Panda Ring

The other night, all four of us were in the same place at the same time for the first time in quite a while! It was fun to catch up and sing some songs.

We may be retired, but that won’t stop us from hanging out at the SouthWestern District of The Barbershop Harmony Society fall convention! We miss Daniel, but he’s a little busy with his new baby boy!! (Baby boy not pictured) Fun times!!!

A FOND FAREWELL FROM PANDA RING

When the four of us first started singing together back in 2022, the goal was to see if we could qualify for international once. Three of us had never made it to the International Quartet Contest, and we wanted to see if we could fulfill that dream. We were elated to accomplish that feat, but even then we had no plan to continue long-term. But in the lead-up to that International, we agreed that we were having so much fun making music and spending time together that we wanted to keep going, wherever the ride might take us.

It’s been a great ride since then. We’ve competed at International three times, we’ve won and lost steak bets with each other, we’ve had a blast with our Broadway & Barbershop collaborations, we’ve watched basketball together, we’ve sung at Midwinter, we’ve supported each other through great and terrible times in life, we’ve sung at our friends’ weddings and engagements, we’ve supported and been supported by our choruses, we’ve learned a lot, and we’ve had a lot of fun along the way.

But as our lives have changed, we’ve realized that it’s time for the ride to end. Despite our attempts to deny it, it’s become clear over the last several months that the four of us can’t give the quartet the time we need to in order to accomplish our goals. It’s been a hard realization to come to because we love making music together and, more importantly, we love being together. But we have so much gratitude for the time we’ve spent together, and we are so proud of the music we’ve made over the last three and a half years. We know our friendships will stay very strong, and we're certain that our group chat will stay very active.

We want to thank everyone who’s been part of this ride with us. Thank you to our coaches who pushed us to grow, especially Allen Otto, Ryan Wisniewski, Steve Scott, Ben Shively, and Blair Brown; to our choruses, Space City Sound and The Houston Tidelanders, for supporting us every step along the way; to Eric Horn, who helped get things started as our original tenor way back in 2019; to Heather Cryer (Custom Quartet Stuff) for creating our logo and merch; to all of our Fandas (especially if you bought a shirt - we love seeing you wear our stuff!); to our friends and family; and most importantly, to Lisa, Liz, and Sarah for your love and support.

This Saturday we will be making our farewell performance as part of Lightyear 10 - Space City Sound 10th Anniversary Concerts. We are really excited to perform one more time (well, technically two more times) in support of the chorus that’s been there for us from the very beginning. Our first performance together was on a Space City Sound show, and it’s only fitting that our last performance will be too. We’d love to see you there.

Love to all of you, from Patrick, Zach, Daniel and Robby - Panda Ring

Hey there Fandas!

Some of our more observant fans may have noticed that our name is not in the draw for the SouthWestern District of The Barbershop Harmony Society convention this weekend. Unfortunately, due to various life conflicts and commitments, we'll be taking this year off from the International contest cycle. We wish all the quartets at SWD and around the world the best of luck during this prelims season and in Denver this summer! We are especially rooting for our great friends in 7th Street Quartet as they head to prelims for the first time!

While we will miss being on the contest stage this year, we are very excited for our next performance, when we'll be part of Lightyear 10 - Space City Sound 10th Anniversary Concerts on June 7! We hope to see you there!

(photo from our recent performance at Houston's Barbershop Quartet Day celebration, just to prove that we still exist!)

Who needs rehearsals when you can just go watch basketball instead??

Hey there! It’s been a minute. We’re excited to perform for the first time in a few months at the Barbershop Harmony Society’s Midwinter convention next week in San Antonio! We’ll be on the Thursday night show along with Space City Sound and some other great groups!

We had a great rehearsal tonight, but you might notice we look a little different. Zach unfortunately isn’t able to make the trip to Midwinter with us, but we’re grateful that our good friend Drew Prince of 7th Street Quartet has stepped up to be our substitute lead for this performance!

See y’all in San Antonio!

Back in July, we got to share something new with the International audience. Now we get to share it with the world! Please enjoy our rendition of "Skidamarink", aka "We have all come down with some kind of brain disease, please help us".

Panda Ring • Skidamarink • 2024 International Quartet Quarterfinals "Skidamarink" arranged by Patrick McAlexanderGet more early-release and exclusive content by subscribing to the FIRST LOOK YouTube membership channel — http...

First Look, First Day. We're excited to announce that our performances from Cleveland have been released to the Barbershop Harmony Society's FIRST LOOK channel - this is their paid YouTube membership where you can get early access to videos from International (as well as some GREAT content from barbershop history)! You can find us there along with Mom's Favorite Barbershop Quartet, The Ladies, Studio Talk Vocal Quartet, and Entourage Quartet!

If you want to see some great barbershop (and us), or if you just relish the feeling of having access to things other people don't have access to, check out FIRST LOOK! https://www.barbershop.org/first-look

The initial ten FIRST LOOK YouTube releases dropped today! Quartet QF entries 1-5: Mom's Favorite; The Ladies; Panda Ring; Studio Talk; and Entourage.

Get more early-release and exclusive content by subscribing to the FIRST LOOK YouTube membership channel! https://www.barbershop.org/first-look

So much fun on the stage today! We were dumdums and didn’t take any pictures, but we had such a blast sharing music with our barbershop family this morning!!

Let’s gooo!!! We’re all heading to Cleveland tomorrow and we’re so excited to sing on Tuesday morning!

BREAK A LEG to all of the incredible quartets and choruses representing SWD at 2024 BHS International!

Come see us on Saturday!!

🚨New Video Alert🚨

We are excited to share our newest song from prelims a couple weeks ago. This is an old barbershop standard that Patrick has always loved, so he did a new arrangement of it for us! We love singing this one and we were so happy to share it with the SouthWestern District of The Barbershop Harmony Society audience!

Panda Ring - Oh, How I Miss You Tonight Panda Ringhttps://www.facebook.com/pandaringquartetOh, How I Miss You Tonight, arr. Patrick McAlexanderPerformed live at the the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the D...