Sweet Adelines International 75th Jubilee Commemorative Album

Out of Sight!

In 1995, the Young Singers Foundation sponsored the Out of Sight Quartet from The Barbershop Singers at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired to sing at Sweet Adelines International’s 50th Anniversary celebration in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

SPOTLIGHT: YOUTH

Rising Star Quartet Contests The capstone event in our growing youth movement is the Rising Star Quartet Contest, initiated in 1999. Each year, quartets comprised of young women age 25 and younger, compete for the Rising Star Quartet championship. In addition to hosting contests in the United States which included contestants from several countries, in recent years Sweet Adelines also took the contest abroad, to New Zealand and England, making it truly an international event. It is a big part of what kept me engaged as a Sweet Adeline when I was first starting out in a quartet. We loved going to the Rising Star contest, not just to compete, but also to meet other young singers involved in Sweet Adelines. We really built a community and I am still in touch with a lot of those women today. LoveNotes, then called UnderAge Quartet, won the Rising Star Quartet Contest in 2005.

Out of Sight Quartet with Jan Meyer (back, center) and Toula Oberlies (front row, right), whose long-time involvement with the Indiana School for the Blind has enabled them to fulfill the school’s motto: “We don’t have to see the stars to reach for them.”

—Caitlin Castelino, UnderAge Quartet, 2005 Rising Star Champion Quartet and LoveNotes, 2014 International Champion Quartet

When Love Notes won the 2014 International Quartet Competition, they were the first Rising Star quartet champion to do so. “Their influence then and now is a beacon for young women everywhere who love to sing,” said Sharon Babb, Music Judge Specialist and 2013 President’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.

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