Harmony, Incorporated

Harmony, Incorporated

Official Harmony, Incorporated logo
Background information
Origin Providence, Rhode Island
Genres A cappella
barbershop music
Years active 1959–present
Website www.harmonyinc.org
Members 1992 (October 2015)[1]

Harmony, Incorporated, is an international organization of women singers whose purpose is to empower all women through education, friendship and a cappella singing in the barbershop style. Founded by 1959 by Peggy Rigby, Charlotte Sneddon, Mary Avis Hedges, Jeanne Maino and Mary Perry in Providence, Rhode Island, the organization currently has just under 2000 members in the United States and Canada and is closely affiliated with the Barbershop Harmony Society.

History

In 1957, several members of Sweet Adelines International (SAI) broke from the organization in protest of the policy limiting membership to Caucasian women. In 1958, chapters from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Orillia, Ontario, also left SAI to form Harmony, Incorporated.[2]

Harmony, Inc. was incorporated in the State of Rhode Island on February 26, 1959. The founding member chapters of Harmony, Inc. were the Melody Belles of Providence, Rhode Island; Sea Gals of New Bedford, Massachusetts; The Harmonettes from North Attleboro, Massachusetts; Harmony Belles of Barrie-Orillia, Ontario; and the Harborettes from Scituate, Massachusetts.[3]

1963, a Sweet Adeline chapter in Ottawa, Ontario was threatened with expulsion after accepting a black woman, Lana Clowes, as a member.[4] As a result, Ottawa's Capital Chordettes left SAI to become the seventh chapter to join Harmony, Incorporated.[5]

In 2013, Harmony, Inc. announced the creation of the Affiliate membership category, extending membership to men involved with the organization.[6]

Contests

Harmony, Inc. annually holds international and area-level conventions and contests for choruses and quartets to improve singing, conduct meetings and provide educational instruction.

Quartets who win the international gold medal are called "Harmony Queens," and are considered champions forever and may not compete again. A chorus that wins the gold, however, must sit out of competition one year and may compete for the gold medal again in the second year following their championship.

Quartet champions

Chorus champions

Harmony, Inc. Areas

Harmony, Inc. is divided into geographical areas,[7] and the membership of an Area consists of all the chapters and Associate members assigned to it by the International Board of Directors (IBOD).

For purposes of administration (particularly of local schools and contests) the society is organized into geographical districts as follows:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Document 2015AnnualMeetingMinutes.pdf, Harmony, Inc. Annual Meeting Membership Totals, October 2015; .
  2. ↑ Averill, Gage (2003), Four Parts: No Waiting, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-511672-0, p. 132: "The split occurred after the 1957 convention in Miami, at which the outgoing board introduced a resolution to restrict membership to Caucasians...Sweet Adelines had no black members, and no one was aware of any black singers who had petitioned to join the organization. Still, the board argued that there had always been tacit agreement about racial exclusion and it was time to formalize this policy.... chapters split, quartets broke up, members resigned, and arguments ensued at all levels of the organization... starting in July 1958, a number of northern chapters dropped out of Sweet Adelines... and met in Providence, Rhode Island... to start Harmony, Incorporated."
  3. ↑ "History book – Harmony, Inc." (PDF).
  4. ↑ Cote, Starr (March 12, 1963). "'Sweet Adelines' rebel at ruling barring Negroes". The Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved February 20, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Canadian Adelines asked to form own 'open' group". The Ottawa Citizen. Gary Nott. March 21, 1963. Retrieved February 20, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Harmony, Inc. welcomes men as affiliate members".
  7. ↑ "Locate a Chapter – Harmony, Inc.".
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