On January 15, 2026, Canyon Ridge’s barbershop quartet, Kaleidoscope, competed in Pasadena, California, in the National Midwinter Barbershop Competition.
The four students, seniors Jonathan Webb (tenor), Braden Barfus (lead), Andrew Williams (bass), and sophomore Brigham Barlow (baritone), tied three-ways for tenth place in the competition with their song, “Alexander’s Brass Band.”
High school barbershops from around the world submitted video auditions to earn a place in the national competition. The video submissions were ranked and ordered by judges, and the top fifteen quartets were invited to compete in Pasadena.
After submission, Kaleidoscope originally did not gain entry into the top fifteen spots. However, they were notified later that a barbershop quartet from New Zealand had given up their spot, allowing Kaelidescope, ranked sixteenth in the video auditions, to take their place in the competition in Pasadena.
The barbershop quartet had the opportunity to meet with the other national qualifier quartets, as well as senior-aged barbershop singers, including the 2025 International Barbershop Quartet Champions, Lemon Squeezy, and the “father of contemporary a cappella,” Deke Sharon.
Kaleidoscope members, along with the other quartets in attendance, took a masterclass taught by Deke Sharon, where he relayed some singing techniques catered to barbershop singing.
“[Deke Sharon] said that the real way to get your audience to feel something when you’re singing barbershop is to really feel something yourself and sing through that emotion,” said bass singer Andrew.
“It was absolutely crazy to meet these people in real life when they are idols to us,” said Johnathan.
The four students explained that though they didn’t place high in the competition, they were still grateful for the opportunity and proud of how they placed.
“That’s for sure the best performance we’ve done for an audience,” said baritone singer Brigham, “I feel like we did really well.”
“As soon as we had heard that we had made it into state, we were really excited, but we knew we weren’t going to place that high since we had technically gotten sixteenth,” said lead part singer Braden. “None of us really worried about placing well, though, because just getting into nationals is already quite a feat.”
“We placed tenth, which is good, but not winning. But I don’t think any of us actually cared, because the experience of going onto that stage and performing in front of a huge crowd full of people who love barbershop as much as we do…It was just such a surreal experience,” said Andrew.
