Lustre Wins 2013 Mid-Atlantic Harmony Sweepstakes

Last night (Feb 23) Lustre competed in the 2013 Mid-Atlantic Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival at “The Birchmere” in Alexandria, VA.   The festival included participants from many a cappella music genres, including barbershop, vocal jazz, and contemporary a cappella, with groups ranging from 4 to 8 members.

The Barbershop style had really solid representation, with Bling! (Current SAI 2nd place finalists), Lustre (current SAI 7th place finalists) and Sfourzando (a new men’s collegiate quartet preparing to register in BHS in the Mid-Atlantic District) as competitors, and GQ (current YWIH Rising Star Champions) hosting the event as last year’s winners.

We’re thrilled to announce that Lustre won the event, and will be now competing in the National Harmony Sweepstakes competition in San Francisco on May 18, 2013.  This was Lustre’s fourth year entering the Harmony Sweepstakes competition, having previously competed in 2009 and 2010 at the Mid Atlantic festival and in 2012 at the New York Regional festival.

Our newest SAI friends, Bling!, made their debut in the contemporary a cappella competition world last night and finished as the First Runner-Up in the Mid Atlantic regional competition.

The Mid-Atlantic Harmony Sweepstakes festival has in the last few years seen a resurgence of representation of the Barbershop style.  In 2009, MAXX Factor won the Mid-Atlantic festival and went on to win the National Harmony Sweepstakes.  In 2011, Da Capo (BHS) did the exact same thing!  And in 2012, GQ won the Mid-Atlantic festival as well.  We know Barbershop is alive and well in SAI and BHS, and this shows that Barbershop is holding its own in the wider “contemporary a cappella” world as well.

We are really honored and excited to be part of this great run, and are really looking forward to representing the Mid-Atlantic Region at the National Harmony Sweepstakes in May 2013.