TONY BYLETT - Tenor

Tony hails from Barbershop parents and was introduced to the hobby when he was just a toddler, however he did not begin singing until he was 16, when he was dragged along by his Dad, to a “Shannon Express” rehearsal. Since that first evening, after passing his vocal assessment and being told to join the Tenor section, he has not looked back.  He went on to win 2 Chorus Championships with Shannon Express in 1995 & 1998 with 2 appearances at the Finals of the Sainsbury choir of the year competition.  Tony now sings with the Cambridge Chord Company, who along with winning the millennium chorus championship in 2000 and the European Championship in 2001, they recently became the British Champions for the 4^th time having won in 1999, 2002, 2004 and now 2006. The proudest moment in the chorus has to be competing Internationally at the World Chorus Championships in Montreal 2003 where the chorus finished 11^th out of 20 competing choruses making them the highest ever scoring British Chorus.

Tony’s first taste of the quartet scene was with Harmonix. The quartet went on to win one bronze and three silver medals between 1993 and 1996 and competed at the BHS International convention on no less than 3 occasions.  Tony’s first quartet gold medal came in 1999 when he won with Shockwave in Blackpool. In Glasgow 2001 he sang Tenor again with Matrix where they became British Champions at the first attempt and in the same year were European Silver medalists. Matrix were very proud to go on and represent the UK in 2 International trips which were Portland and Montreal.

During the day Tony is a Sales Consultant for a company providing security and time recording systems, and lives in Biggleswade with his wife Helen (a Chorus Gold medalist herself) and their sons Freddie and Joseph (already hooked !!). When Tony is not singing Barbershop - he spends his time talking about singing barbershop, or watching his beloved Ipswich Town!