Fandango
Fandango – Still Together After All These Years!
It’s hard to believe that Fandango Quartet, based in Vancouver, has been making music together for more than 25 years! We think it might be a record! While we are now primarily a holiday season quartet, Fandango was formed back in 1999 to be a competing quartet, which we did for the first few years but then, because of increasingly busy lives, we made the decision to stick with being seasonal only. We did throw our hat in the ring and competed in the Open Division in 2014 when it was first introduced and were thrilled to receive the Audience Choice Award as well as to hold the distinction of being the highest scoring Open Division quartet for a couple of years! Who can forget Frosty sung to the tune of O Holy Night, or Nutcracker Jingles, complete with tutus? Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPKeSRulbe4
While there have been personnel changes over the years, two of the original four-some have been part of the quartet since the beginning - founding members Jan Carley (lead) and Cammi MacKinlay (initially bari, now bass). Corinne Newell (tenor) joined almost 15 years ago and Donya Metzger (first as bass, now bari) 13 years ago. Our repertoire is quite extensive, and we are very lucky to have an in-house arranger and maker of learning tracks in Donya, as we continue to add a song or two each season.
We are fortunate to have many “regular” customers who hire us to spread holiday cheer throughout the Lower Mainland and have now sung at Bright Nights at Stanley Park for the last two years. It’s wonderful to have the little kiddies sing along with us and to have the sparkly lights sprinkle everyone with magic!
This year, though, the train was taken out of service midway through the season. It is the biggest attraction of the Bright Nights event, with tickets selling out within minutes of going on-line so its demise hugely impacted the attendance. On the Thursday before Christmas, we were slated to sing from 6 to 8 and it was a truly miserable night – pouring rain, windy, cold. We thought, “There’s not going to be anyone here!” and sure enough, the parking lot was only a third full when we got there. We sang our first set to virtually no one, had a break and came back out for the second set. A couple and their two teenage boys were hanging around our shed and asked if we were going to be singing which we said we were.
Off we went, starting with a jazzy Cool Yule, then to Christmas Shopping Blues, then to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, at which point the woman went over to grab onto her husband’s arm and appeared quite choked up! We sang about four or five more songs, even taking a request for Winter Wonderland and they stayed and stayed, which is unusual as any of you who sing at outdoor venues know! One, maybe two songs and people move on!
Well, it turned out we were singing for Diana Krall and Elvis Costello and their twin boys! They were so gracious, enthusiastic, complimentary and they loved the harmonies! After taking a few photos, they asked if they could come on stage and sing a couple of songs with us, but not for posting – just for fun! Well, of course! We sang White Christmas, Chestnuts and Jingle Bells together and at the end, Diana hugged each of us so tightly as if she had known us for years, told us that what we were doing was a “gift” and that we had “made her Christmas”! She told us stories of how her family used to sing Christmas songs around the piano when she was a kid, and how it had brought back so many wonderful memories for her!
So after 25 years of singing together, that might just have been the icing on the anniversary cake! We are still pinching ourselves that it actually happened and fortunately, have the photos to prove it!
Fandango is committed to continuing to spread holiday cheer for the foreseeable future and who knows who else we might bump into one of these days – Michael Buble, maybe? One can only dream…….