Based in Vancouver, BC and northern Washington State, viaVoice sings a cappella around the world, appearing as special guests on music festivals, at corporate events, and on chapter shows. They sing many styles of music but love jazz and rock!
viaVoice had its origins as a quartet called "Realtime" that won the Barbershop Harmony Society championship in 2005, and also placed as high as second in the National Harmony Sweepstakes open a cappella contest. Original lead John Newell retired from Realtime in 2007 to be replaced by Doug Broersma (father of original tenor Tim Broersma), who continued as the lead singer of Realtime for four more years. In 2011 original tenor Tim Broersma also retired, and after an exhaustive worldwide search he was succeeded by Joseph Livesey. This caused a problem with the name. According to the rules of the Barbershop Harmony Society, if a winning (or medalist) quartet changes two members, they are no longer allowed to use the name of the winning group. I know - there are no original members left in numerous successful a cappella and indeed musical groups in the world, but for quartets this is how it must be. So in 2011, the name of the group was changed to viaVoice! On the upside, this means they can compete once more in Barbershop contests, and if you've never tried doing that you should - it's awesome. I know - you need a scorecard to keep it straight. Never mind.
