The city’s famous clock tower was lit up like a barbershop pole on Monday, a sign that the World Series of quartet singing had arrived in Denver.
This week, the Barbershop Harmony Society is holding its 86th annual conference at the Colorado Convention Center. It’s both an international meetup and an a cappella competition.
As red-and-blue stripes spiraled up the side of the clock tower, David Hennigan, Jacob Van Hall, Kathryn Siefert and Carl Siefert gathered inside a 16th Street parking garage to sing in its luminous glow.
They crooned “Keep the Whole World Singing,” the society’s official song, which is required to be sung at every meeting.
This was a small, informal gathering. But TJ Donahue, head of community engagement for the society’s local Rocky Mountain chapter, said there’s a big opportunity for Denverites to celebrate the art he loves so much.
On Thursday, at 4 p.m., conventioners will gather on the balconies above the Denver Performing Arts Complex at 14th and Curtis streets for a big public sing-along.
“You have the chance to hear hundreds of barbershop singers from around the world filling the galleria at the Denver Performing Arts Complex with old classic barbershop songs,” Donahue said. “It's free. And with the acoustics in that place, it's going to be wild.”
Barbershop ‘quartets’ are often more than four people.
We met Charlie Coxon under the clock tower on Monday night, as conventioners filtered through 16th Street, sometimes singing in harmony.
“Quartet” refers to the four parts of a barbershop song: tenor, lead, baritone, and bass. In a chorus, dozens of people sing those four parts together.
“One thing I like about barbershop is you need at least three other people to like you in order to do it, so you need to make friends,” he said. “It's a very collaborative thing. And even though we all have a very big competitive spirit, this culminating in a competition, we're all great friends.”
The conference is appropriately timed, he added, with it being Independence Day week.
“This is peak Americana,” he said.
Donahue said barbershop singing is rooted in African American tradition, “literally from barbershops.” The Barbershop Harmony Society, which was founded in 1938, did not always allow Black musicians to participate, but he said the organization has taken pains to make inclusivity part of its mission in recent decades.
Colorado’s barbershop scene is just as old, Donahue added. His local chapter was created as a merger of singing groups in Denver and Boulder, which each date back to the early 1900s.
“It's been present here for a long, long time,” he told us.
Donahue made it his mission to ensure singers got a warm welcome.
He was the one who pushed for the clock tower projection, which alternated between the spiral pole and lyrics for “Keep the Whole World Singing.”
“I had this idea of figuring out some way — to pay whatever you had to pay — to put a giant barber pole on the Daniels and Fisher Tower, on all four sides. That was my dream,” he said.
He couldn’t get all four sides, but he learned Night Lights Denver, which manages the projections, would give him one face for free. He was floored when he saw the tower light up.
For him, this was a way to ensure his beloved singing colleagues felt welcome. There are over 4,000 attendees registered for the event, according to Brian Lynch, spokesperson for the event.
“I want for people to go away saying, ‘Dang, why would we ever do this anyplace else?’” Donahue said. “I want them to see and feel my Denver, which is a Denver that really wants to embrace our art and really wants to embrace visitors.”
The city has already come through for the singers, he added.
“One great thing about Denver is we're going to be doing it in a real theater instead of in a basketball arena. We're going to be in the Bellco Theater for the competitions. It's going to be a much more appropriate setting for what we're doing,” Donahue said.
So, in that spirit of camaraderie, the big Thursday sing-along is meant to belt some aural love back at the city hosting the barbershoppers.
“Think of your best night of karaoke, except everybody's that good,” Lynch said. “Everybody's there cheering you on and making music with you. That good.”
