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Mid-Atlantic District
The largest district in the Barbershop Harmony Society

Quartets

Premiere



7/31/2006
Dear Friends and Family,

 

After a wonderfully rewarding 10 year stretch of spreading harmony in the Barbershop style, the 1997 Mid Atlantic District Championship quartet, Premiere, has decided to retire.  We hope to sing on the Wildwood, NJ, Mid-Atlantic District Championship Jamboree on October 7th.  During our retirement performance we will be thinking of all of you, our friends, families, MAD and International quartet compatriots, home chapters, show chapters, amazing coaches (most recently the incomparable team of Cindy Hansen, Greg Lyne, Freddie King, and Rick & Sue Taylor), fans, judges, and all the wonderfully appreciative audiences for whom we have performed over the last decade.  We are indebted to each of you for your constant support and kindness, the enduring friendships, the avid competition, the laughter late into the night, the excellence of your guidance, the thrill of your applause, the cheesecake, the ringing of so many chords together with you on the glows and shows.  Of course, we do not know what the future holds for our individual quarteting experiences, but this time has been truly singular in our lives in the affection and encouragement you have so freely given each of us and the joy of singing we have shared together. 

 

For those of you who have gotten to know Premiere just recently, we’d like to share with you some history of the quartet: 

 

Premiere formed in January 1996 at the home of Dennis Malone, our founding baritone. Denny had won the SPEBSQSA International Quartet Championship in 1983 with the incredible Side Street Ramblers.  He also sang with Fred Womer in The Bingo Brothers earning the 1994 MAD Quartet Championship and finishing 10th at International that year.  After three years with Premiere winning the 1997 MAD Quartet Championship and placing as high as 13th in International, Denny and his family hastily decided to move to the Denver area just to get away from the rest of us.  He now refuses to sing baritone and, more importantly, still owes us $20 each for bad bets on the Cowboys. 

 

While replacing Dennis was a daunting task (“I’m Malone Because I Love You”), we asked our coach and long time mentor, Freddie King, baritone of the 1970 International Quartet Champs, the incomparable The Oriole Four, and past MAD Champ and top 10 International quartet The Pro’s and Con’s, to step into Denny’s spot.  Though “The King” had big shoes to fill, well, you know the rest.  

 

As all of you can imagine we had a grand time with “Shoes,” as Fred King is affectionately known by many, watching him make people laugh and cry at the same time with his classic teeth routine and frog stories, and enjoying rare quite moments during rehearsal where The King would share his appreciation of the Champs of years past.  With Shoes on baritone, the quartet headed to International three more times.  Here are the incredible stats: Shoes’ top 20 finish in 1999 and International performances in 2000 and 2001 put The King in the top 20 for five decades, and marked Freddie’s sixth decade (and fourth millennium) on the International quartet competition stage, respectively, and this doesn’t even include his time in his great senior quartet, SAGE.  What an honor and privilege it was to join with Fred in the making of history and afterwards to see Shoes eat beans.  With a heavy adenoid, The King stepped down from the quartet in 2001, yet another victim of too much time in confined spaces with Fred Womers’ footwear. 

 

Following on the heels of competitive and musical giants like Malone and King, any baritone would be shaking in his shoes.  Paul Grimes, a long time friend of the quartet, was sufficiently naïve to join the revolving baritone parade and share his polished musical and vocal talents with us.  Paul had many years of barbershopping experience in the Evergreen District and more recently with MAD favorites such as Coast to Coast, King’s Ransom, and Inferno.  After Premiere’s competition hiatus in ’02 and ’03 (and, geez, did that surgery hurt), Paul earned Premiere a berth in three more Internationals marking his first experiences on the big stage, most recently distinguishing himself in ’06 for best baritone execution of onomatopoeia. 

 

It’s been a particular honor to represent the great MAD and our incredible home chapters of Alexandria, VA, Dundalk, MD, Centreville, VA, Baltimore, MD, Harrisburg, PA, and Gondwana, ER.  We cannot thank you enough for teaching us the craft, for coaching us with patience, and encouraging us in so many ways.  The MAD has been an incredible source of learning, and we’d like to say a special thanks to Ron Knickerbocker for so many great quartet experiences at MAD Top Gun schools and Harmony College East. 

 

Many of us know the thrill of ringing one in a cinderblock stairway where a massive dominant seventh chord echoes forever.  Fewer of us have been given the joy of having an audience rise to their feet in appreciation of a heartfelt Sonny Boy or Auld Lang Syne.  We will always be thankful for each of you.  Your love and applause will remain in our hearts and memories for a lifetime.  

 

You’re Friends in Harmony,

Fred Womer, Rick Savage, Paul Grimes, and Bill Clark

Premiere

 

 

P.S. In case you’re not bored yet, Premiere’s recent quartet bio is included below to cure your insomnia.  Though it’s a bit redundant, we hope it gives you a 40 winks and a smile. 

________

 

Premiere’s four singers have over 90 years of SPEBSQSA membership.  That’s a boatload of skimmers, white patent leather shoes, and orange ruffled tux shirts in the closet. 

 

A perennial quarter- and semifinalist in International quartet competition and the 1997 MAD Quartet Champion, Premiere has placed as high as 13th (1997 in Indy), which is great since we strongly prefer prime numbers.  This year we were aiming to place 1597th, our favorite Fibonacci prime as it also commemorates the year Bali was discovered.  Regretfully for our coaching team, we came fairly close. 

 

Fred Womer, lead

Our lead and the most youthful member of the quartet, Fred, has been barbershopping since 1987 (and he has the credit card receipts to prove it).  He is a two-time winner of the Mid Atlantic District Quartet Championship title with The Bingo Brothers (a quartet name chosen only narrowly over the more politically correct The Tiddly Winks Siblings) and later with Premiere.  In 2005, Fred married a professional optometrist – she had to be an eternal optometrist to marry Fred.  (You saw that one coming, right?)  He is currently a full time college student earning a degree in computer networking, whatever that is.  If you suspect Fred is odd (and you'd be right), just ask him how, at the age of 7, he dealt with a lounge singer who'd refused to sing Copacabana

 

Rick Savage, tenor

Rick came to the quartet from a long line (like that at the DMV) of Mid-Atlantic quartets, most recently Surround Sound and International Semifinalist Copyright '86.  The perennially best dressed member of the quartet and proud grandfather of two, he continues to perform in the front row of the Alexandria Harmonizers, a position he took over from Millard Fillmore.  Rick now sings tenor as a result of a tragic luge-sharpening accident.  For a while there, Rick’s vocal skills could only be appreciated by canines, ungulates, and cetacea.   Though Rick is suitably patient with lounge singers with gaps in their Manilow repertoire, do not wear white after Labor Day unless you’re willing to risk his ire.  Discuss. 

 

Bill Clark, bass  

Several years after becoming hooked on barbershop in college singing with the Boston Gentlemen quartet, Bill began his Society barbershop chorus and quartet career in the Meriden, CT chapter and with Chordial Invitation.  Once exiled from Connecticut after run-ins with a state trooper and a weasel (probably a baritone), he covertly joined the Alexandria Harmonizers and sang together with Rick in Surround Sound.  The proud father of two young sons, Bill is near fluent in Barney-speak and often quotes Dr. Seuss.  As a biotechnology R&D manager in New Jersey, he spends most of his time trying to discover something.  Anything.  Really. 

 

Paul Grimes, baritone

Originally from Oregon, and sometimes still from Oregon, Paul began his musical career as a cellist (i.e., while playing a large stringed instrument, he was confined to the cellar).  After Paul joined the Society in 1984 as a lead, his chorus director quickly realized that Paul had an ear for the baritone part, and he hasn't been normal since.  The chorus director, that is.  Paul’s MAD quarteting history includes several MAD favorites such as Coast to Coast, King’s Ransom, and Inferno.   Good thing Premiere already had a quartet name before Paul joined us.  A computer network project manager (whatever that is), Paul counts four beagles as part of his nuclear family, all of whom somehow put up with his latest musical excursion, the bagpipes.  Yes, seriously. 




Complete list of Bios