An all-female a cappella chorus that includes 16 Tri-City residents will try to score a gold medal at a contest in Houston, TX, next week.
In 2009, the Lions Gate Chorus was named the runners-up at the Sweet Adelines International convention in Nashville and, in 2007 in Calgary, it took third spot "so history would suggest that we come first this year," said director Sandy Robinson Marron, a former Port Moody resident. "We've never won internationally so there's a lot of pressure on us to do well."
Since its second ranking two years ago, Robinson Marron said the chorus has been rehearsing weekly, "really focusing on our competition pieces for technical perfection and artistic freedom."
At the international event's the semi-finals, the chorus will have a six-minute performance comprised of two contrasting songs: Time After Time and Midnight Choo Choo. And for the final show, it has the Tin Pan Alley number Hard Hearted Hannah and the ballad The Way You Look Tonight.
Started in 1954, the Lions Gate Chorus has won six regional gold medals under Robinson Marron.
The chorus is choreographed by Judy Pozsgay Rimple and includes Coquitlam residents Joan Codyre, Michelle Crompton, Sofia DaRama, Corine deGroot, Susan Dumas, Penny Miller, Nicole Rahiman, Darleen Savoie; from Port Coquitlam, Helen Alain, Evani Goll, Corinne Newell and Margaret Wheeler; from Port Moody, Diane Balzarini-Lucas, L. Huston and Julie Terpenning; and Anmore's Deborra Hope.
jwarren@tricitynews.com
