A close shave: The New Tradition Chorus, based in Northbrook but drawing heavily from Lake County for its voices, has just returned from Pittsburgh with another silver medal in the international competition of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, based in Kenosha, Wis.
“We just barely missed taking the whole thing,” said Carl Field of Glenview, a singer and publicity mouthpiece for the group. “We lost by 20 points out of 3,000 points. They had 147 men; we had 117. Their sound is a little fuller. We think that’s what beat us.”
The “they” Field was referring to is the Vocal Majority of Dallas.
Nevertheless, silver is something to sing about, and in its seven international competitions so far, New Tradition has kept moving closer to first. The group finished in second place last year but has moved up from earlier third-, fourth- and fifth-place finishes.
This time they faced off against 20 other groups, including singers from Canada, Britain and Sweden.