by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für Beatbox complete – now available in english!

The definitive book on beatboxing by the renowned beatbox performers and coaches Indra Tedjasukmana and Andreas Kuch.

Need a bite-size drum kit and percussion section? No instruments are required to achieve stylistic fluency with this book! It offers an easy and hands-on approach to the basics of beatboxing and is the ideal tool for classroom practice and self-study. All important beatbox sounds are explained with examples from various music styles, stretching from rock and ballads to hip-hop and Latin music.

Contents

  • Basic beatboxing techniques and sounds
  • Patterns and fills in four styles: rock, ballads, hip-hop, and Latin music
  • Tandem beatboxing: patterns for two or more beatboxers
  • Beatbox solo works: demanding solo pieces for impressive performances
  • A special chapter on microphones
  • A chapter devoted to optimizing your practicing routines and finding new sounds

The enclosed DVD contains 93 video clips, which explain the beatbox sounds and patterns. Demonstrations by the authors teach sounds, rhythms, and styles. Performances of the solo pieces offer authentic examples and creative impulses for your own interpretations.

The audio part of the DVD contains 32 audio loops and play-alongs in different styles, which act as groovy soundtracks to practice beatboxing and will help you develop a varied beatbox repertoire.

This book is ideal for

  • Teachers who want to inspire their students, and vice versa
  • Choir directors, choirs, and vocal ensembles who want to add a new dimension to their music
  • Drummers, singers, beatmakers, DJs, MCs, and all other fans of groove

The introduction video (in German) is here:

Example page can be downloaded here.

And you can buy it here.

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für Vocalmente 2016 – What’s in this year ?

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

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by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für Vocal Ensemble Masterclass of the King’s Singers

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

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für It’s in our blood: An interview with Ensemble Nobiles

When tenors Paul Heller and Christian Pohlers, baritone Felix Hübner, and basses Lukas Lomtscher and Lucas Heller started Ensemble Nobiles, they already knew they wanted to be a professional a cappella group. The singers had met in St. Thomas Boys’ Choir in Leipzig, in which they had all sung for nine years or more and had learned musicianship and how to create a blended choral sound.

At first, they tried music in a number of different styles, including vocal jazz and arrangements by the popular German group The Wise Guys. However, it quickly became clear: pop a cappella isn’t in their blood.

So what is in the group’s blood? In a word, the choral tradition of Leipzig. In the St. Thomas’ Boys’ Choir, they grew up on the music of Bach and other liturgical and German composers. Once they began to focus on their strengths, the group began to experience much more success: they have sung new commissions by contemporary composers, have won several awards, and had 97 performances in 2015.

Unlike many a cappella groups, especially pop groups, Ensemble Nobiles doesn’t re-arrange songs. The two tenors, Paul Heller and Christian Pohlers, are both composers as well as singers, and the group has performed some of their original pieces. Otherwise, they stick to classical and contemporary choral repertoire written or arranged for four or five male voices. Their current repertoire includes some Weill, some Gershwin, some Hugo Distler, and the Leipzieger Liedertafel program: an evening of music by German Romantic composers with connections of some sort to Leipzig.

They do enjoy a somewhat wider range of music, however: Christian is currently studying opera and is a fan of Puccini; Lukas L. is partial to Poulenc, and Lucas H., Paul’s twin, likes Arthur Sullivan’s “The Long Day Closes.”  

To experience the music that flows through their veins, check out http://www.ensemblenobiles.de/new-events-1/ for information on their upcoming concerts.

A previous version of this article contained some innaccuracies, for which we apologize. –Ed.

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für EKTE «Vocal Music Connected to Earth»

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.

The Uruguayan and the Norwegian

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.

The first project

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 ideas behind

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.

EKTE 2016

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/

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für Don’t Miss the Bus—an Interview with Bliss

Lukas glanced at his watch as he hurried toward the bus stop. If the bus was just a few minutes late, he might still be able to catch it. As he rounded the corner, he saw his bus waiting at the stop, and he started to run, but it was too late. As he raced breathlessly towards the bus, it started to pull away. He waved frantically at the driver, trying to catch his attention, but the driver didn’t see him or just didn’t care.

Typical. He slowed to a walk, trying to catch his breath. And of course, there was nowhere to sit and wait. With a sigh, he resigned himself to waiting for the next one.

Little did he know that missed bus would change his life. 

Matthias, founding member and music director of the a cappella group Bliss and a friend of Lukas’ from university, was also running after a bus that day. And he couldn’t be late. When his bus left without him, he raced it to the next stop and managed to get on it anyway.

When Lukas’ bus finally came, he stepped on with a sigh of relief. Then he saw an empty seat…next to a familiar-looking face.

“Hey…Matthias?”

Matthias looked up. “Hey, Lukas, right? Didn’t we sing together in university?”

“Yeah!”

Bliss had just finished a round of auditions for a new tenor. But they weren’t really excited about anyone they had heard. Matthias remembered that Lukas was a better singer than all of them.


“Hey,” he asked, “What are you doing these days? Are you still singing? I’m in this group, and we need a new tenor…”

Lukas joined the group.

But he’s not the only one who became a member through happenstance. As Tom (baritone and group comedian) told me during our interview on Skype, “I’m not in this group at all. I’m the housekeeper for this hotel, and I just saw they were talking into the computer, so I came over here, and then they asked me to go on tour with them.”

Right.

So what is Bliss? A Bliss show is, of course, a cappella, but it’s also a musical theater show, with comedic dialogue, dramaturgy, staging, sets, props, lighting design, and even costume changes. In fact, it’s as much a visual experience as an auditory one. Viktor, the bass and newest member, says, “I always listen to a cappella, and I’ve never seen anything like it before!”

I asked each member for one word to describe Bliss. For Claudio, founding member and countertenor, Bliss is energy. For Matthias, the word is professional. Viktor sees it as an opportunity. Lukas describes the group as powerful.  And Tom’s word?

Wienerschnitzel.

So what is the true essence of Bliss—musical theater, a cappella, or wienerschnitzel? Catch them on tour and decide for yourself.

And the next time you’re running after public transportation, remember: maybe your future is on the next bus. 

Website: www.bliss.ch

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für Artist spotlight: Ensemble Kumo from Finland

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!

www.lauluyhtyekumo.fi

@kumoacappella

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für Interview with new Austrian a cappella TV stars “Piccanto”

In the absence of “The Sing Off”, a choir and a cappella casting show called “Die grosse Chance der Chöre” took place in Austria and was won by all male a cappella group named Piccanto, earning them a deal with SONY and nationwide fame. We had a chance to interview the lads:

First of all, for the people who might not know you please tell us a little bit about your group and your musical backgrounds.

Piccanto is an accapella-boyband consisting of seven young men (aged 18-20). We were founded in 2010 in Salzburg’s BG3 musical school, where each of us recieved a profound musical education. We started off as a classical male choir, but soon we expanded our repertoire with modern jazz- and pop-literature. After finishing school, we managed to continue our work together although by now our members have taken up studies in Vienna, Linz and Amsterdam.

You recently won a music casting show with special focus on choirs and a cappella groups on national TV in Austria. Tell us about your journey during this time.

When we heard about this show being hosted, we were not really interested in participating. No one of us had any experience with TV performances, and we were a little bit scared of embarrassing ourselves. But when our Beatboxer Raphael Lipp just signed us up for the show (without even waiting for our agreement), we knew we would have to try our best and started practicing. Although we estimated our chances pretty low, we managed to get through the first three rounds and into the finals. Having noticed that those months of concentrated work brought us closer together and gave us new perspectives as a group gave us the will to continue that path and perform convincingly in the last performance.

Ever since winning the show, what has changed for you as a group and / or individuals?

Of course, every one of us is now investing much more time in our project than before. Right after winning the show, we went on to record our first album, „seven“, starring 12 cover versions of our favourite pop songs. The amount of gigs we perform has risen, as well as the rehearsal and preperation time. In those few months since our success, we have done everything to keep the ball rolling, and it has worked out pretty well.

What do you think will the future hold for Piccanto?

We are going to do our best to broaden our repertoire, enhance our vocal possibilities and do everything else to make our music more exciting and interesting. We want to sing as much as possible, and for as many people as possible. Our goal is to become a well-known and renowned acapella group that makes music for the people.

More about the group here: http://www.piccanto.at/

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für Graz–The vocal hotspot

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