Barbershop Harmony Society Celebrates 80th Anniversary with National Barbershop Quartet Day

On April 11, 1938, America’s purest art form established the National Barbershop Quartet Day, and today, April 11, 2018, the Barbershop Harmony Society celebrates its 80th anniversary with nationwide performances and events.

"We celebrate April 11 as the founding date of the Barbershop Harmony Society, but it’s really much bigger than that,” says Barbershop CEO Marty Monson. "It’s about everyone in harmony. Organized Barbershop associations are just a fraction of the people making music every day in schools, churches, and communities. People around the world, men and women of all ages, of all backgrounds, have a thirst for this joy, for the genuine human connections we make when people sing together in harmony. We need to share this, and the peace and friendships we create, as widely as possible.”

Celebrating and promoting an American musical art form that was founded in the late 1800s in African American communities of the South, the Barbershop Harmony Society has transformed and expanded into the world’s largest all-male singing society with approximately 20,000 members across North America alone. Additionally, two organizations for women -- Sweet Adelines International and Harmony, Inc. -- work to bring the world together in unity through singing and harmonizing. Barbershop activity globally extends to more than 30 countries and dozens of established organizations.

The Barbershop Harmony Society's vision today is more ambitious than simply saving old songs and art forms — it strives to create as many ways as possible for people of all ages and backgrounds to join voices in harmony. With a renewed vision for their future, the Society’s ever-growing art form inspires singers to blend, cooperate, create beauty and to love one another in times of conflict and exclusion.

The Society’s annual International convention will take place in Orlando this July, and more than 5,000 Barbershoppers are expected for the event. In January 2019, the Midwinter convention will be held at the famed Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. For more information, please visit barbershop.org.