The Coronet Club: Coming Home

Coming Home

For the Coronet Club, convention week is a flurry of final rehearsals, welcoming competing quartets, a powerhouse show, celebrating newly-crowned queens and memories to last until next year.

BY MAGGIE RYAN GREATER HARRISBURG CHORUS, REGION #19 PHOTOS BY CLAIRE GARDINER

The end of an era: Sweet Adelines’ longest-active champion quartet, “The Buzz,” (2005) retire on a high note in their final Coronet Club performance. Liz Hardcastle (Ambiance, 1987), Coronet Club show emcee for the past 20 years, passes the podium to new emcee, Nikki Blackmer (Frenzy, 2017)

Bright lights, vivid gowns and the crowns – oh, those crowns – set the Coronet Club Show apart from every other event at Sweet Adelines International’s annual convention. But the show is more than the exclamation point for a week of fierce competition. It’s a homecoming and a celebration of the best among us, on a grand, yet intimate, scale.

It begins months ahead, just like our own chapter shows. A theme is developed, music approved and choreography mapped out. Sheet music and learning tracks are mailed worldwide. It turns out a good portion of our international quartet champions don’t read music. And when they get together for that once-a-year performance, they need some work. What, like us? Yes, just like us.

“I’m going to need five times more tenor here and a lot less lead. You don’t have the melody here, leads!” designated director Kerry Denino (Spotlight, 2006)* barks at the first rehearsal. Kerry is guiding the Queens through their first shot at the wildly intricate Daft Punk, arranged, according to the sheet music, “by many, many people.”

A sly smile plays on her lips as she surveys her seated singers. “I’m gonna need more tenor or I’ll have to add some leads.”

“What?!” comes an amused, indignant and high-pitched cry. The tenor section sits up straighter and gives each other the sideeye. Add leads. As if.

At its core, the Coronet Club is a gathering of women for whom music is the native tongue, the first language, the common thread. Soon the rhythms emerge, like the shared beat of a collective heart. At the back of the small, packed ballroom Molly Plummer (Maxx Factor, 2011) puts the front row through its paces. They’re backing into each other and getting the giggles. It’s a little rough, but it’s only Tuesday. They’re pros. They’ll pull it off.

A few hours earlier, the Coronet Club greeted the 2018 competitors at its annual reception. Quartets line up in their matching walk-around outfits and wait to be announced as they enter the ballroom. They are met by a queen who will introduce them around. Out in the hallway, eyes are wide, especially among first-timers. Their heroes are just inside that door.

“I was so excited,” says Melynnie Williams (Zing! 2010) of her first reception. “There were all the beautiful crowns and beautiful women and they are so receptive and loving. You just can’t wait to be one of them.”

The wonder of this collection of queens never goes away, even when you have two crowns to choose from. “I walked in the first

2018 Region #21 champion quartet, C’est La Vie, with former international president, queen (Ginger ‘N Jazz, 1990/Rumors, 1999 ) and SA international board member, Peggy Gram. Martini (2012) baritone DeAnne Haugen, singing with her sons Josh Umhoefer (left) and Jake Umhoefer, in Midnight Croon.

First-time competitors Vintage, a 2018 Wildcard Quartet from Region #8, enjoying the Coronet Club reception. Fire and Ice, representing Region #35, traveled from New Zealand to St. Louis for their first international competition.

time as a non-queen and was in awe of the talent in the room,” recalls two-time champion Susan Ives (Classic Edition, 1998 and Zing! 2010) “After 20 years as a queen, I’m still in awe.”

The gathering quartets fill the ballroom to a cheerful, almostfrenetic capacity. Coronet Club President Janell Paviolitis (MeloEdge, 1984), ever a calm presence in the rousing venue, takes to the small stage and introduces the 2018 champions Lustre. The crowd closes in and some women simply sit on the floor, legs drawn up, heads back, taking in the performance.

“It’s very weird [being on this side],” admits Lustre bass Jenny Harris, motioning at the room. “I was introducing some members in a competing quartet and I was looking at crowns across the room and I saw a Lustre crown and it was … (she squeals and grins). Wow.”

Near the end of the Friday night show, after 2019 champions ClassRing marched to their front-row seats amid cheers, photos and Pretty Woman booming from the arena speakers, after “The Buzz” (2005) has taken its final bow, and the Ambassadors of Harmony BHS chorus performed a thrilling guest set, longtime emcee Liz Hardcastle (Ambiance, 1987) gets serious. Just for a moment.

“I love our Coronet Club audiences,” she says. “Since 1987, we’ve joyously played together. You are my ‘forever family.’ But I’m ready to take a little break. The time is perfect for a new, fresh, crazy perspective for all of us.

“Queen Nikki Blackmer (Frenzy, 2017),” Liz says, naming her successor at the podium, “your TIME is now!”

The queens file out with the big crowd, still tip-tapping a little Daft Punk (nailed it) and basking in the glow of another fine show. They linger for a long time in the hotel lobby, swapping stories and even singing a couple of tags.

St. Louis is history. New Orleans awaits. They’ll enter a room full of crowns and feel the flutter all over again, but this time it won’t be nerves. It will be joy. The joy of coming home.

*Editor’s Note: Quartets’ champion years refer to the year in which they held the majority of their title, not the year they won the competition.