We are proud to announce, that this years European Voices Award goes to:
ONAIR
Since 2013, the Berlin a cappella ensemble: André Bachmann, Marta Helmin, Jennifer Kothe and Patrick Oliver, present vocal perfection, artistic arrangements, as well as innovative sound design and extensive stage performance.
The ensemble will perform at the Münster Vocal Festival 2024, on Saturday, September 28th.
(German version below)
The European Voices Association awards the European Voices Award for the year 2018 to the
RAMA Vocal Center (Aalborg) (RVC)
at the Royal Acadamy of Music (Aarhus/Aalborg) (RAMA).
The RAMA Vocal Center receives the award for outstanding achievements in the field of popular training for choir conductors and choir singers.
The RVC is the Danish centre for training programmes for jazz/pop vocal ensemble leaders and is now one of the best in the world.
The RVC offers programmes for choir conductors and soloists, supplementary and extra-occupational courses and a wide variety of inspiration and master classes. Students find a learning environment that is characterized by innovation and competence development. An outstanding team of lecturers, the internationality of the students themselves and, last but not least, excellent technical equipment enable education at the highest level.
The RVC combines intensive study sessions in Aalborg with long distance learning and supervision via digital platforms.
In its quest for continuous artistic and pedagogical development, the RVC is today one of the hotspots of modern vocal music, “the place to be” for ensemble leaders from all over the world.
Professor Jim Daus Hjernøe
is the director and leading head of the RVC. As an internationally sought-after lecturer, excellent musician and ensemble leader, he lives the quest for innovation. With the RVC, Jim has also created an international network that carries ideas, methods and creative potential all over the world.
Jim has also developed the The Intelligent Choir Methodology (TIC). The “intelligent choir” consists of singers who themselves take responsibility for the musical design process.
With Vocal Painting, Jim has further developed Walter Thompson’s Sound Painting for improvisation with the voice and created a powerful tool for musical work in ensembles.
European voices association (EVA) verleiht den
European Voices Award
für das Jahr 2018 an das
RAMA Vocal Center, Aalborg der Royal Acadamy of Music Aarhus (RAMA).
Das RAMA Vocal Center erhält den Preis für die herausragenden Leistungen im Bereich der populären Ausbildung für Chorleiter, Chorsänger.
Das Vocal Center der Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg ist das dänische Zentrum für Ausbildungsprogramme für Jazz/Pop-Vokalensemble-Leitung und mittlerweile eines der besten weltweit.
Das RVC bietet Programme für Chorleiter und Solisten, Ergänzungs- und berufsbegleitende Studiengänge und die verschiedensten Inspirations- und Meisterkurse. Studierende finden eine Lernumgebung vor, die durch Innovation und Kompetenzentwicklung geprägt ist. Ein hervorragendes Dozententeam, die Internationalität der Studierenden selbst und nicht zuletzt eine exzellente technische Ausstattung ermöglichen eine Ausbildung auf höchstem Niveau.
Das RVC verbindet dabei intensive Studien-Sessions in Aalborg mit Long-Distance-Learning und Supervision über digitale Plattformen.
In seinem Streben nach ständiger künstlerischer und pädagogischer Weiterentwicklung ist das RVC heute einer der Hotspots moderner Vokalmusik, „the place to be“ für Ensemble-Leiter aus aller Welt.
Professor Jim Daus Hjernøe
ist der Leiter und der führende Kopf des RVC. Als international gefragter Dozent, als exzellenter Musiker und Ensemble-Leiter lebt er das Streben nach Innovation. Mit dem RVC hat Jim gleichzeitig ein internationales Netzwerk geschaffen, das die Ideen, die Methoden und das kreative Potential in alle Welt weiterträgt.
Jim hat darüber hinaus die TIC-Chor-Methodik („The Intelligent Choir“) entwickelt. Der „intelligente Chor“ besteht aus Sängerinnen und Sängern, die selbst Verantwortung für den musikalischen Gestaltungsprozess übernehmen.
Mit dem „Vocal Painting“ hat Jim das „Soundpainting“ von Walter Thompson für die Improvisation mit der Stimme weiterentwickelt und ein mächtiges Tool für die musikalische Arbeit im Ensemble erschaffen.
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.
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
Dear Friends of Vocalmente !
We are so happy to announce our programme for this summer’s Vocalmente Festival.
This will be the third edition and we are proud that Vocalmente has established itself as so quickly in Fossano, in the region of Piemonte and in Italy as a major vocal festival. We’re grateful to have the support of the Fondazione, the city, and the people of Fossano – and we have set firm roots in short time. The best symbol of this is Aca Casa – the offer to our camp participants to stay in host families. Last year was the launch of the project and the sucess and positive feedback has been overwhelming. What a great way to make connections and build friendships between our visitors from around the world and the people of Fossano . And this year will be even more international as the word spreads around Europe.
It’s a great pleasure to welcome The Swingle Singers as our festival headliner – the group needs no introduction, with 53 years of history and 5 Grammies under their belts. The group has maintained its reputation for excellence and originality and is considered in 2016 to be amongst the most exciting and innovative groups to see live. The group has always had a special bond with italian audiences and a great relationship with italian musicians and personalities like Piero Angela or the late Luciano Berio.
Our Friday night act are Slixs, a funky and fun six-piece. Slixs is probably the grooviest act ever to come out of Germany – Bobby McFerrin chose them as his touring vocal group for his ‘Vocabularies’ tour – and they are great entertainers.
On Sunday, you are in for a treat with Women of the World – four female performers, who hail from different corners of the world and who bring their traditional songs to create a mesmerising show full of warmth, taking you on a musical journey.
In 2014, they won the Harmony Sweepstakes, (the most important US A Cappella Competition) and have been touring around the world ever since then.
The cornerstone of our festival is of course the Single Singers Camp – This gives you a chance to learn some of their music, get insights into the techniques, get to know the tips and tricks – while working on some of fundamental skills of a cappella singing. Similar to last year, participants will get a chance to perform with the group on stage – and record and video a festival song !
We also decided to add another element to our educational programme aimed at ambitious a cappella groups that want to get intensive coaching: A Cappella groups can apply to be part of the
Vocalmentor Programme and have the chance to work on their own repertoire. Peder Karlsson and Katarina Henryson (both founding members of the Real Group) have great experience in helping groups to develop and improve. The groups get a chance to perform on our Castle Stage – so they can apply what they have learned straight away. We can accept only 6 groups this year – so make sure to get your application in early !
And if you come as in individual singer and would like to perform some great music with others – please join again the Single Singers. Anyone can join and after a few rehearsals during the Emily May ‚t Hoen and Annemarie Homan conceived the idea at a Camp with the Single Singers in Italy and organised the first Single Singers for the London A Cappella Festival – since then the idea has spread like wildfire to festivals around the globe so it’s wonderful to have them back here in Italy.
Check out the page for more info and get in touch !
http://www.vocalmente.net/events/the-single-singers/
Vocaloops 2015 was the first ever A Cappella Loop Station Competition and a huge success, giving Loop Artists from around Europe a platform to showcase and compete. We are looking forward to hosting this great event again.
If you have been to an A Cappella or Vocalmente Festival before, you will know that the singing never stops.. and we hope you will share your singing either on the street (at the Singers’ Corner) , at the Vocalmente Jam in the Castle at night. If you’d like to to perform with your group on the Castle Stage, please do get in touch to apply for a slot. The atmosphere is wonderful and the courtyard is always packed – you will have a warm and attentive audience !
We look forward to welcoming you back at the Festival – feel free to share with your friends and fellow singers and see you in Fossano in the August !
Best wishes,
Tobias Hug & The Festival Team
Info: www.vocalmente.net
Tickets: www.vocalmente.net/informations/tickets
FB https://www.facebook.com/vocalmentefestival
TW https://twitter.com/VocalmenteFest
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 Sextett, Stimmgold, 6 FOR CHORDS, hohes C, Ensemble Encore, Vox 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
Two male choir students Federico Trindade and Vemund Kjelstad at The Royal Academy of Music Aalborg, create fall 2015 the vocal group EKTE. A project-based group with the intention of cooperating with musicians and ensembles from all over the world. With music written by themselves, they want to share authentic stories about real life.
It all begins spring 2015, when we discover the extraordinary chemistry we have together. We sing arrangements of Latin-American melodies, and everything fits. The harmonies create vibrations we can feel all the way out in our fingertips. The strong feelings in one of Piazzola´s tangoes, can with Federicos irascible, up-tempo melody and my aggressive, heavy bass, fill the whole room. We agree we need to share this, and the search for female singers begins.
Fall 2015 we gather three female singers from the conservatory for joining EKTE´s first project. The repertoire consists of self-written arrangements and compositions in the genre World Music. Since Federico and I met first time when we started our education at The Royal Academy of Music in Aalborg, both had a fascination of folk traditions around the world. Project 1 results in arrangements of a Brazilian samba, a folk-dance from Norway and a Syrian lullaby. Furthermore, we make three compositions that takes you on a journey including vibes of Africa, Middle East and Indigenous people. The projects danish singers(Anna Dyrvig, Marie Hahne og Anne Lindahl) are wildly enthusiastic about the music and enter the studio ready for creating something unique. After an intens week in the studio, it results in six tracks everybody enjoy a lot.
The idea behind EKTE is to create authentic musically moments together with other musicians and ensembles. We want to write original music made for the ensemble we are cooperating with. It can be all kinds of constellations: a choir, a vocal group, a band etc. A liveshow together with a vocal group could for instance consist of the vocal groups own repertoar and our arrangements/compositions, written for the occasion. In addition, for those who would like it, we want to have passages were the music is being improvised in the moment. This, we think, will add a new dimension, and create these authentic moments we seek when making music. According to us, music should be trustworthy and authentic. It should express feelings and emotions about the real life. It can be compared with telling a story. A good story is often being told with great passion and conviction, which can make the listeners feel they are a part of it themselves. Likewise, we want to express and share our musical stories with passion and emotions from inside our hearts.
The new year will bring many exicting EKTE Projects. We are in touch with the awarded and famous beat boxers Indra and RoxorLoops. Together with a former Swingle, Tobias Hug, and the danish choir-proffesor and founder of VoxNorth, Jim Daus Hjernoe, we also got plans. Not to mention upcoming liveshows this Spring. In March, EKTE will participate in a concert administrated by Peder Karlsson consisting among others by the Music Academy choir of Aalborg, RAMA voices. In April, Project 1 will be performed live during the RAMA-festival, a yearly festival students of the conservatory present their own music.
We are so much looking forward, and can barely wait!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vocalekte/
This time we have our artist spotlight on Finnish upcoming vocal group “KUMO”, who have just released this Christmas single https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N142oxLl7KM&feature=youtu.be
Hello all!
We are a vocal group called Kumo from Finland.
Our group has five singers. Four of us study music education at the Sibelius Academy (the University of the Arts Helsinki), and our bass singer is – naturally – a doctor. 😉 Also, we have a really important sixth member in our group: our sound engineer. Whatever we do on stage, he makes it even more awesome!
Kumo was founded in the beginning of 2012. First it was just for fun, but pretty soon we realized we might really have something here and our passion for a cappella kept growing all the time. By now we are already so hooked to this stuff we simply cannot stop! Probably every a cappella singer knows how rewarding it is when even the simplest harmony rings perfectly in tune. Sound wise the key to our blend is – besides hard work of course – the fact that all of us come from various musical backgrounds. Some of us had studied mostly classical singing before this project, whereas some have a stronger background in pop/jazz vocals. Also, not all of us had sung in a choir or vocal group before we started with Kumo, which we feel also brings in new and fresh ways to look at things.
One of our passions is also to always find new and unique ways to bring our music to our listeners. Three years ago we started a concept that hasn’t been done that much yet in the world. Our “Concerts in the dark” let the listeners completely concentrate on the music. Cutting off all the visual parts of a show gives the listeners a chance to experience our voices in a deeper way. One of our singers – Kirsi – came up with the idea when she was listening to a concert and realized that when people really want to concentrate on the music they tend to lean back and close their eyes. So why not create a concert based on that idea and cut the visuals off completely! We feel that people have been really interested about this concept. It is something we want to keep working with and take the idea even further.
This past year has been groundbreaking for us also music wise. We’ve been composing and arranging a lot of our own music lately. With only a few years behind us it feels that we have finally found the sound we’ve been aiming for and really keep working hard to develop it into something recognizable, something of our own. This fall we also published our first Christmas single “Tonttu” (The Christmas Elf), our arrangement of a famous finnish Christmas song. The next step now is to make our debut album, which we are planning on recording in the summer of 2016. That is something we have really been looking forward to for a long time now!
@kumoacappella
Here we have all the scores from the LEOsings-Event in Freiburg:
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:
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
My name is Federico Trindade and I am a Uruguayan musician who has lived the past 14 years in Brazil and who is currently residing in Denmark studying a Master in Choir Conducting.
I have lived all my life by music and for music, however, until I learnt a little bit more about the world, I did not understand how important music, and not just for me. I had the opportunity to experience how music is such an important factor in the development of each one of us as an individual and as a part of the community, regardless of the nationality or culture. When working in groups, it becomes even more important as it allows us to change our view about the environment we live in and our place in that space. Music teaches us to have respect for something larger than ourselves and also for differences, helps us to develop leadership, teaches us to deal with the hierarchy and to adjust our behaviour when necessary for the common good, in addition to providing with friendships and partnerships. It also encourages patience, companionship and love for something in common, it teaches us to have confidence in ourselves and in those who are sharing the music with us, plus all the benefits scientifically proven that music alone provides to the body and mind.
Experiencing all these wonders that music is, and taking all our history of miscegenation of native cultures into account such as the influence of black nations mixed with European and Asian immigrants which gave us a rhythmic, melodic and creative wealth, it is a pity that in Brazil as elsewhere in Latin America music is not yet respected and valued (especially by Latin Americans people). Even without the necessary help to be able to fully develop our potential, we have excellent vocal groups and choirs who bravely struggle on a daily basis to enrich this cultural salad.
Here is a short list of many interesting groups, from my point of view, from various parts of Latin America (that unfortunately cannot be able to put all)… enjoy!
Best regards,