Welcome to the official site of the Association of International Seniors Quartet Champions (AISQC).

Briefly, we are a group of mature barbershoppers who are dedicated to the proposition that even though you have silver in your hair you can still strive for the gold.

For contest purposes, a seniors quartet is described as one in which each member is at least 55 years old and the sum of the ages is at least 240 years.

Frank Lanza organized the effort to form what was to become the AISQC shortly after his quartet, The George Baggish Memorial Quartet became champions in 1986.  He presented a proposal to form such a subsidiary organization to the Society in 1988.  The Executive Committee considered and enthusiastically supported the idea.
 
AISQC Presidents and their terms of office:
1988 -1990   Frank Lanza (November 8)
1991-1992    Bob Reidenbach                
1993-1995    Marlin "Grif" Griffith          
1996-1997    Thom Hine                  
1998-1999    Burt Staffen                      
2000-2001    Dick Bek                         
2002-2003    Pete Tyree                     
2004-2005    Dave Ewing                    
2006-2007    Darryl Cremer              

Our first contest was in Tucson in 1986 and in January of 2006 at the mid-winter in Sacramento we crowned our 21st gold medalist quartet. Pictures of all our champs to date are shown on another page. It all started in the early 80s when someone said, "Let's have a little seniors quartet contest at the mid-winter."

Some said it should be a good'ole boys contest in a relaxed atmosphere with no pressure. Some thought we should use retired judges or declare a winner by audience acclamation. Others were of the opinion that only women in the audience should be allowed to vote. A minority group thought it should be a real contest like the "juniors" have each year at the International Convention. An impromptu survey was undertaken and much to the surprise of the "vocal majority", the indication was that the seniors wanted a real contest.

In Tucson at the first contest there were 18 quartets from 10 districts and the prevalent theme was that these were old guys singing about the fact that they were old. Songs like "I Wish I Was A Kid Again", "Old Folks", "When Your Hair Has Turned to Silver", etc. You kind of get the idea. Even some of the quartet names set the tone. "Old Gold", "Sounds of Senility", "Yesteryear", "Sunset Four". We really didn't know any better. This was our 1986 idea of what a senior quartet contest should be. Things sure have changed!