The Mixed Barbershop Harmony Association (MBHA) is a 501(c)3, non-profit charitable organization serving the needs of mixed barbershop harmony in North America.  Established in 2014, its leadership comprises men and women with vast experience and participation in the barbershop style and performing in the mixed barbershop harmony genre.  The MBHA is an affiliate of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

The MBHA seeks to provide a "voice" for the community of barbershop singers whose ensembles include a mix of men and women singers.  Through the MBHA, mixed barbershop harmony ensembles will find opportunities for competition and the ability to represent North America on the world stage at the World Mixed Harmony Competition in Germany, hosted by Barbershop in Germany. (BinG!)
 

About Our Board of Directors

Janine Roberts - President (2025)

A passionate barbershopper with close to three decades of Sweet Adelines experience as well as competing with various quartets, Janine took over as Membership Chair for the Mixed Barbershop Harmony Association in November 2017 and was appointed to the Board of Directors in January 2018.  In 2019 she stepped out of the Membership Chair role and into Governance and Bylaws and then "created" the new role of Project Manager in 2021 to bring some of her "other life" to MBHA.

After seeing an ad in the local paper for “free singing lessons,” Janine joined SAI Region 26 Westcoast Harmony Chorus in late 1995. She transferred a couple of years later to Lions Gate Chorus, where she held numerous Music and Management Team positions.

In 2005, she attended the Buckeye Invitational and caught the mixed barbershop bug. She sang briefly with mixed quartet By Invitation Only, which included members from Manhattan, NY, Indianapolis, IN, and Vancouver, BC, Canada. She is also a founding member of Afterglow Quartet, a mixed quartet based out of the BC lower mainland which started in 2003 (Janine was replaced in 2006 when she left barbershop but has continued to sub in for holiday performances over the years).

Following a 12- year hiatus from barbershop during which she served on the board of a newly formed non-profit and continued her administrative and management career, Janine returned to barbershop as a sub in for Afterglow at the Evergreen Division 2 contest in the spring of 2017 which was such an awesome experience, she decided to start a new mixed quartet and Full Measure was born.  After many performances and and an invite to the 2020 BinG! World Mixed Quartet Competition to represent Canada, COVID hit and unfortunately, Full Measure decided on an "indefinite hiatus".  She's now singing with Wild Applause mixed quartet with shows and contests on the horizon.

Among the experiences she counts as highlights of her barbershop life:

  • traveling to England and Scotland with mixed chorus Pacific Coast Sound in June 2017;
  • the opportunity to serve as MBHA Membership Chair and being appointed to the Board of Directors in 2018.
  • Winning a 2nd place International Sweet Adelines Chorus medal with Lions Gate chorus in October 2019
  • Being invited to represent Canada at the 2020 BinG! World Mixed Quartet Competition in Dortmund, Germany (unfortunately cancelled due to COVID)
  • Singing with 4 SAI choruses in 2022/2023 - Pacific Edge Chorus (2023 Maritime Tour), Westcoast Harmony Chorus (2022 SAI International competition), Peace Arch Chorus (2023 SAI Region #26 competition & 2024 dual member) and Lions Gate Chorus 
  • Winning the 2023 Sweet Adelines International chorus contest with Lions Gate Chorus

Angie Morton - Vice-President (2025)

As a third generation barbershopper, Angie considers this a way of life, not just a hobby.

She is a member of Harmony Ranch, a campground just for barbershoppers in Ontario where she founded the MBHA Chorus Baldwin Blend in 2017.  Baldwin Blend was the first North American chorus to compete in the first World Mixed Barbershop Chorus Contest hosted by BinG!, and were thrilled to place fourth.

In addition to singing Baritone with Baldwin Blend, Angie also sings Lead in a mixed quartet with her husband and the director of Baldwin Blend and his daughter.

She also sings bass with 2023 Gold Medal Harmony, Inc chorus A Cappella Showcase. As a past member of the A Cappella Showcase Board of Directors she has experience as President, Secretary and PR & Marketing Chair.

Angie is a Certified Administrative Judge for Harmony, Inc..  She also has the honour and privilege of working for Harmony, Inc. as their Corporate Office Assistant.

Angie served as MBHA Membership Coordinator, assisting the MBHA Director of  Membership, from March 2019 - August 2021 when she became Director of Membership.  She now serves the MBHA as the Director of Education and the Contest Liaison for MBHA and HI.

 

Bill Colosimo - Treasurer (2027)

Bill is a passionate and experienced vocal music performer, educator, coach, clinician and choral director with over 40 years of active professional engagement in the vocal arts. Trained at Cranbrook (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan) and Brandeis University in vocal music and choral direction, Mr. Colosimo has produced, performed in or directed over 300 professional or educational vocal music programs and workshops all over the East Coast, particularly in the Washington, DC area, including such venues as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Constitution Hall, Lisner Auditorium, Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, the National Mall and countless places of worship, Georgetown and Salisbury Universities, as well as major concert venues like Nationals Park, RFK Stadium, Camden Yards, the Patriot Center, Verizon Center and convention centers nationwide.

Having achieved regional and international recognition as an award-winning quartet and chorus singer in the Barbershop Harmony Society, Bill currently sings in Serendipity, the 2017 MBHA Mixed Quartet Champion. Bill was elected as a Director-at-Large on the Board of the MBHA in July 2017 and elected Treasurer in February 2018. He is Music Director of the 80-voiced mixed gender pops chorus, The Alexandria Singers. From 1991 to 2017, he was Music Director of the award-winning Barbershop Harmony Society’s Singing Capital Chorus. 

A sought-after clinician, workshop leader and ensemble coach, Bill’s passion for music education and vocal performance for children and teenagers prompted his establishment of the Choral Foundation of Northern Virginia, providing vocal music educational and performance opportunities to young people, in 2005. He is currently the Foundation’s Founder and Artistic Director. He serves (or has served) on numerous boards and advisory committees dedicated to vocal music activity, including the Alexandria Arts Alliance, the Arlington Arts Commission, the Barbershop Harmony Society, and the Curriculum Committee for the Diocese of Arlington. He taught music for ten years in Arlington Diocesan schools, currently directs the St. Luke Catholic Church Contemporary Ensemble in McLean, Va., and maintains a private vocal instruction practice.

Bill is a member of NAfME (formerly MENC), VMEA, ACDA, VCDA, National Association of Pastoral Musicians, and numerous nationwide men’s vocal music organizations, in which he holds executive and committee chair posts dedicated to education and choral director development. He is a faculty member at the Barbershop Society’s Harmony College-East and Harmony University, and currently keeps his own tenor voice active as a regular soloist and cantor in the area and by serving Saint Luke Catholic Church as a cantor and Festival Choir Section Leader.

Bill and his family live in Arlington, Virginia. He can be reached by email at billcatps@aol.com or by phone at 571.213.7376. You can review his most recent activity on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/billcolosimo.

 

Carlos Aguayo

Carlos Aguayo - Director (2025)

After singing in an auditioned, 16-voice jazz choir in high school, where he got his first taste of barbershop singing such classics as Coney Island Baby and Walking Through The Park One Day, Carlos felt right at home returning to the risers with the Duke City Sound in Albuquerque in 2009.  From the first tags sung after that first rehearsal, he knew he had found his tribe among the BHS, and jumped in with both feet.  His first quartet, Paramount, formed in 2011, and were novice champs their first year out, and were Rocky Mountain District’s 3rd place quartet champs in 2012.  Carlos moved to Portland in search of more fruitful opportunities in the burgeoning high-tech sector, and he now sings bass with Hometown Harmony and the Bridge Town Sound chorus.

Carlos studied computer science and engineering at UC Davis in California, and works as a systems architect.  He also loves to get away from glowing screens in favor of hiking, bicycling, skating, or, more often than not, singing.  He serves on the board of the BHS Portland Metro Chapter as  Program Manager, and has been advocating for mixed harmony opportunities since well before connecting with the folks who would become founding members of the MBHA board.  He lives in Portland with his wife, Clara, who also makes beautiful music at every opportunity.

 

Sheryl Berlin - Director (2026)

Sheryl Berlin is an experienced vocal music teacher and choral director. She most recently served as the Director of Choral Music Programs at Gaithersburg High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland until her retirement from public school teaching in June 2016.  Her 37-year Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools career provided vocal music education for children, grades Pre-K to 12.  She is currently continuing to serve MCPS as the Coordinator of Choral Adjudications.  A graduate of the prestigious University of Maryland’s music program (BS in Music Education, 1979, with a concentration in vocal music), and a member of Sigma Alpha Iota (Music Sorority) and the Phi Kappa Phi academic honor society, Ms. Berlin has dedicated her professional work to the education of young people in the choral arts throughout the Washington area.

Sheryl has earned the honor of Certified Director in the Barbershop Harmony Society, having gone through their intensive education curriculum, and most recently served as the Associate Director of the BHS's DC Chapter performing ensemble, the Singing Capital Chorus, from 2007-2017.  She has been on the faculty of the Mid-Atlantic District’s Harmony College East since 2010, serving as an instructor in Beginning and Intermediate Music Theory and Intermediate Directing, as well as instructing and coaching youth choruses and quartets and providing private vocal instruction to HCE participants. At the present time, she  serves as Co-Dean of Harmony College East.  She also serves as Education Director for the Alexandria Harmonizers and coordinates its annual Youth Harmony Festival.  Additionally, Sheryl currently serves as a Board Member at Large on the Mid-Atlantic District's (MAD) Board of Directors.

Not only is she a voice teacher, adjudicator, clinician, workshop facilitator, director and advocate of the vocal arts, but she is an accomplished singer as well, having performed under such nationally and locally-known conductors as Antal Dorati, Paul Traver, Leon Fleming, Roger Folstrom, Edward Polochick, Jeffrey Rink, Phyllis Isaacson, Paul Skevington, Michael Cedrone, Cheryl Branham, A. Scott Wood, and Thomas Colohan. Local churches and synagogues have benefited, too, from her vocal talents in ministry, including St. Luke Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia, where she has been alto section leader since 2006, and her own congregation, Temple Beth Ami in Rockville, Maryland.

Sheryl is proud to be the tenor singer in Serendipity, the Mid-Atlantic District’s 2017 MBHA Mixed Quartet Champion, and the baritone section leader/music team member in Metro Voices, the treble chorus in the Alexandria, Virginia, chapter of BHS.  She is also happy for the opportunity to serve as a Board Member in charge of Communications.  Sheryl lives in North Potomac, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC, and is the proud mom of two grown sons and an energetic 55-pound lab mix named Camden, who thinks he is a lap dog.

 

Dick Powell (2027)

Mike Wood (2027)

 

Barry Towner - Immediate Past President

Barry TownerBarry has been a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society since 1975, when he joined the Scarborough Dukes of Harmony in the Ontario District. He has won two International Chorus Gold Medals with them, and also had the privilege of directing them in the 1988 International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. He is presently a member of the Toronto Northern Lights (2013 International Chorus Champions) and also directed the Barrie County Chordsmen for 12 years from 1992 to 2004 and in 2023 returned as the director of the chorus. He has sung in many District level quartets, and has two 5th place bronze medals in International Seniors Quartet contests. In 2023 Barry retired as a certified BHS Performance judge, where he was a past Category Specialist for Presentation and Performance after serving the judging community for 31 years.  Barry also sings with MBHA mixed quartet Prime Time.

Barry’s wife Sharon is a Sweet Adeline, singing with the 5-time SAI Chorus Champion North Metro Chorus. They have three daughters, all of whom sing with North Metro and whose husbands are all barbershoppers, Their three grandsons sang with the Ontario Youth A cappella (O YA) Chorus which Barry and Sharon founded in 2012 for young men between the ages of 12 and 25.

Barry’s involvement with mixed quartet and chorus singing began with his involvement with BinG! (Barbershop in Germany, a mixed organization and alliance of the BHS) in 2006. He has judged 4 of their national contests which pits male, female, and mixed quartets in the same contest against each other. He and Sharon have also coached for 6 years at the BinG! Harmony College, as well as coaching many quartets and choruses (male, female, and mixed) in Germany. Barry was instrumental in assisting BinG! to make the step to host the First World Mixed Quartet Contest at their national contest in 2012, and worked with Renate Klocke from BinG! in the development of the rules related to that contest. He has been on the judging panel for the first three World Mixed Quartet Contests in 2012, 2014, 2016 (their contests are held every other year). He was on the judging panel in Munich Germany in April 2018 for the Fourth World Mixed Quartet Contest, and the First World Mixed Chorus Contest. Barry and Sharon are committed to the growth of the Mixed Barbershop Harmony Association and are charter members. Barry serves as a Director of the MBHA with major responsibility being interfacing with the Contest & Judging Committee of the Barbershop Harmony Society in addition to his role as President. He is also the MBHA representative to the World Harmony Council.