The Barbershop Journey of Jim Civarra

The journey actually begins with my introduction to choral music in junior high school (when General Eisenhower was President). I progressed from there through high school and the UW, the Sno-King Chorale,  the Seattle Opera Chorus, and many musical comedies. My first barbershop experience was in a production of “The Music Man” in 1971.  That quartet stayed together for a couple years until our bass moved away.  A few years later a former barbershopper where I worked (Pacific Northwest Bell) formed a quartet from the company choir called the What Four.  We performed at a lot of company and community events through the late 70s and early 80s.  And I still had not joined SPEBSQSA.

My wife and I were both managers at the telephone company and we took three-year rotational assignments in New Jersey at the beginning of 1982, just as the breakup of the Bell System was announced.  It got around back there that I had done some barbershopping, so I was solicited by two different chapters and joined the Society in 1983. When I returned to Seattle at the beginning of 1985, the guy who had formed the What Four Quartet at the telephone company told me that there was a new chapter in Bellevue that I should check out.  I walked into my first Northwest Sound rehearsal that summer and have been a member of the chapter ever since.

I had been a quartet tenor, but NWS had enough of them, so I switched to lead and was active with NWS for its first dozen years, through six internationals/district championships and two trips to Europe.  After more than five years without a quartet, in 1988 I joined a quartet called Unclaimed Treasure (the bari was Barry Knott), and then, in 1991, a quartet called Premium Blend. In 1993 at the Barbershop Internationals in Calgary, a group of four NWS members were drinking wine and singing tags in a hotel room.  The wives in attendance were so impressed (possibly due to the wine) that they told us we needed to form a quartet which was eventually called Pieces of Eight.  With me singing lead, that quartet sang together for over 21 years, finally hanging it up in early 2015.  I hadn’t sung with NWS since 1997, but when Classic Sound formed in 2017, I was interested in the concept of singing in a smaller and more “portable” mini-chorus and joined up.  The pandemic put an end to CS, but as part of the experience four of us Classic Sound guys formed a quartet called Vocal Vintage, which is still singing.  And, of course, NW Mix came along and brought a new kind of chorus experience that I have very much enjoyed.  That’s where I am on the journey, for now . . .