This six-month-old quartet won its regional competition in the spring of 1986 and lost its bass immediately afterward. With a new bass, the members of Ambiance were as astounded as everyone else when they won the 1986 international quartet championship just six months later. It was their first international competition and it has been said that they owned the stage - everyone knew this was no ordinary quartet.

Ambiance soon became a Sweet Adeline legend, maintaining a full performance schedule for the next nine years before retiring in 1995 with a sold-out, farewell concert at New York's famed Carnegie Hall. It is fortunate that the quartet's unforgettable Fats Waller package, and their impressive vocal gymnastics on Rhapsody of New York (an adaptation of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue), are preserved on cassette and CD. Ambiance was named first runner-up in the 1992 Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards in the category of best recording by an unsigned professional. The award was for their 1991 recording, I Hear a Rhapsody. The awards are given by the Contemporary Society of America (CASA).

Sandi was the second Sweet Adeline to hold two gold medals as an original member of a champion quartet (Tetrachords, 1978). All four members of Ambiance have at one time directed Sweet Adeline choruses; Sandi and Diane still do.

Awards
1986 - Sweet Adelines Queens of Harmony