Judging Panel 2026

Chad Wulf (SNG) joined the Barbershop Harmony Society in 1987. A lifelong barbershopper, he began singing with the Singing Buckeyes (Columbus, Ohio) at the age of 12 — performing alongside his dad and brother — and has been deeply involved in barbershop ever since.

Chad currently lives in La Porte, Indiana, and works as a business consultant and co-founder of Parker Wulf Consulting, where he partners with organizations to strengthen organizational effectiveness, and deliver complex programs successfully. In that work, he brings the same emphasis on teamwork, clarity, and communication that he values in music. 

Chad has been an active coach, director, and certified Singing Judge since 2007. He serves regularly on the Singing Category Board of Review and has led judge education and training across the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

As a musical leader, he was honored as Johnny Appleseed District Director of the Year in 2015 and Coach of the Year in 2016 and was a finalist for the Columbus Symphony Community Choir Director of the Year award in 2018.

An enthusiastic quartet singer, Chad has taken the International Contest stage eight times, singing two different parts with three district-champion quartets. He’s always happy to sing a tag with you — just don’t ask him to sing bass!

James Pennington (PER) is a 20-year barbershopper with a lifetime of experience as a singer, instrumentalist, and stage performer. James certified as a performance judge in 2023. You may recognize him from Secret Best Friends, the 2025 BHS International 7th place quartet finalist. James sings baritone and arranges some of the group’s repertoire.

As a chorus singer and leader, he was an original member of Kentucky Vocal Union and served that chorus for 10 years in many roles including assistant director, ultimately placing as high as 3rd in the 2012 BHS International chorus contest. His passion as a coach and judge is empowering performers to discover the magic hidden within songs and the people singing them to create memorable moments.

James enjoys working with performers to explore connecting a song’s lyrics with the musical devices available within the arrangement and the appropriate emotional motivation to bring them to life. He also loves talking with groups about aligning individual/ensemble influences with repertoire and performance choices.

Will Lagos (PER) is the current Performance Director of The Westminster Chorus and certified as a Performance Judge for the Barbershop Harmony Society in 2023. Will has had the honor of performing with Westminster since 2009 and now works as their in-house performance coach and choreographer, working with the chorus for their gold medal contest runs in 2010, 2015, 2019, and 2024.

Will attended the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts where he trained in the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) for Acting in the Stage and Screen program and has enjoyed a 25-year career as a career performer in the United States. He is also a founding member of The Public Assembly Theatre Company in Los Angeles, where he produces and directs new works of theatre in repertory ten months out of the year.

Will holds a faculty position at the California School of the Arts – San Gabriel Valley, where he teaches vocal pedagogy, acting techniques, advises the senior capstone projects, and directs the first musical of the season.

Tyler Wigginton (MUS) is a composer, arranger, and performer based in Denver, Colorado. He earned his degree in Music Composition from the Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2017. While studying, he received numerous prestigious composition awards. He frequently serves as a composer fellow at several Colorado festivals, creates original music, and performs with ensembles throughout the Denver metro area.

In 2023, Tyler became a certified BHS Musicality Judge. A member of the BHS since 2008, he is a three-time Rocky Mountain District (RMD) quartet champion. He currently sings bass in the international top ten quartet Sunday Night Social. Tyler also directs the internationally ranked chorus Sound of the Rockies, which has placed as high as 5th under his leadership, earning a medal in 2025.

Beyond performance, Tyler is an active coach and educator, having taught at Harmony University, Rocky Mountain Harmony College, and various regional/international leadership summits. He is a sought-after coach for choruses and quartets across the country.  When not making music, Tyler enjoys tabletop RPGs, rock climbing, reading fantasy and science-fiction novels, and spending time with his family.

Rafi Hasib (MUS) joined the Barbershop Harmony Society in 2009 and is a lifetime BHS member. He has a diverse background in vocal and instrumental music, spanning classical, choral, jazz, glee, and contemporary a cappella. Rafi has sung in quartets since 2000 and in multiple international top ten choruses, including Voices of Gotham, Parkside Harmony, and Music City Chorus. Rafi has officially judged since 2023 and currently serves on the BHS Musicality Category Board of Review.

He and his fiancée, Katie, live in New York City, where Rafi works as a software engineer, managing a team focused on developer experience, tooling, and education. He translates these software development concepts to musical development, helping groups with character-driven delivery of the arrangement’s embellishments, motivic patterns, and subtext.

Rafi also enjoys helping newer ensembles reinforce good habits upfront, discover their core sound, and understand how to naturally bring a song to life. The chart is a treasure map, the singers are the treasure hunters, and the performance is an adventure. He loves to unlock the chart’s secrets, map a journey, and mine for gold!

SNOBS 2026 Judging Panel Bios

Gary Plaag (Contest Administrator) lives in Boone, North Carolina and has been a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society since 1985. He currently sings with the Appalachian Express Chorus in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Gary was a Certified BHS Performance/Presentation Judge from 1998-2019, and is an active international chorus and quartet coach, working with youth and adult quartets and choruses in the USA, Canada, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Gary served on the faculty at the BHS Harmony University for 17 years, as well as at harmony college events at BinG!, Holland Harmony, Barbershop Harmony New Zealand and Barbershop Harmony Australia.

Professionally, Gary owns a communication consulting company offering training and coaching in presentation and public speaking skills, executive communication and leadership strategies. Gary ran contest events in the Mid-Atlantic District (MAD) of the BHS for over 15 years. He has been a SNOBS member since 2021 and has been privileged to be the contest administrator for the 2022 SNOBS-EBC, 2024 SNOBS, and 2025 SNOBS-EBC conventions, and is excited to be in Uppsala as the contest administrator again this year.