By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
Lately, Liverpool residents may have opened their doors to a surprise serenade: Game of Tones, a barbershop quartet made up of Liverpool High School seniors, has been going door-to-door to collect bottles and cans to fund a trip to an international competition next month.
“We just show up at people’s houses and start singing,” said Nick Peta, tenor.
After placing second in the Barbershop Harmony Society’s International Midwinter Convention Youth Quartet Finals — which took place in January in Reno, Nev. — BHS CEO Marty Monson invited Game of Tones to compete in the International Youth Barbershop Quartet Contest. This contest is part of BHS’ 2016 Nashville International Convention, which takes place from July 3 to 10 in Nashville, Tennessee.
“This quartet competition is the highest you can reach,” said Thomas Keeping, baritone. “We’re really thrilled, actually.”
In addition to Peta and Keeping, Game of Tones features Bryan Straub on lead and Destin Furcinito on bass. The four young singers came together two summers ago through the Lakeside A Cappella Camp, run by LHS chorus teacher Amanda Sky Harris. The foursome also sing in Harmonic Collective, a men’s chorus based in Liverpool.
“In the original process of coming up with names, one of our friends suggested ‘Game of Tones,’ but we stuck with [our original name] ‘Eighth Wonder’ for a couple years,” Furcinito said.
Finally, the boys abandoned the more common “Eighth Wonder” moniker in favor of their friend’s suggestion.
“Fun fact: None of us has watched ‘Game of Thrones,’” Peta admitted.
For many people, the phrase “barbershop quartet” conjures old-timey images of mustachioed men in matching striped suits, belting tunes of the past. So what would make a group of high schoolers want to pursue the genre?
“Barbershop is a very American art form,” Peta said. “It’s a very community-based form of music.”
While Game of Tones performs “polecats” — traditional barbershop songs such as “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” and “Come Fly with Me” — the group’s repertoire includes arrangements of other genres. In Reno, they performed the Beach Boys’ “Surfer Girl,” and in Nashville, they are planning to sing Michael Jackson’s “She’s Out of My Life.”
More important than the songs themselves is the impact on the audience. Barbershop quartets choose both ballads and faster, cheerier “uptunes” to showcase their vocal and emotional ranges.
“That is really what gets a score,” Furcinito said.
“It can be shared through generations,” Peta said. “We are a youth quartet, but we are able to share it with people who are much older than us and people who are much younger than us.”
Connecting with the audience and with fellow musicians is an important part of barbershop music. To give the next generation of barbershop musicians a hand, arranger Clay Hine provided free music to Game of Tones. The group also has received discounts on learning tracks and has had help from numerous coaches.
“Yes, it is about competing … but it’s a lot of helping each other. It’s like a big, huge family,” Straub said.
“They’re very interested in the fact that youth are continuing their art form that they grew up with,” Peta said.
Game of Tones credits Harris with instilling in them the idea that music is for everyone, and everyone is a singer.
“She really believes that music and singing have powers to heal,” Keeping said.
Before a performance, Harris tells her students, “Change the room.”
“If you’re not changing lives, then why are you singing?” Keeping said.
In addition to their neighborhood bottle drive, the boys are raising money for their Nashville trip by selling baked goods, merchandise and raffle items at their send-off concert, which will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 16, at Onondaga Community College’s Storer Auditorium. Several area choruses and quartets will join Game of Tones for the performance.
Game of Tones fans can also contribute to the group’s goal of $5,000 on GoFundMe by visiting gofundme.com/22zz7hw.
To keep up with Game of Tones’ adventures and watch videos of their performances, like “Game of Tones Barbershop Quartet” on Facebook. To learn more about the Barbershop Harmony Society, visit barbershop.org.
