BYU-Idaho Barbershop Music Festival coming to Rexburg this weekend
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REXBURG — The sweet harmonies of barbershop music will soon fill the air around Brigham Young University-Idaho as the university welcomes quartets from throughout the region for its annual Barbershop Music Festival.
The festival invites barbershop groups from campus and local high school groups to come in for a weekend of performances and instruction from clinicians. The festival also features performances throughout the weekend, giving student groups a shot to share the stage with the festival’s headlining acts.
“This is a long-standing tradition that we do every year and we involve the community,” BYU-Idaho student Rebekah Griffin told EastIdahoNews.com. “It’s been a fun event that we usually have a good turn-out for, so we’re excited that it’s here.”
The festival’s performances will be split between two venues, with the show featuring local high schools taking place Friday night at the Rexburg Tabernacle. Two shows on Saturday will be at the Eliza R. Snow Center for the Performing Arts on the BYU-Idaho campus.
The final show of the festival will be headlined by the quartet Sound Check. The Salt Lake-based quartet has been putting on high-energy performances for audiences all across the Northwest states for the past decade. One of Sound Check’s members is Jimmy Schofield, a BYU-Idaho graduate.
The BYU-Idaho Men’s Chorus and Women’s Chorus groups will also take the stage. Sound Check and the chorus groups will be preceded by BYU-Idaho student and high school groups as selected by a panel of judges.
“There will be some judging on Friday and a little on Saturday and that will really set in stone who’s going to perform at the event,” she said. “We could have five to eight groups perform and that may or may not include high school groups. That is based on who the clinicians that we bring in pick. The guest artist will help judge those quartets, as well.”
The Barbershop Music Festival is a popular event, not only for BYU-I students but also for the Rexburg community. Griffin said that involving the community has helped make the festival a popular draw in Rexburg.
“It’s just a fun and lively concert,” she said. “In fact, it goes on well into the night afterward with the Community Afterglow. I think, too, that the support from the community really helps. They have a lot of people who audition and become involved with it and helps get the word around. And we have our students involved, as well. It’s just an overall good experience for everyone.”
The BYU-I Barbershop Music Festival hits Rexburg this weekend. There are performances at the Rexburg Tabernacle on Friday, Feb. 21 at 7 pm and shows at 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm Saturday, Feb. 22 at the Barrus Concert Hall in the BYU-I Eliza R. Snow Center for the Performing Arts. Click here for tickets and information.