#73 Christina Lewellen, Barbershop Singer and Past President of Harmony, Inc.

Christina Lewellen grew up with Barbershop singing; her father started when she was just born, and her entire family are Barbershoppers, including her mother, husband, and children. She has won an international competition and recently finished her term as President of Harmony, Inc., which is a longstanding and wonderful female Barbershop signing organization.Four-part harmony singing is not easy; it is hard, and takes a lot of teamwork, but “it is healing, it’s stress reduction on steroids,” she says. The singing can produce amazing overtones and undertones, like a fifth voice. “Where the magic happens is in the relationships, in the love and cherishing of each other and the respect for each other.” She says you can tell when singers are there with ego and not surrendering to the music, and that Barbershop singing is very spiritual. “If you get into a song and she (the singer) tells the truth of that story from her perspective, everything around you stops.” There is “something very powerful, that we are only beginning to figure out, the full impact of what music can do,” such as in music therapy. “There is something about making that music that really strips away any of the artificial social constructs that we put either on ourselves or on each other.” And, she says, “having a female only singing organization is special to the Nth degree. … The ability to sing with women is more necessary than ever before.”Check out www.harmonyinc.org