The Summit

Quartet Members

• Tenor - Tim MacAlpine
• Lead - Shawn Mondragon
• Bass - Marco Gonzalez
• Baritone - Matt Vaive

History

The Summit's journey began in October of 2002. Shawn Mondragon had just returned to his hometown of Albuquerque, NM from a three year job stint in El Paso, TX. As luck would have it, Marco Gonzalez had also returned to Albuquerque from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he had lived for two years. When hearing of their return, Matt Vaive contacted fellow Duke City Chorus member, Tim MacAlpine, and asked if he might be interested in singing Tenor, that way the other three could try out a new combination. Tim, who had recently switched to Tenor while singing with a non-competitive quartet, said, "Sure, I'll give it a shot!" Matt had sung with Shawn in the Rocky Mountain District 2000 Quartet Champions "Distinction," and had been in contact with him since his departure. This group of four men officially met for the first time on Shawn and Marco's first night back at DCC chorus rehearsal. They sang a few chorus songs and tags together, and really liked what they heard! Tim was asked to join as Tenor, after what he heard, he couldn't say no. Now the search for a name began. Shawn had always been a fan of the "Rat Pack" (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford). Mr. Sinatra hated that name. Frank preferred "the Summit" a gathering of the "best of the best" musical performers, for incredible nights of entertainment. Frank was heard to say if JFK can have his summit, then we can have ours." The name would be "the Summit." Shawn realized months later that if you took the first letters each members name (Shawn, Matt, Marco, Tim), and put them together, (SMMT) it actually sounded like "Summit". (Matt apparently had pointed this out when the name was first proposed, but Shawn wasn't listening, he is mercilessly teased to this day.). The name was meant to be.