Stephen (Steve) T. White
Bass Singer, Front Row performer, Quartet Man, and Chapter/District Leader, DELASUSQUEHUDMAC Chapter member (former President), and M-AD Hall of Honor recipient.
Family:
My wife Jerri and I met through barbershopping. She earned an SAI chorus Gold Medal in 1988 with the Vienna Falls Chorus where she was the Associate Director for Betty Tracy, co-choreographer, costume designer, show producer, script writer, actress, and more. She was a founding member and Music VP of the Bella NOVA Harmony Inc. Chapter who were in International medalist chorus. My sister-in-law Deb and mother-in-law Betty also sang with Vienna-Falls. My father-in-law Ben had been a barbershopper since 1963 and has directed several choruses. His was also a member of the Alexandria Harmonizers. We have 2 handsome boys.
Barbershop Experience:
In high school, my best friend Ted's dad was a former barbershopper with the Salisbury, MD Chapter taught us to sing tags and woodshed. My high school choir director needed a quartet for a school production of The Music Man. He looked at the four of us cutting-up in the back row and said, You, you, you, and you. I was the lead (Ha-ha!). We were a smash hit and I was hooked. Ted and I later went to college together and formed a collegiate quartet, the Salisbury State College Chordbusters. We sang all over Eastern Shore of Maryland and won the annual campus Talent Contest ... money for nothing and the chicks are free as the song goes. We even sang on the Salisbury Chapter show where we were taken under wing by the Sussex Counts.
After college, I joined Southern Maryland Choral Society. At one Monday night rehearsal in early October the bass beside me was high-fiving everyone because his barbershop chorus has just won the District Championship. He was speaking of the Alexandria Harmonizers' very first win in 1977. I told him that I had tickets for that convention in Ocean City, but had moved back home and forgot all about it. He invited me to tag along the next night to the Harmonizers' rehearsal hall where the place was a madhouse of happy guys. The chorus and the NOVA Chords sang and, man, I was hooked again. I joined immediately. A year later, I took a laboratory job back on the Eastern Shore in Crisfield, MD, but drove weekly (7 hours roundtrip) for 2 years to make Harmonizers' rehearsals. On Monday nights, I also sang with the Salisbury chapter under the direction of my old buddy Joe Pollio.
I have been a continuously active member of the Harmonizers for 46 years and am proud to say that I have never missed a single chorus contest - having earned our next 26 District championships and have sung in all 27 International contests (21 medals including 4 golds). I was also a 42-year Front Row man (oh, my aching knees).
I have served the Alexandria chapter in a variety of roles over the years including Music Vice President 4 different times under 3 Musical Directors (including the year of our first Gold Medal), bass section, repertoire committee, choreography development team, show production/script writing, quartet promotion & development, Operation Harold Hill, and rehearsal planning & scheduling. I have been part of the musical program in one way or another for 42 years. I was on the Director Search committee resulting in the hiring of Richard Lewellen and Joe Cerutti, Jr. I am the Chair of the Harmonizers 75th Diamond Anniversary Show for 2023.
I learned show production craft from two consummate producer-writers (Michael Organ and Bob Bates) and have been a producer, script writer, and/or show director for 14 annual chapter shows. Most of these have been with my longtime friend and partner in silliness, Gary Plaag. Together we have written (with help from lots of other very talented and creative guys in the chorus) some memorable productions including: Piracy on a High C, A Knight to Remember (or a Dragon's Tale), Hum, Hum, on the Range (or Trouble at the Howdy Dude Saloon), Don't Touch that Dial, Our Town ... With a Lodge, and the first two Harmonizer Holiday shows in Santa's Workshop.
Quartetting, you ask? Yes, I am an absolute quartet hound and have been in a foursome almost continually since 1972 in 17 quartets. It has been my very good fortune to have sung in several quartets that became quite successful including 5 Mid-Atlantic District Quartet Champions. These include:
- REVERB - currently active, 2023 8th place Northern Division
- Good Friends Quartet (Taylor, Seay, Butterfield, White
- Warehouse Flats - 2016 District qualifiers
- MAD Hatters - 2011 Western Division Champs and 2012 M-AD Champs; qualified for International but withdrew
- Touchstone - 2010 Western Division Champs and 2011 M-AD Champs
- Aces Full - show quartet made up of Four Aces and Full Tilt
- Full Tilt - 2009 Southern Division Champs, 2010 M-AD 2nd place, and 1 time at Internationals placing 35th
- Phat Cats - 2004 M-AD Champs, 3 times in Internationals placing as high as 21st
- The Bay Rum Runners - 1996 M-AD Champs, 7 times at Internationals placing 5 times in the Top-20 with a best of 13th
- Copyright '86 - 1988 M-AD Champs, 5 times in Internationals placing 4 times in the Top-20 with a best of 13th
- Capitol Chord Authority - Top 10 at Prelims
- Great Atlantic & Pacific Chord Company
- Sunshine Sound - M-AD Novice Champs
- Champagne Affair - 1987 Laurel Open Champs, a mixed quartet with my then fiancé Jerri Smith, sister-in-law Deb Smith, and Barry Galloway; we were featured performers in a Barns of Wolf Trap series.
- Salisbury State College Chordbusters
- Thomas Stone High Music Man Quartet
Barbershop Honors and Awards:
- 2010 - Mid-Atlantic District Hall of Honor
- 2013 - Harmonizer Spirt of Harmony Award
- 2000, 2006, and 2008 - Harmonizer Meritorious Service Award
- 2005 - Harmonizer Memorial Award
- 1999 and 2003 - Harmonizer Presidential Citations
- 1998 - Co-Founder (with Gary Plaag) of the Mid-Atlantic District Association of Quartet Champions (MADAQC) and I been the de facto President and wrangle for 24 years
- 1994 - Inducted into DELASUSQUEHUDMAC Honor Chapter, President 2010 & 2011
- 1986 - Harmonizer Oz Newgard Award
|
