In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Four Harmonizers History

Based in: Chicago, United States.
The Four Harmonizers, a Chicago quartet, competed in the 1941 and 1942 national contests and finished just out of the medalist class. They were considered a top-flight foursome, composed of Charles Schwab, tenor; Leo Ives, lead; Ed Young, baritone; and Fred Stein, bass.

In March 1943, just a few months before the Chicago contest at which they won the national championship, a new baritone, Huck Sinclair joined the group. Sinclair had grown up in a harmonious family. His mother sang lead, his sisters took the tenor and bari parts, and Huck sang bass. He had sung in quartets in high school and college and, before joining the Four Harmonizers, he was a member of the Capital City Four of Topeka, Kansas.

Bass Fred Stein began singing at the age of three and he won a prize as the best alto of his eighth grade class. He began singing in quartets at the age of seventeen and for eight years toured the vaudeville circuit with the Troy Comedy 4 and other groups. Leo Ives, lead, sang in a quartet called the Ives 4 with three of his children. Charles Schwab had sung with the Music Box Four for seven years.

The Four Harmonizers claimed that none of the arrangements they sang were written down; all four quartet members participated in woodshedding their numbers.

Awards
1943 - Barbershop Quartet Champions