Tidesmen Chorus - The Director

Mac Dallman is the Director of Rising Tide and a baritone in the Garage Band quartet. He has been a student and performer of barbershop for 53 years, and has sung at international competitions six times.

Mac grew up near Peterborough, Ontario, and worked as a teacher and principal in elementary schools in Ontario for 33 years. He retired to Nanaimo in 2007 and has been active in the local Barbershop Harmony Society since that date. In addition to music, Mac is a photographer, and has learned to pilot an ultralight aircraft since his retirement. He has been married to Judy for 51 years. Together they have two children and two grandchildren.

James Chappell got his first taste of barbershop music in the 1990s as a singer with with The Tidesmen. As a teacher of music in Nanaimo schools, he found that he could apply his barbershop experience to his work with young students, showing them how to "connect with the audience and express the lyrics."

James re-joined the Nanaimo Barbershop Harmony Society in 2016. He now works with Rising Tide Director Mac Dallman to help singers to develop their musical talents. James has built a library of carefully engineered practice tracks on the chapter website. This allows members of both Nanaimo choruses to learn their individual parts in the context of a four-part a capella sound. "The core goal of our singing is unity," he says. "Musical unity and communal unity are two sides of the same thing. We're people who are learning to sing together and grow together."

James holds a degree in music from the University of New South Wales in Australia and a post-graduate diploma from the New South Wales Conservatory of Music.

Martin grew up with music, starting to play his first instrument when he was 3 years old in The Salvation Army. He was first introduced to Barbershop while attending a youth convention which was being held at the same time and place as a barbershop convention, listening to quartets sing in lineup for lunch.

Martin joined the Tidesmen in 1996 after being invited by a member and fell in love with the harmonies and the fun. He moved back to Nanaimo in retirement in 2019 and once again became a member, singer and section lead. Having taught choirs and other barbershop choruses in other places, Martin relishes the opportunity to serve as Director of the Tidesmen.

Don Dickson is Vice President of Music for the Nanaimo Barbershop Harmony Society and Baritone Section Lead for the Tidesmen A Capella Chorus.