St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 133

st. louis post-dispatch ST. CHARLES COUNTY POST Thursday, February 2001 SC3 EEKEND Gas House Gang barbershoppers set to harmonize at community coUege postnet.comcommunities Barbershop quartet What: The Gas House Gang. When: 3 p.m. Feb.

11. Where: The Donald D. Shook Fine Arts auditorium, St. Charles County Community College. Address: 4601 Mid Rivers Mall Drive, Cottleville.

Admission: $7. Tickets and information: The SCCCC box office at 636-922-8050. i fN i jl 77" The Gas House Gang, a barbershop County Community College Concert Knight and Kipp Buckner. style vocal quartet, is the featured group at this month's St. Charles Series.

The group members are (from left) Rob Henry, Jim Henry, Rich chitectural drafting at the high school level since 1974. He has sung in three different quartets at the International Competition level. Knight lives in Lake Saint Louis with his wife, Jan. Baritone Rob Henry. Henry is Jim Henry's brother.

He began his barbershop career at 19. Rob Henry serves as assistant director and section leader of the Ambassadors St Charles. He recently earned his doctorate in music composition from Washington University. He lives with his wife, Geda, and their daughters, Lydia and Gea Rose, in St Peters. won numerous competitions, including the 1993 International Quartet Championship, where the quartet earned the highest point total ever scored on the international stage.

The group has produced four recordings, including last year's Christmas album. Its albums have been consistent best sellers in the a capella catalogue. The quartet has appeared on a national PBS program titled "Voices of Harmony" and has been heard worldwide on BBC radio in England. Last summer the group spent 10 days in Russia, where it participated in a barbershop harmony festival. It sang in a variety of venues, including philharmonic and a capella halls in St Petersburg.

While in Russia, the group conducted clinics in the art of barbershop harmonizing. Henry described the experience as "life-changing." He explained that a capella singing (performance with no accompaniment) has a long and rich history in Russia, where quartets have been performing for centuries. Barbershop harmony can be performed in any language, Henry said. Those who participated in the clinic sang American barbershop favorites phonetically just as the Gas House Gang does when harmonizing in foreign languages. Clinic participants included quartets of 9- and 10-year-olds who sang a variety of Russian folk songs.

Henry explained that barbershop harmony is an art and a science with strict rules about matching vowel sounds, balancing chords and razor-sharp accuracy with no room for "sliding into notes." The quartet must sing as confidently as a soloist while keeping in mind that each is part of a group effort "You have to give up your own personality a little like playing on a baseball team where each guy must be extremely talented at his own part yet no one can be hot," he explained. Members of the Gas House Gang are: Tenor Kipp Buckner. Buckner started singing barbershop at age 14 when he joined the seven-time international champion barbershop chorus The Louisville Thoroughbreds, later co-directed by his father. He sang with The Interstate Rivals, who also achieved the rank of International Champion, making Buckner one of an elite number of barbershoppers who have won two gold medals. He runs a computer business out of his home in St.

Peters, where he lives with his wife, Kirsten, and their children, Gage, Kila, Keegan and Taylor. Lead singer Rich Knight Knight holds a master's degree in industrial technology education and has taught mechanical and ar- The foursome has won numerous awards and performed around the world. BY ESTHER TALBOT FENNING Special to the St. Charles County Post The Gas House Gang barbershop quartet took its name from a nickname given to the St Louis Cardinals in the 1930s. According to legend, "Gas House Gang" described the baseball team's fiery attitude and fun-loving style of play.

The quartet felt that the name matched its own personality. In the past 14 years, the foursome's energetic style and diverse repertoire have won them numerous awards in competitions, taken them to concert halls around the world, put them on television and radio and sent their a capella recordings to the top of recording lists. The Gas House Gang got its start as part of the Ambassadors of Harmony, based in St Charles. The Ambassadors is one of the top five men's choruses in the world, said bass singer Jim Henry. Henry performs with the Gas House Gang and served as director and assistant director for the Ambassadors.

All four members of the Gas House Gang live with their wives and children in St Charles County. Three are teachers and one is a mortgage broker. The Gas House Gang will make a rare appearance on home territory when it performs at 3 p.m. Feb. 11 at St.

Charles County Community College. The performance is the third in a new series of guest concerts sponsored by the SCCCC music department The Gas House Gang will sing traditional barbershop tunes and a variety of styles that include a bit of classical, doo-wop sounds, gospel and Broadwaywith several comedic songs thrown in, Henry said. Their repertoire ranges from "Sixteen Tons" and "Music of the Night" to the "William Tell Overture," familiar to radio and television audiences as the Lone Ranger's theme. The group even uses its a capella style to bring the music of Mozart and Beethoven to audiences. Its busy performance schedule around the world hasn't left the group much time to perform at home, Henry said.

"We are so excited to bring our program home to the community college," he said. "The program is family-friendly, and we feel blessed that kids enjoy it as much as adults." The Gas House Gang has performed in London, Toronto and New York City's Carnegie Hall. It has appeared in more than 40 states and nine countries and has 0 (0 1 1 JLbj I I 1 VJ. 1LJ lUam-opmr. Rob, are both second-generation barbershoppers.

Jim Henry has been singing since he was 11 and has been active as a coach, chorus director and instructor at various music schools. He is the choral director at Lindenwood University in QQ Sofa, Loveseat, uuu 0ir XA UU Contemporary group of Harmony and is a broker for American National Mortgage. Henry's wife, Sue, is a choreography coach for the Ambassadors of Harmony. They couple have a new son, Ryan, born in December. Jim Henry and his brother, Room sofa, thair, cocktail, dc.

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The cost is $35 including gratuity. For reservations, call ART RECEPTION: The public is invited to a reception and awards ceremony from 5-8 p.m. for new exhibits at the St. Peters Cultural Arts Center, 3960 Mexico Road, St. Peters.

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Charles County students. Categories will be grades 1-4, 5-8 and 9-12. "Images II" represents the work of St. Charles artist Chang-Wen Chen. Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.

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