmony Inc., AC&C 2012

Epic, AC&C 2012, Laval, Canada

 
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Posted by on July 3, 2012 in Contest, Pictures, Special memories

 

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Beautiful all the way around

20 Jun

We are really excited to launch a new fundraiser for Epic! We are kicking-off a Mary Kay online party that provides Epic with 100% of the profits. We are hoping you’ll consider placing an order to help us out. It’s super easy… you order online, pay online, and the order is shipped directly to you for FREE!

We have to work pretty hard to pull in the funds to earn our way to our Harmony, Inc., contests. Because we live in a part of the country where Harmony, Inc., is looking forward to FUTURE growth (hopefully with our help), the epicenter of our home Area is pretty far North and we have to travel a long, long way to get to our contests. We’re not quite fortunate enough to have one in our backyard, or even within driving distance. With the gracious support of our friends and families, as well as the awesome gigs we’ve been blessed to land, we worked hard to get to Montreal, Canada, for our Area 2 contest earlier this year… and came home with the championship.

Now it’s time to work toward Orlando, where our International Contest and Convention will be held in November. We appreciate your support more than you know!!

So just to make things fun, we’ve decided to throw in a little incentive, of sorts! If you feel inclined to stock up on your Mary Kay favorites, or even decide to make these fabulous products a gift for a special person in your universe, and your total comes to more than $100, Epic will email you a special music clip that you can use as your ringtone or keep on your MP3 player just for fun!!

We love you all… and we couldn’t continue this EPIC journey without you. Thank you so much!

 
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Posted by on June 20, 2012 in Contest

 

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