About Chris Arnold
A lifetime of music and performance
I have been around barbershop music my entire life, listening to my dad’s quartets since I was very young. My performing career started in school and church choirs; I performed in high school productions such as South Pacific and The King and I. I was also a member of GRCI’s Sears Festival-winning production of Paper Wheat. I joined our local chorus at the age of 16 and very quickly became a musical leader there. My love of vocal music brought me to Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario where I earned an Honours Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Education, followed by a Bachelor of Education degree from the Althouse Faculty of Education in London, Ontario. During that time, I branched out into vocal jazz, becoming a founding member of Minor Infraction, an a cappella jazz combo that earned a place at the National Music Festival in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Throughout my years in barbershop, I have been a member of numerous District Champion quartets, as both a baritone and bass singer, and have sung on the International stage thirteen times. I am a founding member of the Toronto Northern Lights and served as their Associate Director during their formative years, leading them to a 5th-place International Bronze medal, followed by 5 consecutive Silver medals. I later directed the MegaCity Chorus of Toronto. While there, the chorus competed three times at the International Convention, and in 2008, they were invited to be the featured performers at the 9th Russian Barbershop Festival. This landmark trip included performances in the greatest concert halls in St. Petersburg, where my arrangement of Moscow Nights and a 17-part arrangement of Circle of Life received standing ovations. In 2013, I sang with TNL as we earned our first International Gold Medal in Toronto.
I have also served the barbershop society administratively in many ways. I have taught at numerous schools throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe, and was a Certified Music Judge for 9 years. I was one of the first Certified Trainers for the Chorus Directors Workshop Intensive program, and served on the Ontario District Executive as the Vice President of Music and Performance.
I was the Director of the APOC chorus, which comprises members of past Ontario quartet champions.
For six years, I have directed Grand Harmony Chorus, a women’s barbershop chorus from Waterloo, ON. Through the Sweet Adelines International organization, I earned the designation of Certified Director in October of 2014 and Harmony 500 Director in May of 2017.
In August of 2018, I co-founded a mixed a cappella chorus based in Kitchener called Mixology, which has since gone on to win Top Scoring Mixed Chorus (MBHA) in Canada, and received two invitations to compete in the World BinG! Musikfestival. For ten years, I sang bass with Supertonic (with Jordan Travis, Patrick Brown, Chris Scappaturia) which won Ontario District and went on to compete in international. We produced two albums during our time together.
I now sing bass in a mixed quartet, Sharp Attack that has been performing in snows and events for eight years.
I am a father to two amazing children, Brent and Brie.
A teaching degree and a knack for sight singing developed into Quick Start
Through a lifetime and formal education in music, I’ve found that sight-singing has become second nature to me. I’m grateful for this talent, and it is what ultimately gave me the push in 1998 to start producing learning tracks for choral and barbershop groups on a full time basis.
Over the past 30+ years, I have gone on to produce one of the biggest barbershop learning tracks collections in the world. I offer learning tracks for mixed quartets and choruses, for men’s and women’s choruses, custom arrangements for choruses, choirs, and quartets, and have had the opportunity to provide these services to ensembles in Canada, USA, Russia, Germany, and beyond.
QSVP is a full-time business dedicated to helping vocalists get their music, ideas & performance off the page and onto the stage, quickly and easily with world-class arrangements, learning tracks, and coaching.