World's reigning barbershop quartet

to perform at BYU-Idaho concert

Max Q, the 2007 Barbershop Harmony Society's international quartet champions, will perform Jan. 18 and 19 at the BYU-Idaho Barbershop Music Festival in Rexburg.

Concerts on Friday will be at 6 and 8:30 p.m. and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Barrus Concert Hall of the Snow Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $8 for the general public and $4 for BYU-Idaho students. They are available online at www.byui.edu/tickets, at the Kimball Ticket Office or by calling 496-2230.

Max Q has been together for four years. Two of the members of Max Q are also members of the Dallas-based men's barbershop chorus Vocal Majority, which has won 11 gold medals in various competitions.

Festival organizer Philip Ricks of Rexburg said BYU-Idaho is fortunate to have Max Q perform. "The top quartets talk and they tell each other that if they have an opportunity to come to Rexburg, they should take it," he said.

Besides Max Q, the festival will include student quartets, the BYU-Idaho Men's Choir, Women's Choir and the Carousel Chorus, all singing barbershop music.

Ricks invites two guest conductors to work with local choruses and quartets, as well as bringing a quartet to perform.

"It's fun to see the young people when they catch the vision of what barbershop is," Ricks said. "To see the light come into their eyes - it's a really fun thing."

This year's guest conductors, Jim DeBusman from Nashville, Tenn., and Tori Postma from Salt Lake City, will work with student quartets and choruses.

Barbershop quartet music is a musical art form original to the United States. The Barbershop Harmony Society was organized in 1938 and now has more than 800 chapters in North America, including the Carousel Chorus based in Rexburg.