Who is Clay Hine?

Clay Hine has been an avid barbershop musician and arranger since about 6 months before he was born. He is a native Chicagoan, but has lived in the Atlanta Metro area since graduating from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) in 1986 with a degree in electrical engineering.

Clay joined the Barbershop Harmony Society at the age of 14, singing under the direction of his dad in the Detroit #1 Chorus. After he moving back to Chicago, he sang with The West Towns Chorus (Lombard, IL) winning 2 silver medals (1985, 1986). He developed an interest in arranging when he was a teenager, and had the chance to arrange for his 1st quartet, Debut, and dad's quartet, The Four Henchmen. After college and a move to Atlanta, he began arranging for a newly chartered chorus in Marietta, GA (The Big Chicken Chorus) and his first post-college quartet Atlanta Forum (1987 Dixie District Champs).

His early arrangements were for the purpose of helping Atlanta-area and Dixie District quartets and choruses, but he soon had requests nationwide from internationally competing choruses and quartets. Clay has arranged music for: Keepsake, PLATINUM, FRED, Four Voices, Riptide, Backbeat, Marquis, Nightlife, BSQ, Max Q, Bank Street, State Line Grocery, Overture, Sound Standard, Svelte Brothers, and many other internationally renowned groups. Clay's arrangement of Cuddle Up a Little Closer, as sung by Platinum at the 2000 international competition, remains the highest scoring quartet performance in the history of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

Although Clay had many years of piano as a child, he is a self-taught arranger, having little formal music education at the university level. Clay directed the Big Chicken Chorus from 1989 through 2004, finishing as high as 3rd place internationally, and has directed the Atlanta Vocal Project since 2005. He has arranged over 300 songs in various styles, and is currently a Music judge for the Barbershop Harmony Society.

Clay is a member of FRED (that's a quartet name, BTW), who won the international quartet competition in Anaheim, CA in 1999, and in their 21-year history has had the opportunity to sing in 49 states (still waiting for that Wyoming gig) and 15 countries. In 2010, Clay began singing with A Mighty Wind (also a quartet name), finishing 4th place internationally in 2011.

Clay is married to the very talented Becki, who is director of the Song of Atlanta Chorus (current 4th place international medallists), a certified Showmanship judge in Sweet Adelines International, a sought after coach, and very patient. They have two children, Melody (a Music Education major, and member of the Song of Atlanta Chorus) and Camden (who loves band, but of course, wants to be an engineer).