- "Come & Sing A Cappella" on the 16th January 2025
-
Date Posted: Mon, 16 Dec 2024
The Knights of Harmony invite you to join us for our "Come & Sing A Cappella" Open Evening event on the 16th January 2025.
We are opening up the doors to our regular Thursday night rehearsal at the White Hill Centre, Chesham; this one will be a bit different though, as we have a special programe for our guests. You'll listen to us sing, as well as being able to learn and experence a cappella singing for yourself. Although we are a Male a cappella chorus, anyone is welcome to this event; we just want to show everyone what we love about singing in four part harmony and why we love it so much; We think that hopefully you will like it too? There will be songs and parts of songs (that we call Tags), which you can learn to sing on the night; It doesn't matter whether or not you have sung this type of music before; everything will be explained to you on the night and you will get all the help that you need. The main idea is to have fun, to learn and to try new things.
If you're interested, then it would be great if you could give Chas a quick call or send a message so that we can get a few things ready for you, to:
members@knightsofharmony.org.uk
Chas's number is 07762 089818.
No previous A Cappella singing experience is required by you.
So go on, why not give it a go and join us for the evening!
Ian Jones
KOH Marketing ManagerAttachment: 
- 2023 - an eventful year
-
Date Posted: Mon, 1 Jan 2024
It all started with our January Open Night when we welcomed two new recruits into our ranks. Both Terry and Sam are now well-established Knights who are aiming to be with us at Harrogate.
In March we entered the prestigious Watford Festival, which has been going for over 70 years. We competed in the class for choral groups with fewer than 24 singers, (we had 11) and won.
This year saw the presentation of the Jean Digby inaugural award for the best a cappella group. Jean was an inspirational local barbershopper, who sadly passed away in 2019. Jean was the founder of Hemel Hempstead choir Just A cappella, who proudly presented the award in her name. The Knights were delighted to be the first recipients of the beautiful award.
The highlight of our year was at the Bournemouth Convention, winning the Small Chorus Award with just 19 singers on stage. We achieved our highest ever mark and equalled our highest position of sixth place.
We are unlikely to retain the title in 2024, as we hope to have some 40% more singers on stage. This is all down to carrying on with recruitment throughout the year. All these new faces have certainly created a buzz in the chorus and we are all looking forward to helping BABS celebrate their 50th Anniversary in Harrogate.
June followed quickly after Convention and again we recruited some new members at our summer Open Night. July and August were a lot less hectic but we certainly ‘shared the joy of singing’ during the latter part of the year. It started with our sell-out show on September 30th, then continued with our six week Time to Harmonise course which ended in mid-November. We also squeezed in three sing-outs before our annual dinner at the end of that month.
December saw us doing a number of small group gigs, including three in one day which ended with an evening performance at John Lewis, High Wycombe store. In total we sang at eight different venues ending with a live performance on Chiltern Voice Radio. We donated our fees to the various charities thus helping them to raise over £3k in total.
You might think we would rest up now, but not a bit of it as we swing into the new year with our recruitment Open Night on the January11th. This will be followed by our first week-end retreat in February and then competing at the Watford Festival and singing at the “Choirs R Us” concert in March.
Looking further into the future, we are starting to plan for our own 50th anniversary in 2025.
Finally, we offer our congratulations to our long-standing member, Matthew Cawthorne, who has just been appointed acting BABS Vice Chair. Matthew joins a long list of Knights who have held the post of Chairman. In fact, Matthew will eventually be the seventh Knight to hold the post.
For the record, the other six are BABS founder member Gerry Holland, John Wiggins, Tony Searle, Chas Owen, Chris Tideman and Stuart Lines. Not bad for a little town like Chesham.
Chas Owen
Knights Membership Secretary
- Knights of Harmony Open Night - 11th January 2024
-
Date Posted: Fri, 8 Dec 2023
It's a New Year so it's time to try new things; here is an excellent opportunity for you to experience a cappella singing.
We will be holding our 'Knights of Harmony Open Night' event on Thursday 11th January at the White Hill Centre, Chesham, HP5 1AG.
Anyone over the age of 18 is welcome to come and join us for the evening between 8pm and 10:30pm.
We would love to see you there and to show you some of the fun that we get up to on Thursday nights.
For more info please phone Chas on 07762 089818.
Attachment: 
- BABS National Contest - Sing 2023 - Winners of the Small Chorus Award
-
Date Posted: Sat, 27 May 2023
Sing 2023 - Bournemouth the venue. The Knights of Harmony achieved 6th place with 70.9%, our highest score at National Convention. Congratulations Knights on winning the Jim Carter trophy - the Small Chorus Award, pictured here with Sean Bui (left - Chorus Director) and Bill Homer (right - Chairman).
- Convention Update
-
Date Posted: Sun, 21 May 2023
Saturday the 20th May saw us complete our final away day preparations for the British Association of Barbershop Singers Convention in Bournemouth next weekend (27th May 2023). We have polished our two songs to the best we can and now hope that we can take our best performance to the competition stage.
Last year saw us break into the top 10 and obtain a record (for our club) score of 70.4%. We would love to beat that score and cement our place in the top tier of British Barbershop but mostly we just want to soak up the atmosphere and have a great time. Four great singers; Phil Wichello, Stephen Freestone, Nick Joy and Tom Lilley all join us on stage for the first time in competition and just one, Dick May is missing from last year’s line up as he jets off to be with his family in the USA. It is the first convention he has missed for 43 years. We’ll miss him but we are all really excited about the whole weekend event.
We’ll update you next week when the judges have had their say, but a quick reminder that we have an open evening on the 8th June. Hope to see a multitude of newcomers there.
Bill Homer
Chairman
- New Knights
-
Date Posted: Fri, 21 Apr 2023
We welcome and congratulate Sam Winwood and Terry Hannigan, who this week became the newest members of the
British Association of Barbershop singers, seen here with Knights’ Chairman Bill Homer receiving
their certificates. Well done on passing your auditions guys and welcome to the fold.
This week we put a bit of movement into one of our convention songs, which we think sells the song
so much better. Dick May unfortunately can’t be with us this year in Bournemouth, but in addition to
the other 16 singers who took to BABS convention stage in Harrogate 2022, we are joined by
newcomers Stephen Freestone, Tom Lilley, Nick Joy, Phil Whichello and we welcome back Muff
Winwood. What a great team. We are all greatly excited about Convention this year.
- News update April 2023
-
Date Posted: Wed, 5 Apr 2023
News update April 2023
Well the first quarter of 2023 has been an eventful, exciting and full-on few months. We began the year with an open evening which attracted 4 potential recruits, of which two have subsequently passed auditions and become full members. Welcome to Sam Winwood (bass) and Terry Hannigan (lead).
February saw our first sing outs of the year; a quartet performing at a 50th birthday party and a sextet performing for Bucks Vision raising money for the blind and partially sighted. We also had one bass, one lead, two baritones and two tenors attend ‘Harmony Brigade’ in Nottingham.
There was no let-up in March either. 10 of us had the privilege of singing at bass, Phil Whichello’s wedding which was an absolute joy and it’s always great to have an appreciative audience. We also had our first couple of away days where we pushed the contest songs along a bit with Chorus Director, Sean Bui, weaving a bit of his magic and, as always, it was a good deal of hard work which reaped some pleasing results. We’re hoping for a better turnout for the next couple of away days as we aim towards our goal of exceeding last year’s Convention score. We capped the month off with the Watford Festival of Music, winning the Choir Class A6 trophy for the second year in a row and won the inaugural award for the best A Cappella performance: the judge said of our performance:
MY GIRL
“I did enjoy your take on this Smoky Robinson classic, Knights of Harmony. A steady, punchy groove with warmly handled vocals and tidy lead work.
Tricky harmony corners were confidently handled. A lovely Brian Wilson-esque top to the line too.
Very funny interaction here by the way.”
Mr BLUE SKY
“A vibrant contrast followed with your ELO cover, with this groove tautly handled, with a rhythmic feel from the up-tempo energy. The complex melodic work evenly controlled. Lovely physicality of the lyric here.
Lots to commend in these two assured, entertaining performances.
Knights of Harmony. Well done.”
- Choirs R Us - Sharing the Joy of Singing
-
Date Posted: Wed, 5 Apr 2023
Sharing the Joy of Singing with Choirs R Us
April kicked off with a guest spot at the Choirs R Us concert in Barnet, in aid of the Stroke Society. We were also joined by the North London Singers. It was great to perform to a packed church of about 300 people and get a standing ovation. It is especially satisfying when that happens from a bunch of people who have no idea who we are and are outside our normal support base. It was a fabulous night full of the joy of singing which is what we’re all about. Jenny Bennett (Choir Director - Choirs R Us), wrote to say: “It was an absolute joy to have you all there and to hear such beautiful singing and such a high level of ensemble performance.”
- Upcoming Events for 2023
-
Date Posted: Wed, 5 Apr 2023
Upcoming Events for 2023
When can you see us?- 7th May Small group singing at Chesham Coronation Party by the Clock Tower at 12:30pm
- 27th May BABS Convention Bournemouth International Centre
- 10th June Northwood College for girls Summer Fete
- 15th July Hats off Chesham - Chesham High Street
- 30th September: Chesham Baptist Church: Knights of Harmony Annual Concert with multi award winning Amersham A Cappella and Gold medal winning quartet Portobello Road
- 12th October: Join us for our annual Time to Sing course and experience the thrill of singing A Cappella in 4-part harmony. Details will appear on this website in due course
