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Veteran's Day, November 11, 2013, Minute Maid Park
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The Statesmen Chorus helped The Houston Astros to honor our veterans at their Veteran's Day extravaganza featuring the showing of the award winning movie "Honor Flight." The Statesmen performed a 15 minute set highlighted by "God Bless the USA," Lee Greenwood's beautiful song honoring the US and, particularly, our veterans.
Featured at the presentation were several hundred World War II veterans, including Bob Landgren and Jim Ward who both served in Europe. Bob served in the Army as a combat engineer and Jim was an Army Air Corps glider pilot. We are so honored to have them both singing with us. Thanks for your service.
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July 28, 2012
 The Statesmen Chorus is honored to have had the opportunity to open the day long Music Festival with activities for the entire family including a car and motorcycle rally and live broadcast by Outlaw Dave. Featured performers include Javier Colon (NBC's The Voice), Sundance Head (American Idol), Wendy Taylor (American Idol), Philip Griffin, Josh Ward, Jody Booth, Saints & Sinners and The Brian Winfield Band. All proceeds from the event went to MD Anderson Cancer Center to support research to find a cure for brain cancer. The chorus opened with "God Bless the USA" and sang "The Star Spangled Banner" as a Boy Scout color guard posted the colors; we concluded with singing "God Bless America". The Boyz of Spring and the Silver Statesmen quartets entertained some of the guests between performances by the featured acts.
May 18, 2012
 On May 18, 2012 the Statesmen Chorus joined thousands of cheering Houstonians at the Bush Intercontinental Airport to welcome over 250 wounded veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns to Houston for a weekend of fun and relaxation. The event was co-sponsored by the Houston Police Department and by MoMS USA.
In honor of the event, Major General Jimmie Wells, Commanding General of the 75th Training Division headquartered at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston presented an award for excellence to the Statesmen Chorus for their participation in the event welcoming the troops.
In addition to many repertoire numbers, we thrilled our appreciative audience by singing "God Bless America" and "God Bless the USA" to the troops as they made their way from their planes to the baggage area.
| Click here to view photos |
April 28, 2012
 On April 28, The Statesmen Chorus performed at our spring Great Time Show entitled “Doo Wop Barbershop” at the Klein United Methodist Church. The show featured doo wop favorites from the 1950s and 60s. The chorus performed “Trickle Trickle”, “Sh-Boom”, “Who Put the Bomp”, “Bye Bye Love”, “Breakin’ UUp is Hard to Do”, “In the Still of the Night”, and “Goodnight Sweetheart”. The Gold Standard quartet with Doug Welch, John Devine, Bob Natoli, and Tim Taggart entertained us with the classic “Get a Job”; The Silver Statesmen sang “I Only Have Eyes for You” with Paul Wiegmann, Richard Dove, Jim Hoge, and Don Cadwell; The Throwbacks, a new quartet featuring Mike Langthorp, John Loucks, Tom Burnett, and David Morris sang “Blue Velvet”; and The Boyz of Spring sang “Come Go With Me” – Joe Swaney, Matt Mealey, Jerry Mac Laren, and Darrell Bason. The Statesmen served popcorn and soft drinks to our guests at the matinee performance and at the evening performance, they served our patrons our famous tamales, nachos, and soft drinks.
The second half of the show opened with 30 North a collegiate quartet featuring John Galindo, Zach Mac Laren, Roger Anderson, and Jeff Reifsnyder sang a number of their own doo wop and light jazz favorites. The chorus, under the direction of Janet Burnett sang “Wink and a Smile”, “Gospel Medley”, “God Bless the USA”, and “Keep the Whole World Singing”.
We owe a special thanks to Maryanne Esser who provided the period table decorations, to our very own “Pink Ladies,” for supplying the wonderful desserts served at the Sugar Shack and to Buddy and Mary Kaye Schnell who were responsible for the highly successful silent auction.
December 1st and 8th 2011
 The chorus performed two mid-week Christmas Concerts: On Dec 1, 2011, the Statesmen Chorus entertained 250 patrons at the Klein United Methodist Church. Joining the chorus in a most entertaining Christmas celebration was a great lineup of quartets and two octets singing most of your Christmas favorites. Quartets included Boyz of Spring, Relics, Silver Statesmen, Space City Sound, Thirty-North, and Oasis. An octet comprised of Statesmen, some of who performed in a small ensemble for the first time sang “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”. Wrapping up the show was a mixed double quartet singing “Let There Be Peace on Earth” when Oasis, the current Region 10 Sweet Adeline quartet champions were joined by our own collegiate quartet 30 North. The following week at the chorus performed virtually the same program for an appreciative audience at the Willis United Methodist Church. Ticket sale proceeds at the Klein concert allowed the Statesmen to donate over $1800 to Habitat for Humanity in memory of Helen Smith of Klein United Methodist Church.
Southwestern District Contest and Convention Sept 30 - Oct 2, 2011
With 25 men on stage, the Statesmen Chorus placed 6th overall in Dallas at the five state Southwestern District, the ”District of Champions”. Of the five choruses finishing higher, four compete regularly in the Barbershop Harmony society’s International competition featuring the best barbershop choruses from around the world. We are very proud of this achievement finishing a mere 0.3 points behind the fifth place chorus, East Texas Men in Harmony. In the quartet competition, our seniors quartet, Relics finished in second place.
Chorus Finals
Quartet Finals
Senior Quartet Finals
Quartet Semi Finals
September 10, 2011
 The Statesmen Chorus performed at the city of Tomball’s remembrance of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. On Saturday, the 10th, The Statesmen Chorus provided the entertainment for the citizens of Tomball to help recognize the heroism and contributions of first responders to the safety and security of all of us. Prior to the formal dedication of the tenth anniversary plaque, the chorus entertained early arrivals with several of the numbers from our 2011 annual show. At the close of the dedication ceremony, the Chorus sang the patriotic classic “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood.
August 20, 2011
The Statesmen Chorus annual show entitled "Let's get Away From it All" came to the stage of the beautiful Crighton Theatre in Conroe. The chorus under the direction of Janet Burnett and our quartets were joined by actors from Stage Right on a make believe cruise. The show was a critical success as evidenced by the review given the show by David Bentley, the people's critic. You can check out his review by clicking here.
The driving force for the highly successful show was show chairman Carl Esser and his talented wife Maryanne. Maryanne and Carl let their imaginations run wild in designing the sets and decorating the theater in a festive manner appropriate for a Caribbean cruise ship. Maryanne and Janet wrote the entertaining script which was brought to life by Carolyn Wong, Tom Lockhart, Marcia Feldt Bates, Michael Raabe, and Giny Mendez all of Stage Right, the resident theatrical company of the Crighton Theatre. Sharing the stage with the Statesmen Chorus were five chapter quartets and our special guests, Sterling who won the Southwestern District quartet championship in 2002.
2011 Wounded Warriors
May 20, 2011 The Statesmen Chorus helped welcome more than 200 wounded veterans to Houston. The Statesmen joined well over 500 Houstonians organized by Houston Police Department, the USO, by MoMsUSA and the Wounded Warrior Organization. The event was held to kick off the beginning of the fifth annual Warrior Weekend. The project honors Army and Marine veterans who have sustained life-changing injuries during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sixteen Statesmen under the direction of Harlen Center entertained the cheering crowd prior to the arrival of the troops and welcomed the wounded Army and Marines, many of them in wheelchairs or on crutches, with Lee Greenwood’s rousing “God Bless the USA”. We all were deeply moved by the display of courage of our troops and look forward to celebrating their return in the future.
The following video clip from KHOU TV gives a glimpse of what we all experienced:
| Click here to view clip |
April 9, 2011 Great Time Show
The Statesmen Chorus entertained over 325 of our much appreciated patrons at two
performances Saurday. The Chorus, served popcorn and beverages at the matinee
and our famous Bladeras Tamales, Nachos, and beverages at the evening
performance. In addition to the normal fare, our guests were able to partake of
a wide variety of desserts at the bakery stocked by our wonderful wives. The
bakery table was organized and decorated beautifully by Maryanne Esser.
Maryanne also took responsibility for decorating the tables. She's such a
talented artist; we really do appreciate all you do to support the chorus.
Buddy and Mary Kaye Schnell did a fantastic job of ramrodding a very successful
silent auction. The chorus wa able to raise over $2,200 through the auction of
articles ranging from handwoven baskets crafted by Pat Hoge to exercise
equipment, gift cards, cakes, bicycles, ... the list is too long to enumerate
here, but you get the idea. Thanks to all our wonderful sponsors who donated
articles for auction.
Thanks, too to our quartets who took part in the show. Silver Statesmen, Boyz
of Spring, Initial Sound, Benchmark, and 30 North, a new collegiate quartet who,
on Friday before the show travelled to Guthrie, Oklahoma to compete for an
invitation to the International College Quartet Championship which will be held
in Kansas City in July. 30 North misssed by a whisker of qualifying, but were
so close, could still receive a wildcard initation to the International
competiton based on their strong performance in Guthrie. We were also entertained by a newly formed senior quartet, Relics – tenor Hub Tett, lead Randy Rensi, baritone Tom Burnett, and Dick Van Horne singing bass.
2011 Southeast Division Contest
On March 12, The Statesmen Chorus was crowned Southeast Division Plateau A champions in San Marcos. We had 28 men on stage under the direction of Janet Burnet. Three of our quartets competed for honors in the Southeast Division quartet contest and all qualified to compete in the Southwest District Contest in Dallas next October. Benchmark, the reigning SE division champions placed 3rd followed by Initial Sound with a strong 4th place finish. We are all proud of our Boyz of Spring, who competed as a novice quartet in their first ever contest finished 9th. Congratulations to all our highly successful competitors!
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