BIBA Officers

Kara Martín

BIBA President

Born and raised in Texas, Kara Martín, has lived in Madrid for 24 years. Her early years of life in Spain led her to The Barbees and introduced her to the tantalizing harmonies of the barbershop style. Over the years she has sung in several quartets, earned multiple medals singing with The Barbees at the En Armonía convention, served as Lead section leader, and after serving for several years as assistant and co-director of the chorus, was named musical director for the 2024-2025 season and led the chorus to their highest-ever score and a fourth gold medal in April, 2025.

Kara earned a master’s degree in project management from the Universitat de Barcelona and a master’s degree in choral direction and pedagogy from the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja in 2022. She combines this knowledge in planning the chorus’s path to success with a focus on vocal technique and the pursuit of education in the hallmarks of barbershop-style singing. In 2023, Kara attended the Barbershop Harmony Society’s Harmony University on the Peggy Leon Women in Barbershop Scholarship.

Since 2020 she has worked with the education team of the Barbershop of IBeria Association (BIBA), helping to encourage the practice of barbershop singing in schools and to promote the continuing education of barbershop singers through events such as Harmony College. In 2024, she was elected president of BIBA, where she shares her vision of expanding barbershop singing throughout Spain and Portugal.

Rebecca Grint

BIBA Vice President

Following their decision to retire and escape the British weather, Rebecca (known to most as Ray) moved to Spain with her husband in December 2016. A lifelong lover of singing, Ray was often told off by her mother for singing at the table during mealtimes! From an early age, she threw herself into music, singing in school and church choirs and performing in local pantomimes and concerts. This passion continued into adulthood, where she sang, acted, and took part in pantos at her golf club – also serving on various committees and twice holding the role of Lady Captain. A karaoke enthusiast too, Ray has never been far from a microphone.

In early 2017, keen to find a musical community in her new home, she discovered Spangles Ladies Harmony Chorus. After contacting Lyn Baines and attending a rehearsal, she was hooked – and so began her love affair with Barbershop. Her five years with Spangles not only deepened her understanding of singing in harmony, but also taught her what it meant to be in harmony – both musically and socially.

Ray is now a proud member of both Pilarmonics Ladies Chorus and El Ritmo del Sol, the first mixed Barbershop chorus in Spain’s Levante region. In 2023, Ray was honoured to be elected as Membership Secretary of BIBA (Barbershop in Iberia). Her enthusiasm, commitment and organisational flair led to her election as Vice President the following year. She also oversees the planning and coordination of the annual En Armonía convention.

Ray remains passionately committed to supporting BIBA’s growth and promoting Barbershop singing across Spain and Portugal. Her promise to serve the membership to the best of her ability remains as strong today as it was when she first joined the Association.

Ricardo Leal

BIBA Secretary

Ricardo Leal, has been involved in singing activities since an early age, in school, church and high school choirs, as well as local pop and rock bands. During his time at Southampton University, he was part of the Pop & Gospel choir Jazzmanix. And later in the choir “Los Peñascales” in Madrid. In 2010 he was part of the initial foundation of the male choir Barbershop de Madrid “Barberidad”, gold medalist in the SABS competition “En Armonía” and from which came the quartet “Aftershave Quartet”, with which he has been gold medalist twice in SABS and with which he has performed concerts for the highest institutions in Spain: RTVE, Radio Nacional de España, Auditorio Nacional de Música, Teatro Circo Price, Sala Galileo Galilei,€¦ In addition, he has always been closely linked to SABS, both officially forming part of the board as a vocal of the central zone, as well as in different activities such as migration of the website or coordinator of social networks. An electronic engineer by training, he is currently Director of the ecommerce practice at Capgemini Spain, leading a team of more than 50 professionals with high performance and great professional success.

Barbara Covington

BIBA Treasurer

Barbara moved to Spain from Southern California 6 years ago during the pandemic. She has been singing in choirs and musical theatre since she was a child, and first started directing theatre and choreographing choirs when she was a teenager. Discovering the world of barbershop a year and a half ago was a total accident… she was just looking for an average ‘ole acapella choir. She has now fallen hard in love with barbershop and the amazing people that make up the barbershop community.

Barbara holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Irvine (Economics and Political Science); a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre from the California State University, Fullerton; and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science, also from California State University, Fullerton. For 15 years she taught all levels of acting and theatre arts courses at Santa Ana College in California as an adjunct faculty member, as well as directing with many theatre groups. She’s also worked as a professional stage manager and television writer. She’s excited to have the opportunity to contribute to the barbershop community as the treasurer for BIBA.

Paulette Flahavin

BIBA Membership Director

A barbershopper for more than 22 years with my chorus, The Barbees, I am committed to
growing the community of barbershop singers in Spain and Portugal by welcoming all who love
to sing and learn more about vocal music and performing.

As president (2015-2024) and former vice-president (2024-2025) of The Barbees, I have dedicated 10 years to
helping build Madrid’s only women’s barbershop chorus and four-time BIBA champion chorus.
I am also assistant director, a role I have played since 2019.

I have been a member of BIBA since the year the association was founded. In 2023, I helped
BIBA’s education team run its Harmony College in Seville. And last year, I played a far more
active role as one of the organizers of Harmony College 2024, held in Madrid’s Miraflores de la
Sierra. This year I am continuing to help the education team organize Harmony College 2025 in
Torremolinos, Málaga.

I sing lead in the MAD Gals quartet and play clarinet and sing in the Madrid-based jazz band,
Tornado Alley Jazz.

Lyn Baines

BIBA Marketing Director

Barbershop has been my happy place for over 30 years—and I’m still ringing chords! I’m a founding member of Spangles Ladies’ Harmony Chorus in sunny Los Alcázares, Murcia, and helped launch SABS (now BIBA), proudly serving as both Vice President and President (yes, I like to keep busy).

With a background in marketing and PR, I’ve spent my career crafting messages that connect—and now I get to bring that energy back to BIBA through marketing and social media. I’ve called Spain home for over 22 years, where I live with my husband, Billy, who’s my biggest cheerleader, and our dog, Biba (named after the famous 1960’s shop in Kensington).

Still singing, still smiling, and always up for a good sing in the bar!

 

Pablo Escolano

BIBA Education Director

Pablo was born in Madrid, 2002, and has finished his degree in Musicology. He is currently aspiring to become a researcher on barbershop music in Spain.

Since an early age Pablo has had musical and theatre training, he has sung in different vocal groups and received multiple lessons in music theory, singing and acting. He found his true passion at 11 years old, when he started his barbershop journey by attending to a Sing Harmony in a Day organized by the Spanish Association of Barbershop Singers (SABS, now BIBA) and joined Madrid’s male chorus Barberidad. Since then, his interest in this style of music has only grown bigger and he has set himself to learn and enjoy as much barbershop as possible.
Pablo is the Musical Director of Barberidad since 2019 and sings baritone in his own quartet Tic Tag Toe since 2022. He now strives to keep learning and share his knowledge as the head of the newly founded BIBA’s Education Team.

Mar Elena

South Vocal Representative

Born in Cáceres and Andalusian by adoption, I have lived in Seville since 1992. I am a Telecommunications Engineer and I work as a professor of Electronics at the Higher School of Engineering of Seville. From an early age, I have felt and lived music in the bosom of my family, thanks to my father, a member of a light music group. I started studying at the conservatory at the age of 7, finishing the courses of harmony, singing, composition and piano.

The opportunity to sing in the Participatory Messiah gives a turn to my musical life, creating with my companions the Musical Society of Seville. This experience allowed me to evolve in the choral world by gaining experience, thanks to conductors of the stature of Pedro Teixeira, Martin Schmidt, Monica Hugget or Gabriel Díaz and with repertoires of maximum difficulty such as Carmina Burana, Spem in Allium or Mozart's 39th Requiem. During this time, I have received singing lessons and attended national and international choral meetings, such as Europa Cantat.

My restlessness led me to explore other styles in the choral world singing repertoires of film music in the Ars Canendi choir. Since 2018, I have been singing with great enthusiasm in the barbershop music quartet Four on the Road, being the Baritone of the quartet and having worked with Luciano Miotto and Ángel Rodríguez. I am currently a member of the southern region of BIBA.

Laura Baeza

Center Vocal Representative

Born in Madrid in 2002, Laura has a degree in Fine Arts and currently works as a designer and illustrator.

Since an early age, she showed a growing interest for vocal music. She has been part of numerous choruses wich have given her the opportunity to sing in venues such as the National Music Auditorium, RTVE (Spanish National Radio) or the Palau de la Música Catalana. In 2022 she discovered Barbershop thanks to Barberidad Chorus and now sings in the BIBA medallist mixed quartet; Tic Tag Toe.

Marina Mew

East Vocal Representative

Marina was born on the Isle-of-Wight in the UK but has been living in Spain since 1990. She graduated from Birmingham University with a degree in International studies and opened her own language school in 1994. Marina has been involved in singing from a very young age singing in the local choir and performing in musicals and concerts at school but she only discovered Barbershop in 2014.  She has won 3 national chorus gold medals. One with her first chorus, Spangles, and two with her current chorus, Pilarmonics. She is also a silver medalist with her quartet which is called Shiraz and has an International silver medal which she won in Ireland with Luminosity. She is now the musical director of Pilarmonics.

Marina speaks English, Spanish and French fluently and is working hard to promote and encourage barbershop in Valencia, Murcia and the Balearic Islands.

Patricia Negri

Portugal Vocal Representative

Born and raised in the south of Ireland, to an Irish Mother and Italian Father, Patricia (known as Tricia by her family and friends!!) grew up in a musical household.  She was introduced to her first barbershop chorus when she was 17 where she joined the Arundel Sounds at the time while living in Bognor Regis in the South of England.

When she left school, she started to work in Tourism and worked in Italy making use of her Italian language but then in 1986 was sent to Portugal to cover for a colleague who became ill, she loved Portugal so much that she asked to return there the following year and was sent to the Algarve, which was where she met her Portuguese husband.

Patricia was busy working and rearing their 2 Sons, however, she did join an ex pat amateur dramatics group, which was where she met Sylvy and Ralph Keenan who founded Bella A Capella barbershop chorus. After complimenting her on her lovely clear singing voice, Sylvy invited Tricia to join the chorus.  A short time after joining Bella, Tricia was invited to sing Tenor with the then newly formed quartet, Cleftomania, with Ralph, Sylvy and Mary Legg.

They participated in many SABS conventions and took home a few medals for Portugal at the time.

When Sylvy and Ralph returned to live in the UK Patricia carried on in the Chorus as it forms an important part of her life.  She was thrilled when the BIBA association was formed, thus including Portugal within the Barbershop Society and even more thrilled when she was asked by Rob Does (the current MD of Bella Acapella) to represent Portugal within the BIBA association.

Patricia is very excited to promote barbershop within Portugal together with the help of the other BIBA team members to create further awareness throughout Portugal of this wonderful passion.