Luminous: Shining Bright

By Christine Hill, Communications Department

Many talented and remarkable young quartets competed in this year’s Rising Star Quartet Contest in San Antonio, Texas. However, one group of fiercely talented young women shined the brightest. Competing in their fist Rising Star Quartet Contest, LUMINOUS harmonized their way to this year’s gold medal, achieving an impressive score of 390 out of a total of 400 points.

The Conception of LUMINOUS

It is hard to fathom that Luminous members Emma Harris (l), 20, Lauren Robards (t), 25, Ellie Mills (bs), 22, and Casey Bazzell (bt), 22, began performing together just six short months ago. In fact, this dynamic group of girls met less than one year ago.

“Lauren and I met in July 2005 when I spent one month in the U.S. visiting friends in St. Louis,” explained Ellie.

During her visit, she stayed with Sandi and David Wright, who are now coaches and mentors to LUMINOUS. She attended the Barbershop Harmony Society International Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, and in her words received a “hefty dose of barbershop.”

While Emma, Lauren and Casey are Missouri natives, Ellie is a native of the United Kingdom. She notes that after she returned to England, she and Lauren remained close acquaintances.

Their friendship grew even closer when she moved from England to St. Louis in the summer of 2006. After graduating from Durham University with a degree in Geography and Environmental Management, she moved to a suburb of Missouri to pursue a 13-month internship with the Chesterfield Planning Department of St. Louis.

In September, she joined Lauren as a front row singer with the St. Louis Harmony Chorus. Lauren introduced her to chorus member Emma Harris. The girls quickly realized that their voices blended perfectly. The three girls remained close, even though school commitments prevented Emma from continuing as a member of the St. Louis Harmony Chorus.

Two weeks after joining the St. Louis Harmony Chorus, Ellie stood in as substitute bass for Emma and Lauren’s previous quartet, BELLE CHORDS, in the choruses’ September concert.

In December of that same year, Lauren and Emma introduced her to Casey. Casey was performing that weekend in the St. Charles Christmas Parade, and the bond she and Ellie formed was instant. They sang a few tags together to see how their voices would match up, and it was magic.

The four girls decided to take their act out on the town, and went out one night to perform karaoke. Casey belted out a powerful rendition of Aretha Franklin’s soulful masterpiece Respect, winning the karaoke contest by a unanimous vote from the satisfied crowd. The girls knew right away that they had to form a quartet.

On January 4, 2007 at a little diner, Emma, Lauren, Ellie and Casey met to woodshed a few songs together. Their voices harmonized wonderfully and they enjoyed singing together immensely. With Lauren as tenor, Emma as lead, Ellie singing bass and Casey as baritone, they had their first proper rehearsal with coach Sandi Wright. She was so impressed by the girls’ obvious talent that she encouraged them to register their quartet and enter both regional competition and the Rising Star contest. LUMINOUS was born!

The Journey to IES

The quartet registered with Sweet Adelines International soon afterward. On March 30 and after only eight weeks of rehearsals, they represented Region 5 in Springfield, Ill., in the 2007 regional quartet contest. Singing Deed I Do and The Bandstand In Central Park, they placed 9th!

While Ellie has been competing with quartets since she was fourteen, this was Emma’s and Casey’s first quartet contest and Lauren’s second. Ellie has competed in her YWIH quartet, PURE INNOCENCE, four times at regional contest, placing 4th in 2003 and 5th in 2005. She has also won medals including gold with the 2005 and 2006 UK chorus champions, Lace City Singers.

That same weekend, Lauren and Ellie became regional chorus champions with the St. Louis Harmony Chorus directed by Sandi Wright. Ellie remembers the weekend being special for her because her parents were in the audience.

With the regional competition behind them, LUMINOUS began preparing and rehearsing for the Rising Star Quartet Contest. Rehearsing between three and four times a week, the girls built up a repertoire of ten songs, which they showcased in a fundraising performance in June that they had organized to cover contest expenses. This event proved to be invaluable to the group in preparing for IES and gave them a tremendous confidence boost.

Ellie notes, “The difference in our sound/performance between regional and our fundraising show was huge.”

At the end of June, they were honored guests for the Ambassadors of Harmony, 2004 Barbershop Harmony Society Champions, at their Central States District Officer Meeting. This performance was a perfect dress rehearsal for the approaching Rising Star Contest on July 13. They were feeling even more solid and confident as a group.

Road to Gold

Despite the fact that Ellie had come down with tonsillitis only ten days prior to competition, LUMINOUS was prepared. Careful not to blow their voices out, they kept singing around campus to a minimum. To avoid requests for impromptu performances they often walked around in pairs. To keep their voices strong, they sang silly tags and warm ups. Amazingly, they only rehearsed their contest set for 15 to 20 minutes each day.

The fact that they had only been together a short time actually worked in their favor. According to Ellie, “the girls had not had time to get bored with the songs and were still having fun developing the quartet bond.” Noting further, “we’ve had some crazy and hilarious moments!”

LUMINOUS opened the Rising Star competition with the song At Last arranged by Nancy Bergman. Before they had sung the last chord, the crowd was already standing in applause. For their contest uptune they chose the more complex, Yes Sir That’s My Baby, arranged by David Wright. Their song selection was so strong; it ultimately set them apart from the other quartets, earning them a 100 percent score in the music category.

“We came off stage completely satisfied; whatever the result, we felt like we had won the audience,” Ellie beamed.

When LUMINOUS was announced as the 2007 Rising Star Champion, the girls were ecstatic and overwhelmed at the same time. They jumped up, threw their arms around one another, and practically pushed one another down the stairs in excitement toward the stage!

“Winning Rising Star is overwhelming,” Ellie remembers. “It is a great memory in itself, and all the excitement that came afterwards was fantastic.”

LUMINOUS has come a long way in a very short time. Don’t miss your chance to hear this amazing quartet when they perform in Calgary before the quartet finals on Friday October 12, 2007.

Meaning clear, radiant, bright and shining, LUMINOUS certainly lives up to their name. In fact, nothing could describe the 2007 Rising Star Quartet Champion any better.

Click here to read musical bios and background information

Return to Pitch Pipe Main Page