A personal review of this year’s International A Cappella Competition in Graz by our Vice-Chairman Peter Martin Jacob

„Es klappert die Mühle am rauschenden Bach“, an Arrangement of this traditional German Folksong by German Vocal Group str8voices was considered to be the „most creative arrangement of the pop category“ at this year’s International A Cappella Competition Graz. The jury also praised the performance of the song. str8voices from Hannover also won the 2nd prize in the pop category. Some of you might know the eight singers from their little youtube-hit, an arrangement of the Star Wars Soundtrack of „The Force awakens“. If not, check it out here. I wish this extraordinary vocal group a continuing splendid career, as they already sing together since eight years. May the Force be with u!

Graz in summer is always worth going there. Where else can you experience around twenty vocal groups of all over the world in three days, not to mention the fabulous climate, the great food and the lovely tiny second largest city in Austria? It’s also very cool to meet so many folks of the a cappella family and have a chat or two.

Apart from str8voices, that surprised me as I have never seen them before, I especially was deeply impressed by the ensemble Georgian Six from … tataaa… Georgia, the European Eastern state at the south-end of the Caucasus. The two female and four male singers showed a highly remarkable performance, in the Jazz Category and particularly in the Classical Category. In both Categories they won the audience award, which is a great statement, I think. I’ve never heard such an amazing version of Khachaturian’s „Sabre Dance“ before, as well as I was very impressed by the own compositions of this perfectly singing group. Their music, as we learned by the adorable and really sweet tall black-haired female singer, is a mix of asian, arabian, georgian, slavic and european influences. A great worldmusic-mix. Highly recommended to everybody. Check out the Vokal Total youtube-channel. You will see and hear what I mean.

Another really striking appearance at this year‘s competition had the young German Vocal Group Quintense from Leipzig. The young two female and three male singers are music students, they founded the group one and a half years ago. Graz was about their fifth public gig, and they won the Jazz Category. Isn’t that amazing? In Pop, they managed to reach the third prize and the audience award. Congratulations! What an outcome! Oh, and they also received the magenta talent trophy, which is given since two years to a very talented ensemble.

In my opinion also worth to mention: Gretchens Antwort, four girls from Berlin. Really great singers. And I like the attitude! And their versions of „Männer“ from Herbert Grönemeyer and their arrangement of Cohen’s „Halleluja“. Upsweep from Rome/Italy. Check out this video. They can sing AND move. They also know how to dress on stage (Italians!), Their „Cry me a river“ thrilled me. And I really liked the grooving base.

In my opinion also worth to mention: Gretchens Antwort, four girls from Berlin. Really great singers. And I like the attitude! And their versions of „Männer“ from Herbert Grönemeyer and their arrangement of Cohen’s „Halleluja“. Upsweep from Rome/Italy. Check out this video. They can sing AND move. They also know how to dress on stage (Italians!), Their „Cry me a river“ thrilled me. And I really liked the grooving base.

Upsweep

Under this link you get an overview of all the prizes, diplomas and awards that were given this year to the participating groups.

Come to Graz in July next year and experience the outdoor opening ceremony called „Marktschreierei“ as well as the great „Dom im Berg“ and the pretty „Minoritensaal“ as the two venues of the competitions. Really extraordinary! Listen to the singing world, dance with the participants at the party, drink and have fun till four o clock in the morning (or later) or just be impressed of great voices.

Yours

Peter

In April, due to an invitation of the AGV Munich, I had the pleasure and honour to take part at a Vocal Ensemble Masterclass of the famous King’s Singers. The coaches have been Countertenor David Hurley, Tenor Julian Gregory and Bass Jonathan Howard.

The coached ensembles were: Bolongaro SextettStimmgold6 FOR CHORDShohes CEnsemble EncoreVox Aeterna. The workshops took place during a whole tuesday afternoon, in the evening was a concert in a full concert hall with hundreds of listeners. Every ensemble sang 10 to 20 minutes. After every performance the coaches told of their impressions of the workshop-day.

I had a blast. It was definitely a great experience to see the coaches interacting with the ensembles and how (or even if) the ensembles realized the recommendations of the coaches. Every ensemble did a great work during this afternoon. It was great to hear and see such talented voices. I got again convinced in my deepest credo, that the singing itself is not the only issue. Presentation, staging, a certain easiness and charme also play a big role in the world of entertainment. And entertainment and presenting classical music doesn’t exclude each other.

My personal favourites of the day were the ensembles Hohes C from Salzburg (which I already knew from the International A Cappella Competition in Graz and the Festival Sangeslust in Bayreuth) as well as Vox Aeterna from a grammar school in Amberg/Oberpfalz/Bavaria. Inspiring fresh performances!

Congratulations to the organizers of the AGV Munich. They are planning to continue with these Masterclasses next year, as I heard. Most likely LEVELELEVEN = The Real Group and Rajaton will be the coaches. Very good idea, guys. European Vocies Association will gladly support you with this as much as we can. We love education and networking.

Best vocal greetings

Peter M. Jacob
EVA Vice-Chairman

A recommendation for a cappella fans.

By Peter Martin Jacob, EVA vice-chairman and owner of the a cappella agency “magenta”.

Every year in July there is a fixed date in my calendar: “Vokal Total”, the international a cappella competition in Graz, Austria in which the who is who in a cappella meets annually. Where else can you see a cappella acts from all over the world in three days, plus meet the movers and shakers. Just Graz alone which lies by the river „Mur“ is already worth a trip. What a beautiful, picturesque town it is: UNESCO world heritage and former cultural capital city of Europe, it is also center for design and furthermore Austrias´  second largest city. Last but not least Graz is a city of culinary highlights. Even if some residents  think of their city as rather “provincial” it is more than exciting for the international a cappella traveler and the aca party atmosphere here is just unique!

In July the weather is hot and Italy is not far away, which one is reminded when watching the sun shining from the “cielo azzuro”. This year from July 20th to 24th was no exception. The main location being a cathedral style dome inside a mountain hill with ample space for 600 spectators was a welcome refreshment in midst of the heat. There were twenty groups to watch this year. The festival was kicking of on Monday open air in the heart of the city which is very good programming by the organizers. On “Kaiser-Josef-Platz” the central market square many Graz residents could see what is a cappella brings to their city.  Overall the competition in this years  15-year jubilee of „Vokal Total“ was not quite as high class as in the last two years, however there were of course still some real highlights:

My favourites this year:

  • Chilli da Mur – female vocal power from graz with four awesome ladies – powerful, fresh, sexy. Way to go!
  • Tuuletar – four finnish ladies – innovative, creative,  finnish ethno ambiende. Very cool!
  • Vocafonia – mixed ensemble (2 F, 2 M) from Vienna – winner in the classical category – very VERY good, communicative, friendly and warm way of addressing the audience.
  • Framest from Latvia– mixed group (2 F, 3 M) – very convincing in classical as well as jazz. Winner in the jazz category.
  • Zenith from South Korea – mixed group (2 F, 3 M)  – winner in the pop category – groovy, swingin´, cool.
  • Beat Poetry Club – five girls from vienna – Groovy and lots of power with their beatboxer – good ideas, but can be taken even further in terms of sound and variation.
  • Triu from Vienna – a true surprise – how simple yet highly musical they came across even with just three members.

A jury made of famous members discussed the contributions to the competition, awarding the groups with diplomas (gold, silver and bronze) and of course the infamous “Ward Swingle Award” in the categories pop, jazz, classical and beatboxing. Personally I find it would be even cooler if the decisions are explained openly so the audience could actually relate better to the ranking of the groups in the competition.

Surprisingly unfortunate was the performance by Taiwanese group “Heaven-sent gift” which was not such a heavenly experience. The group was simply not ready yet to perform in front of an audience and by still appearing it was both not very comfortable neither for the audience nor the singers. Unfortunately also the Graz based group “Kuchl-Quartett” couldn´t live up to the level of such an international competition. It would be good to pay more attention to the quality of the selected groups.

In the comedy category there was no group awarded with a first, second or third prize this year. The jury explained that none of the competing acts reached the high level of the groups in the recent years which they had a point with. All groups received a bronze diploma but instead it would have been better to just cancel this category. The festival organizers however wanted to have all categories present in the jubilee year but I think in this case they should have decided for a ranking because a competition just screams for a winning group. But of course this is a matter of taste and opinion. One likes group A better, the other one group B. Long live diversity!

I have a lot of respect and admiration for the team of organizers led by Peter Schiri and Manuel Brandtner. To set up such an event with people that are doing this in addition to their normal day jobs during the week this is really something. Chapeau! So at the end of the competition there is always the award winners concert, in which all the winners and special award winners are performing again which is just a beautiful thing. The dome is filled to its maximum capacity during that time.

Also for the first time this year my agency magenta was giving out the “magenta talent trophy”. As a former bass singer in “Six Pack” I know first hand how important it is for talented bands, to get support in the beginning phase. It is a very rewarding experience to see how a group evolves and improves over time. Hard work definititely pays of in arts. So the magenta trophy comes with a workshop financed by myself as well as a performance. The prize in its first year was given to “Hörband” from Hannover, Germany. They were coached by famous German vocal arranger and singer Oliver Gies, and are directly invited to the SANGESLUST a cappella festival 2016 in Bayreuth.

Now for the culinary ending: Besides the city itself  its´ surroundings are beautiful. The region of Eastern Styria with its castle “Riegersburg” and the factory of famous chocolate manufacturer “Zotter”. You could even go for a trip to Slovenia. My  personal highlight: The South Styrian “wine street” which can only be described as a mixture of the Shire and Tuscany: Vast green hills with wine, and the Alps on the horizon.

Life could definitely be worse than that. Go and enjoy! 

Peter