Barry Clinton took over as Sheffield Harmony Chorus Director in October 2008. ‘I knew they had great potential the first time I was asked to coach them’, he says, ‘and I’m very excited about what we can achieve’. Since then we have won a bronze medal in our national Sweet Adelines Contest in 2009 and won at Hazel Grove Music Festival in 2010.
However, Barry’s barbershop journey began a long time before that – 20 years earlier in 1988 when he heard Hallmark of Harmony (Sheffield’s male barbershop chorus) on the radio. ‘This prompted me to attend an open evening of my local chorus in Nottingham’, he says ‘and I was hooked!’ A year later, he joined Hallmark itself when he moved up to Sheffield.
Barry enjoyed many successes with Hallmark – 4 gold and 2 silver national contest medals, TV appearances, singing at the London Palladium and the Barbican Centre and singing for royalty to name but a few.
During this time, he was also learning more about the art of barbershop by attending courses run by the British Association of Barbershop Singers (BABS) at their Harmony colleges. By the end of the 1990s, his knowledge and skills had improved so much that he became Lead Section Leader with Hallmark and began to coach the Chorus, before becoming Hallmark’s Chorus Director in 2000.
After attending BABS Directors’ College for 6 years and winning a scholarship for a prestigious week-long directing and musicianship course in America, Barry taught directing techniques himself at BABS Directors’ College and Harmony College for three years.
Barry is now also a qualified judge in the singing category with BABS and has judged barbershop contests for BABS, LABBS (Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers) and IABS (Irish Association of Barbershop Singers). He also continues to coach choruses and quartets for contests which he says he enjoys very much.
So Sheffield Harmony is very lucky to have a Chorus Director of such calibre. But what is it like to direct the women?
‘I love directing Sheffield Harmony because everyone is so enthusiastic and enjoys making good music’, Barry says, ‘although they can be a handful at times!’ ‘Seriously though, women put more heart and emotion into their music, but don’t seem to have the same confidence as the Men’s chorus. I am trying to change this slowly because they really should be confident.’
And what drives him to work so hard? ‘It’s those “golden nugget” moments when everything comes together and the hairs on the back of your neck start to tingle. It is so exciting when the music comes to life and the emotions take over. When that happens, there is nothing quite like it!’