Westminster Chorus

Westminster Chorus
The Westminster Chorus, October 2014
Background information
Origin	Westminster, California
Genres	Barbershop music
Years active	2002–present
Website	Official site

The Westminster Chorus (formerly known as the Harmony Showcase Chorus) is a men's a cappella chorus based in Westminster, California. International Chorus Champions of the Barbershop Harmony Society in 2007, 2010, and 2015, and Choir of the world in 2009, they are composed almost entirely of men under the age of 40.

The town of Westminster, in Orange County, CA has supported a barbershop chapter for almost half a century; but by the 1990s, it had an aging membership and no active performing chorus. In 2002 a small group of younger men from the Masters of Harmony chorus in nearby Santa Fe Springs, CA decided they would like to try to start a barbershop chorus with the mission of bringing younger men together to make music with others their own age. Founding member Terry Ghiselli approached the men of the Westminster chapter, which at the time only comprised 8 members, and they were glad to allow the young men to pick up and use the chapter charter in order to produce their vision of a youth-oriented chorus.

With 15 members and only a half dozen rehearsals under their belt, they competed at the SoCal West divisional contest in April 2002. The oldest member on stage was 27, the youngest 16. The average age was 20, and 6 of the singers were brand new barbershoppers. Directed by Ghiselli, they surprised the crowd by walking away with the championship trophy that day, and advancing to the Far Western District contest the following fall.

In October 2002, they traveled to Bakersfield, CA to compete in their first district contest, with 19 men. They shocked the crowd by outscoring all other competitors, but were unfortunately disqualified from the championship because of a member eligibility issue. The San Jose, CA Garden City Chorus was given the crown and advanced to the 2003 International contest in Montreal, Canada.

In the fall of 2003 they once again competed at the Far Western District contest in Bakersfield and once again won the contest, this time legally, and by quite a margin, outscoring the second place Pacific Coast Harmony from La Jolla, CA by 53 points. This gave them the right to represent FWD at the 2004 International contest in Louisville, Kentucky the following July, where they surprised the crowd by placing 9th the first time out.