Four students from Fullerton Union High School took the trophy at the 2016 Southern California Novice Quartet Contest.  The Fullerton Quartet, Nothing Rhymes with Orange, won the contest by the narrow margin of 7 points. In second place was Glasses Half Full from La Habra High School.  Audience members were excited to see the two high school quartets take the top two places.  Other quartets in the field of seven had members up to four times the ages of the winners.

Presented each year by the Orange Quartet Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, the contest gives men new to barbershop the opportunity to compete against other novices.  Previous barbershop competition experience for any quartet members results in a deduction from the score awarded by the contest judges.

Three members of each of the top two quartets participated in The OC Student Union honor choir, a barbershop chorus for high school students sponsored by the Orange Empire Chorus.  The OC Student Union met for 8 rehearsals over a period of  four months to perfect three songs and compete in the International Youth Barbershop Chorus Festival in Reno.  Chorus members learned to sing in the barbershop style and entertain an audience. 

Nothing Rhymes with Orange put together their winning novice contest performance in less than a month, singing one new song and another that they learned as part of The OC Student Union. "It's fun to sing barbershop," said Devin Ricklef, lead singer of Nothing Rhymes with Orange.