Barbershop quartet takes gold

The barbershop quartet Three and a Half Men started four years ago as something fun to do for baritone Tony De Rosa; his son, Joseph, tenor; lead singer Josh Szolomayer and Chris Keough, bass. The men even gave their group a fun name since Joseph De Rosa was underage at the time.

The four — Keough lives in Kissimmee, and the others are Winter Garden residents — have been meeting frequently to perfect their harmonies, and this hard work has paid off.

Three and a Half Men took first place in the Barbershop Harmony Society International Contest in Cleveland, Ohio, besting hundreds of quartets around the world in the competition held June 30 through July 7. This was only the group’s second appearance in the international contest, taking home fourth place in 2023.

For Tony De Rosa, the 2024 contest was his fifth championship finish — a record among all members of the Barbershop Harmony Society. His first quartet win was in 1992, and he said he has consistently either won or placed in the top five for the last 32 years.

It also was a record for Three and a Half Men to win all three rounds of the 2024 competition, he said.

In the semifinals, the group competed against 19 other quartets, singing a set of songs from “The Wizard of Oz” and “The Wiz”: “Over the Rainbow” and a medley of “Ease on Down the Road”/“Bran’ New Day.”

In the finals round — the top 10 — which was the highest-scoring set, the four sang a medley of “What Kind of Fool am I” and “Where is Love” plus a song from the movie “Ted”: “Everybody Needs a Best Friend.”

“Our finals round was our strongest scoring set but we were first after every round,” Tony De Rosa said. “To win first is … convincing. The competition is so very stiff, and it was this year as well. A quartet might win a round of the three or two rounds of the three, but we were first in all three of the rounds.”

Each member returned to Florida with his own trophy.

LONGTIME LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT

All four members of the quartet are members of the Central Florida arts and entertainment community.

Joseph De Rosa, 20, works for Hawkmoon Productions and Entertainment Central. He performs with Ragtime Gals at Universal Studios Florida and is a worship leader at a church plant in Hamlin.

Szolomayer, 37, originally is from California and moved to the Orlando area when he began singing with Voices of Liberty at Disney’s Epcot. He also serves as a session singer in Central Florida.

Keough, 28, also got his start in Voices of Liberty, as well as the Dapper Dans. He was in “Festival of the Lion King,” and he does session work and plays in a jazz ensemble. He also works for Hawkmoon Productions and Entertainment Central.

Tony De Rosa, 51, has been a member of the BHS for 44 years and with the Disney organization for more than 25. He started with Epcot’s Voices of Liberty and currently serves as music director for Walt Disney World’s shows, including Voices of Liberty, Dapper Dans and Finding Nemo the Musical.

“We’re thrilled to be able to have so many of our friends in professional settings become involved in our barbershop quartet,” Tony De Rosa said.

The quartet began receiving invitations to national performance gigs after its fourth-place finish last year, and those calls are even more frequent now.

“The whole barbershop thing is its own unique underworld of music,” Tony De Rosa said. “The competition scene is pretty popular because people want to focus on their craft.”

Three and a Half Men performs mostly at private parties and offers everything from a Christmas show to a catalog of songs from “The Great American Songbook.”

The group belongs to the Tampa Chapter of the BHS, a men’s chorus in the Tampa area.

“Our association together is just purely for the love of singing together,” Tony De Rosa said. “Between the four of us … we are a diverse group, which is a wonderful thing. … Singing in general and singing barbershop brings together people from all walks of life, and harmony is what we’re able to celebrate most.”

WHAT IS BARBERSHOP HARMONY?

Barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a primarily homorhythmic texture — the same word sounds at the same time. The melody is consistently sung by the lead (second tenor). The first tenor harmonizes above the melody, the bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone completes the chord.

Barbershop harmony is rooted in black traditions of the late 1800s in the South.

The Barbershop Harmony Society aims to bring people together in harmony and fellowship to enrich lives through singing. Among its purposes is to perpetuate the old American institution: the barbershop quartet and barbershop harmony, as well as promote and participate in charitable projects that support the group’s vision.

For information, visit Barbershop.org.