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Finally--yet suddenly--after a century-plus of barbershop harmony experience
and 250 years on the planet, this endangered foursome
evolved into the
Jurassic
Larks Quartet
in July 1997. Just a few weeks later, they won
the Central States District
Seniors Quartet
Championship. This achievement qualified them to represent the district in
the Barbershop Harmony Society's International Seniors Quartet Contest, in
Tampa, Florida, in January 1998. There, the
Jurassic
Larks
won the championship on their first try, besting 25 other quartets from
around the United States and Canada.
Since then, the
Larks
have been dazzling(?) audiences young and old in 27 states with their home-grown parodies of otherwise respectable popular songs
and barbershop standards. The
Larks are still going
strong in 2006 and 2007. The
Larks
are known for the finest in tailored costumes--retro
leisure suits--and they feature a highly animated (?) choreography that
folks really appreciate. Rave reviews have gone so far as to describe the
Larks
as "the cat's meow," "catatonic," "comatose,"
"warped," "awesome," "awful"--whatever.
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Victor Neilsen (Tenor) and Barney Alleman
(Bass) have made a parody of retirement.
After a long career as division manager of vocational rehabilitation, Victor
now is a library volunteer and also mentors an elementary student. Barney
had been an insurance executive--and has retired many times. He is going to
keep doing it till he gets it right. He is an
avid golfer, hunter, and new car go-fer. Vince Yinger (Lead) and Curator of these
prehisterical relics), is the youngest and newest of the four grandfathers.
Now retired, he had been--for what seemed like an eternity to him--an
internal (infernal?) auditor at one of Iowa's state agencies. G.W. Lewallen (Baritone), is semi-retired as an artistic graphic designer. He paints
signs.
He owns the smallest four-wheel paint shop in the valley. With automatic
transmission. As a premier storyteller, G.W. will never retire. These four
entertainers have all been members of the Des Moines, Iowa Barbershop Chorus
for more than 25 years, but they had never
sung together as a quartet until the Larks were hatched in 1997. They've been singing "Together" together ever since. |
The Jurassic
Larks hope you enjoy their unique rendition of barbershop harmony and other prehisterical nonsense half as much as they
enjoy performing it for you. That is the way it usually works out. Now, lean forward to the edge of your
seat--you won't want to miss a single word, note, or graceful movement of
these winged dinosaurs in flight!
H. Vincent Yinger, Curator
2408-53rd Street, Des Moines, IA 50310-1621
Ph. 515-991-6036; Fax or Ph. 515-255-5668
E-mail: <JurassicLarks@juno.com> |
