Top photo: Mischief will headline the Rexburg Barbershop Festival concert this Saturday at the Rexburg Tabernacle. The quartet came together in 2022 and they’ve been racking up first-place festival wins ever since. | Courtesy photo

By Emily Miller

REXBURG — A beloved Rexburg tradition is back this week for its 25th year.

The Rexburg Barbershop Festival is happening now at 10 area high schools, where professional barbershop clinicians have been flown in to teach throughout the week at the schools. At the end of the week, the music students will come together in Rexburg for workshops and a friends-and-family performance on Friday, and the festival culminates in a concert for the public on Saturday night, featuring local and out-of-state talent.

Saturday’s headlining quartet, Mischief, will be joined by quartets Sound Check (a staple of the festival as the returning resident quartet) and Shoot the Moon. The concert will be held Saturday, February 17 at 7 p.m. at the Rexburg Tabernacle Civic Center at 51 N. Center Street in Rexburg. Tickets are $12 in advance at rexburgarts.org or $15 at the door, if available. All proceeds go toward future high school festivals and the Rexburg Tabernacle Restoration Fund. The festival is sponsored by Vulpine Marketing, Circle of Love, and the Rocky Mountain District of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

“Expect incredible music that will absolutely blow your mind with harmonies that ring through the whole Tabernacle,” says organizer Thomas Scott. “Other acts include The Idaho Falls Acapella Chorus, The Carousel Chorus, The Testostertones, Cosmic Orphans and possibly a few college quartets, if they make the cut.”

Scott says the event began a quarter of a century ago when the festival’s creator, Phil Ricks, wanted to gather local students together to sing four-part a cappella harmonies in the barbershop style. When Phil Ricks passed away, Cecil Ricks continued the tradition until his death in 2021, when Scott stepped in to keep the festival going.

“I have taken the torch to continue on the tradition,” Scott says. “The Saturday night community show is a continuation of that tradition to bring all the community members in to see some amazing talent. It’s going to be a stellar show.”

While most of the high school students participating in the festival will only perform on Friday night, Scott says the Saturday night show supports the entire festival and helps it continue year after year.

“This is a top-notch, high-class experience for these high schools,” Scott says. “The community has the opportunity to support the whole festival by coming and seeing some amazing groups we have brought in … I can absolutely promise you that this will be a show that you will not forget. Some songs will bring you to tears, while others will leave you rolling with laughter. You get to come to an amazing concert, support an amazing cause for our community and leave inspired.”

Historically, the Saturday night show has been held at Brigham Young University-Idaho, but the university opted out of participating this year. The Rexburg Cultural Arts Department stepped in as a sponsor, providing the Tabernacle as the venue this year.

“It’s our turn, as a community, to step up and support this amazing event,” Scott says. “This is the final year for our 25-year clinician Jim Debussman. He has donated hundreds of hours for our community, not charging for his clinician services. It’s pretty incredible. This is his final year, and we need to send him off with our utmost gratitude.”

Scott has been involved with the festival since 2009 and says it’s an invaluable opportunity for those who get to participate.

“Watching these high school students sing together, gaining confidence, joining together in harmony from all over the region—It’s powerful,” Scott says. “It’s something that I would hate to see stop. There are generations of students that are now adults with companies that sponsor the event themselves. Thousands of students have been impacted over the last 25 years. You (audience members) coming to this show helps it continue.”The Testostertones from Madison High School will be one of the featured high school groups at the Rexburg Barbershop Festival this Saturday. | Photo by Michelle Seal of Picture Patch Studios

Adam Haggart sings lead in the headlining quartet, Mischief. The group of experienced singers came together in 2022 and has been on an upward trajectory ever since, winning first place at district festivals and qualifying for international festivals. Other group members include tenor Elie Diaz, baritone Andrew Gordon (a BYU-Idaho alumnus), and bass Grant Goulding. The group hails from the Salt Lake City area and boasts an impressive variety of music in their repertoire.

“Our name says it all — we like to have a lot of fun” Haggart says. “We are quite a bit mischievous. We do cry-inducing ballads, we do very mischievous up-tempo tunes, we do a little contemporary a cappella. Basically, we run the gamut. We do everything. A choral piece, some religious music, obviously some barbershop. It’s a very eclectic palette from the quartet.”

Haggart’s personal favorite piece is an arrangement of Radiohead’s “Creep” that they plan to debut at the festival. Haggart has participated in the festival multiple times, as a member of another quartet, and says it’s something he always looks forward to.

“It’s honestly the highlight of my year,” Haggart says. “I really mean it. I love the crowds in Rexburg, I love the Tabernacle. I’m very excited to get back up there and mingle and sing with your crowd.”

Haggart says it’s very fulfilling to introduce the barbershop style to the next generation of musicians.

“I love working with the kids,” he says. “That is what this is all about, spreading the ‘gospel of barbershop,’ helping them get a gateway into what I love so much.”

To buy tickets or to find more information on this and other Rexburg Arts opportunities, click here.