A celebration of quartet singing at Forge Part Harmony 2026
On Tuesday 28th July, Hallmark of Harmony hosted the latest iteration of Forge Part Harmony: an annual event designed to bring barbershoppers together from across the region for a low-stakes, fun night of quartet performances.
I was honoured to be invited as a guest judge alongside fellow Hallmark alumni Nick Bryant and Tim Briggs, plus BABS performance category judge Olivia Williamson.
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Forge Part Harmony has become something of an institution in the Sheffield barbershop calendar over the last few years. There were established quartets, newer quartets, and one-off scratch quartets who had never really sung together before. There were experienced (and even medal-winning) quartet singers alongside complete novices.
Elliot Hunter, who led the organisation of this year's event, said, "Forge Part Harmony is a great event that builds on Sheffield's close-knit barbershop community. It's an ideal means to make newer members and those new to the barbershop style feel integrated with the hobby and enjoy performing in a low-stakes environment outside of a contest or convention. It also really opens the door to a broad variety of songs to really show off the personality of the groups or simply sing a song you've always wanted to sing!"
As well as Hallmark, singers from Steel City Voices (2025 LABBS chorus champions) and Sheffield Harmony (who became a LABBS chorus last year) took part, making this a true all-voices contest with male, female, and mixed-voice groups.
The atmosphere was great, and the quartets did an excellent job of selecting a varied repertoire of music — not a single song was repeated!
"It gives a perfect excuse for members of different groups to band together, get to know each other and try new things," Elliot says. "We had people singing mixed quartets for the first time, singing a voice part they don't typically sing, and even people sing in a quartet for the first time! Those first steps can be the formative events that lead a fresh face to become a future veteran of the chorus which is the thing that I personally value."
As I reflected on my experience at this event, I couldn't help but marvel at the amazing sense of community in this region. This didn't feel like awkward networking; this was a group of people who knew each other well, and genuinely loved being together to hang out and make music.
That kind of thing takes time to cultivate, and it's a testament to the work being done constantly in the region to build a thriving community around this hobby we all love.
