SALT – With a Passion for Entertainment

By Ingmar Bergman

In ancient Babylon salt was referred to as the spice of life. They didn’t know how right they were!
SALT started singing together in 2000 and seven years later they bring the gold medals and crowns back to Sweden after an unforgettable week in Las Vegas. Friday the 13th proved to be a very lucky day!

Meet the Spice of Life
Annika Andersson (35) – Lead

“My body sometimes moves in another direction than my brain wants it to!”

The owner of this fabulous lead voice works fulltime as an office manager at the Social Insurance Office. She lives with Joakim and their four-year-old daughter Ebba in Huddinge, in southern Stockholm. Annika started taking classical voice lessons when she was nine-years-old. At the age of 14 she was introduced to barbershop. She sang with Stockholm City Chorus for more than 10 years and served as assistant director for a few years. Annika is a valued coach for both choruses and quartets in the Nordic Light Region and a teacher at Regional music schools. She has competed with one other quartet before SALT and they came third from last at the Regional contest.
“The strongest memory of Las Vegas is to get the opportunity to be Elvis, even if it was just for a short time.”

Annika is responsible for the SALT wardrobe, and on and offstage outfits and shoes. Ask her about the capital of almost any nation in the world and she knows the answer.

Anna Öhman (39) – Tenor

The second woman in history to win gold medals in different parts! In real life Anna is a music teacher and she lives with her husband Richard and their kids Frida (13) and Arthur (9) in Huddinge. She started singing barbershop when she was 11 as the baritone of the Growing Girls and became a “Queen of Harmony” in Miami 1989. She has since then been involved in groups like the quartet Artistocats, the quintet High Five and the mixed quartet Heroes & Sheroes (with her husband and Doug & Suzanne Harrington). Anna has always been very active in Rönninge Show Chorus serving as chairman of the visual team, section leader and assistant director. She is regional faculty in showmanship and a valued teacher and coach.

“My strongest memory of Vegas is the immediate and massive standing ovation at the end of our show package — wow!”
Anna is the food and beverage manager of SALT with the motto: “You never know when you’re going to get to eat again.” She is also known for getting any vegetable hater to enjoy chickpea soup, believe it or not.

Anna-Stina Gerdin (39) – Baritone

“I’m not short, it’s the others who are taller!”

Anna-Stina is an elementary school teacher and lives with her husband Henrik and their three-year-old son Alvin in Mälarhöjden in southern Stockholm. She started singing barbershop when she was 19 in Falun Coppertown Harmony Chorus. When she moved to Stockholm she joined Sunlight Chorus and then moved on to Stockholm City Chorus. Her previous quartet experiences include groups like Bluesette and B-Sharp.

“My strongest memory of Las Vegas is the joy of being able to do our best when it mattered the most.”

Anna-Stina is in charge of PR and marketing for SALT and she creates and makes jewelry. A hidden talent is that she is a painter and she can put her body in the most difficult yoga positions.

Susanna Berndts (33) - Bass

The youngest woman of the quartet works as a speech therapist. She lives in Trosa, south of Stockholm, with her bass-playing husband Thomas and their two-year-old daughter Hilda. Susanna started barbershopping when she was 16-years-old in Telge Harmony Chorus. At the age of 20 she directed them in contest. After that she moved to Rönninge Show Chorus where she is still a member and has been assistant director and section leader. She has been a part of a large number of quartets, the first one when she was 17. She is part of the regional faculty team and a busy coach, teacher and voice instructor. Her passion is the voice.

“My strongest memory of Las Vegas is the love and warmth from the audience before we had even started singing. It was overwhelming!”
Susanna is the travel manager for SALT and is in charge of the quartet’s vocal warm-ups. She memorizes lines from movies and that can be quite irritating when you’re watching a movie with her.

SALT’s Coaching Team — The Brains

SALT has been fortunate to work together with three marvellous coaches and creators for many years.

• Britt-Heléne Bonnedahl working with sound, expression and vocal technique.

• Doug Harrington in music and style.

• Jan Alexandersson in showmanship, choreography and lyrics.
SALT is grateful for their generosity in sharing their excellent talents and their everlasting patience with all the “salty” ideas that always pop up when SALT gets together.

History

4000 B.C.

The first registers of salt use were produced around 4000 B.C. in Egypt. In Ancient Rome, salt started to be used as money originating the current Latin-derivative term salary. Salt was also given to the parents of the groom in marriage until the 8th century.

2000 A.D.

The entertaining form of SALT was first heard just seven years ago. It started as a project for the 2000 combined convention for Nordic Light Region and SNOBS. Anna-Stina, Annika and Susanna had been singing together a few times but needed a tenor. They found a queen baritone at an afterglow and thought “baritones can sing everything.” Anna rose to the challenge and SALT was born.

To their big surprise they won the Regional contest and got to represent Region 32 at the International convention in Orlando. The sparkle was on fire! And after a 20th place finish they decided to come back and show the world that they where better than C+ in showmanship!

2001

They won the regional contest and came in seventh place at international in Portland. First time in the finals and they didn’t time their show package — if it wouldn’t have been for a 17-point time penalty they would have been fourth. We all remember the bright colored bathing caps they wore during “My baby loves me just the way that I am.”

2002

Sixth place in Nashville. Annika had her 10-week-old baby Ebba with her across the ocean. Susanna’s crazy dance in “Unusual” and their silly walk walk-off are strong memories from this year. (They learned something from the year before and their time penalty went down to four points.)

2003

Third place in Phoenix. They won the semifinals and for the first time they realized that those gold medals might not be impossible to reach after all. A show package with a “late” Anna, not fully dressed with curlers and sneakers probably didn’t help their final placement.

2004

Third place in Indianapolis. Two new babies came along for their first trip to the U.S. Anna and Anna-Stina had such heavy stomach disorders that they had to ride carts behind the stage so that an accident would not occur.

2005

Second place in Detroit. A magic week! The support from the audience after the finals was incomparable. They got a full standing ovation when they entered the arena after the contest.

A Pinch of SALT

• SALT’s goal is to entertain! To make audience laugh, cry and wow is the whole reason for SALT to exist. And for the joy of carrying two extra suitcases with clothes wherever they go.

• Lots of laughter and silliness are important ingredients of SALT. “It’s more fun to have a good time,” has always been their motto.

• SALT decided right from the beginning to go their own way when it comes to music, choreography and costume. “Don’t listen to what people are saying about what you can and can’t do. Listen to your instincts,” says Annika.

• SALT always do their vocal warm-ups together on rehearsal nights. This gives them a chance to focus together on the upcoming rehearsal and to once again realize the dramatic difference in height within the quartet.

• SALT uses the photo sessions at contest to get rid of nervous tensions. “The crazier, the better,” has been the theme.

• SALT has always stayed in the same room, all four of them at every contest. “Crowded, messy and warm, but it keeps us together,” says Anna-Stina.

• Supportive husbands. They had to realize right from the start that there was someone else in the relationship. A new, interesting, dominating spice — SALT. The husbands have always stayed in the same room, all four of them at every contest. “Crowded, messy and warm doesn’t appeal to them in quite the same way,” says Anna.

• “Rule number 6” — Don’t take yourself too seriously!

Why the name SALT?

Why not? And then again, SALT always thought that there’s something special with capital letters.

Thanks

The members of SALT would like to thank their families — Alvin, Arthur, Ebba, Frida, Henrik, Hilda, Joakim, Richard and Thomas for all the love and support; their coaches — Britt-Heléne, Jan and Doug for all their talent, creativity and support; the big SALT-daddy Lars-Erik; and all members of Rönninge Show Chorus and Region 32. And from the bottom of their hearts, last but not least, all of you for being there in the audience, cheering for them and making them what they are.

SALT’s brand new CD was ready just in time for Las Vegas and the plans are now to record a DVD. Bringing music and entertainment to people has always been the main objective for SALT. The quartet has a number of wise sayings called SALT-thoughts. Maybe the most fundamental and down-to-the-roots SALT-thought is also their motto:

Det är roligare att ha kul!

Contact Salt: www.saltonstage.se or info@saltonstage.se

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