by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für My thoughts on EVA Membership

I remember very well the „EVA Initiation Meeting“ we had in Aarhus 2011. So many brilliant ideas about Contemporary a Cappella gaining mainstream acceptance and being part of school’s curricula across the European borders. The big brains behind it …Volker Bauer, Florian Städtler, Jim Daus Hjernoe and Peder Karlsson to mention a few have  slowly but surely been working on strategies, drawing talented musicians and music educators into the boat and networking across the whole of Europe. It is more than time for the people who this will most benefit to also jump on board and set sail.

I have been a member of CASA for the past 2 years and have seen what this brilliant organization is doing for Contemporary a Cappella in the US and worldwide. Of course it’s main focus is on the development of collegiate and high school a Cappella… this is their tradition. The TV series Glee, the Sing Off and the film Pitch Perfect served as a rush of oxygen for the new „in“ trend contemporary A Cappella.

Having visited SoJam, the largest a Cappella festival in the USA last November I appreciated even more what our European festivals have to offer and realized that not only our festival culture but the very essence of European folklore, sounds and music awareness and the growing enthusiasm of the youth for contemporary acappella needs structure and representation.

The CARAs – Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards – have shown that over the past few years the sheer diversity and development of European a Cappella and it’s influence even on American a Cappella cannot be ignored. Of course I can now shamelessly plug my choir’s own nomination for this year’s CARA in the category Best Folk/ World Song. The Bonner Jazzchor is an amateur choir with 35 members influenced by singer/ songwriters from Scandinavia  to North America and with a taste for unique interpretations of German folk songs. Mostly acoustic, hardly any vocal percussion and we were still nominated with “ Kein Schöner Land“ alongside professional ensembles like the Swingles, Amarcord  and Br6. This goes to show that „Diversity“ is the name of the game and Europe has plenty to offer!

It is time to extend an invitation to the Pop and Jazz choirs, advertise EVA at all festivals and competitions. For example in Germany get the „Chorverbände“ on board. EVA must become a household word among Contemporary Aca nerds so it’s time to wave the flag and get the singers and existing institutions interested. If not, EVA might remain an intellectual baby and that would be a crying shame.

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für LEOsings + EVA memberships + Video Interview w/ Jim Daus Hjernoe

by Florian Städtler, European Voices Association (Chairman of the Board)

LEOsings is a European Union project exploring the „Diversity of Singing Practices in Europe“, which had its kick-off session in February 2014 in Barcelona. There will be a more detailed report about the project and opportunities to take part in the following sessions in Aalborg (May 2014), Tours (October 2014), Freiburg (March 2015) and Copenhagen (2015, tba). The most exciting piece of information is the fact, that the European Union potentially pays for travel and accomodation of the Aalborg, Tours and Copenhagen workshops, if you are/become an EVA member.

Which leads us to the second big news: You can now apply for the new EVA membership at the European Voices Association’s website. The new thing about becoming a member is, that there are customized membership benefit packages for singers, supporters, small and large vocal group and choirs. So don’t hesitate, become a part of the contemporary a cappella movement in Europe and profit from your membership package!

IFrame

Talking of vocal music education and networking, you very often end up in Denmark. I had the pleasure to meet and talk to Jim Daus Hjernoe, professor at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus and Aalborg and while the other LEOsings participants went for tapas y vino, we met on the rooftop of our Barcelona hotel and in my hotel room to talk about the Danish vocal music scene, the Academy programs, Vocal Line and Jens Johansen. Enjoy the first half of the interview, the second one will be online soon at Vocal Blog and on the EVA website.

Interview with Jim Daus Hjernoe

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für New thoughts about the Vocal Music Data Exchange Format

Vocal Music Data Exchange Format – Publication #2

Introduction

Based on the publication #1 (you can download it here: http://europeanvoices.org/filedepot_download/22/4) I had a lot of communication with different people, potential users and members of groups, booking agents and IT professionals, music professionals and other interested people.

While talking it through over and over again, looking at it from different angles, I came to the conclusion that, besides being focussed on data types and format on one end, I have to start another parallel thread that is at least as important: Data management.

Thesis

Similar to the nature of the Internet – where we are aiming to bring our concept to life – the data publishing and provision to the system has to be in a de-centralized way.

The how

The content provider and most likely the rights owner of the information, i.e. artists, groups, teachers, organizations, have to be able to place it where ever they want and „the other parties“ pull it from there. The only need for the publisher is to let the receiving party know, where to find it. This is basically the same approach as for RSS or similar feeds.

The why

Same as for the feeds mentioned above, the publisher places and updates the information in one place only. This is a huge advantage comparing to today where he has to keep all information in all places published in sync.

I mean: these people are artists and focussed on their art and not book keeper or IT

People. Simplifying their life is one of the major topics here.

On the other side for the receiving parties: how often does it happen that major changes happen in a group and you still provide the outdated information, just because you are not aware?

Here you just decide, how often you look up for information updates and your webserver pulls all changes accordingly.

The challenge with distributed storage

While thinking the process through and having in mind that a seamless connect between several data objects, potentially coming from different sources, is the key challenge, I again compared to the mechanics of the internet as a highly distributed datapool.

I recognized that there is one central authority not following the distributed approach: the Domain Name Service (DNS) administrating the assignment of Domain names to IP adresses (finally: the computer the domain’s information is stored on).

If you request to call www.cnn.com for example, the system checks in the register what IP address links with the domain name and advises the requester to retrieve the information from there.

Central Registration Authority needed

We need a central authority just for the purpose to ensure uniqueness of information. This Authority will be used to generate and provide a unique identifier for artist information (let’s call it AUID = Artist Unique IDentifier).

Why does it make sense? Imagine the data of a concert by a group called VocalExpress is transported several times from one platform to the other. Unfortunately it ends up at a place where a group of that name is already registered.

How do I know if it is the same group or just one with the same name?

With the AUID attached it is easy to find out. If it matches to the the groups AUID I have in my data already, I can simply link the information together. If it does not, I can refuse the record or I automatically request the matching group’s information via the central authority, add that group to my database and link the concert to it.

Next steps

I have decided to start with a proof of concept now because I want to get the first pieces of information flying as soon as possible and not wait until we have the 100% solution graved in stone. I will keep you posted.

Feel free to get in contact with me in case you want to comment, participate, help or just give some input to incorporate in this piece of work. You can reach me at volker@europeanvoices.org

Volker

P.S. join the #ACAtech forum to participate in the discussion. You can download the complete article here:http://europeanvoices.org/filedepot_download/22/7

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für BALK TOPfestival 2013 – report

Vocal spectacle: 90 choirs in one day at 10 competitions
[report by Ruut te Velthuis and Annemarie Homan] 

Rotterdam (NL). After a full year of planning, auditions, and organization, the biennial BALK TOPfestival took place on November 9 2013 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. More than 80 Dutch and 2 Belgian choirs, varying from huge pop choirs to vocal groups of only three singers, competed in 10 competitions in 4 categories. It was a day filled with harmonies and songs and almost too much to take in.

Since the of creation BALK (Dutch association for light music choirs), its focus has been on education and meeting and we still put most of our energy in setting up and contributing to courses (from singers to conductors) and the organization of festivals. BALK mostly has a supporting role in the regional festivals, but once every two years we set up our own, national choir festival/competition.

In 2007 we decided to bring two separate festivals that already existed, Hotzone (for pop choirs) and Focus (for vocal groups), together into one large national choir festival, featuring only light music.

Our goal in doing this was to reinforce the feeling of belonging to the BALK family, enable cross-pollination between pop choirs and vocal groups and to inspire each other even more. And above all that, there was a very practical reason: by enlarging our focus we could tap into more financial resources, bring new impulses to the festival and create a better image.

Overall it can be said that the competitive element is stronger in light vocal music than it is in the world of classical music. The same applies to the groups themselves, striving to be unique, to stand out from the rest in arrangements/songs as well as in presentation. This makes for a great diversity in choirs and vocal groups and makes each one of them interesting to see and hear.

The BALK TOPfestival is biennial, which means that the one in 2013 was the fourth time the festival was organized in this format since the start in 2007. So, what was/is the big success of the BALK TOPfestival 2013? First of all, it was the scale of the event. It brought together an amazing array of groups under one roof. This meant that there was at least something for everyone to enjoy. Second of all, people were being inspired by what they heard and saw in the various competitions. And third of all, there were many youth choirs that participated. Two of the youth groups were chosen to perform on the stage of the 2,200 seat main concert hall at the end of the day, and they just blew the crowd away! (watch the video! http://youtu.be/wk7aclsr6zw)

Finally a huge “thank you” should go out to all the participants, for bringing their enthusiasm and creating a wonderful atmosphere. Every choir needs a critical eye every now and then and also needs something to work toward, to have peak moments. Working toward this common goal can really strengthen the bonds within a group.

Amateur choirs and vocal groups are an important part of the Dutch or any other society. To sing together enhances the feeling of interconnection and brotherhood. BALK brings  these groups together at regional and national festivals, enabling them to learn from each other, to meet and to greet and to bring (light) choir music to the next level.

BALK is already planning the next TOPfestival, which will probably take place in November 2015.

Video with highlights of the festival: http://youtu.be/Gwj_-WYNx5Y

Youth groups performing Cup Song: http://youtu.be/nvMTPfMx8OQ

www.balknet.nl

www.facebook.com/balklichtvocaal

www.twitter.com/balkvocaal

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für What I learned from Beatboxing with children

One of the very exciting things when teaching beatbox and vocal percussion workshops is that I always get to work with different groups of people. Sometimes  participants are professional singers, 
other times teachers or instrumentalists, or rappers.  And sometimes they are children. Yes you heard right. Over the last years there has been an increasing request for beatbox workshops for 
children. At first I wasn´t sure how to deal with it. After all most children don´t sing in pop rock jazz choirs, and no child has its own vocal band, and also most of them don´t know the a cappella scene. 
Only very few read or write music, even the ones who play drums. 

So questions started to arise in my head: What do I tell them? How can I approach this? Will they not be bored after a short while? How can I explain to them what each sound is and should it even 
matter how one notates them? Well, read here about my experiences:

  1.       I quickly noticed that children are playful and curious by nature. They want to explore things themselves. So I decided to reduce the amount of time that usually spent on explaining and talking. Instead I would demonstrate more sounds and let them watch me as I go. It was fascinating to watch them observe me and instantly trying to mimic the sounds without me even needing to  tell them to do so. All this also went without explaining a single thing.
  2. Instead of music notation I use big, laminated and colourful cards with the beatbox letters on them like “B” for bass drum and “Pf” for snare drum. I made these Cards from an Austrian Beatbox Book called “The Real Beatbox School” which focuses more on playfulness and  school classes whereas mine and Andis book “Beatbox Complete” focuses more on a cappella groups, performing musicians and choirs. 
  3. To explain them what each sound is I show them a BIG picture / poster or digitally projected picture of a drum set, naming each of the single components and slowly demonstrating the sounds to them. You can see that even the ones who are not aspiring drummers will recognize the sounds and what they stand for. This experience of “Ah I´ve got it!” is exactly what you´ll want and the more of these moments occur the better for you and the children. 
  4. I considerably shortened the overall time for the workshops. With adults I sometimes to a full day course with as much as six or seven hours. For children I settled for an hour with breaks in between. Whenever they lose concentration that´s my cue to introduce a new sound, game, or pattern.  
  5. I usually end workshops by letting them try out Beatbox with a microphone over a PA. In doing so they have the chance not only to play around but to really feel and hear the difference in beatboxing both acoustically and amplified. 

Bottom line: Although I was at first scared of working with children, ultimately it has helped me improving because if you think about it the points I have listed also work for us adults. We also want 

to understand by observing, by trying out things ourselves and we want an easy to understand as well as practical approach without too many technical terms.

So: Thanks for teaching me kids!!

[written by Indra]

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für One Day at the London a Cappella Festival

[report by Deborah Rosanwo]

This was well and truly a doctor’s visit. I was in and out of London at the bat of an eyelid and am still reeling from all the fun, love, laughter and fine music that can be crammed into 36 hrs.

Family time is holy and precious for me so I chilled with my loved ones with home cooked oxtail stew and port wine and missed the Real Group kickin‘ aca-ass, commanding the respect and awe of colleagues, protégées and wannabes alike. TRG has a way of rejuvenating themselves whilst remaining so unmistakably their TRG selves. They shared a few of their success secrets at the Workshop „Pass Me The Jazz“ on Saturday. More about that later.

There is no better place to kick off the a cappella festival year than at King’s Place. One can feel the buzz and warm atmosphere of this global gathering of a cappella friends upon entering the premises. Within minutes of my arrival ( here comes the royal name-dropping) I had met and hugged (a very important aspect of Aca communication) Jeff Meschel ( Blogger, Israel ),  Bill Hare (Aca Guru Producer, USA) Vanderen Krogstad ( Singer, Norway), Clare Wheeler( Swingles, UK) Annemarie Homann( Single Singers, Netherlands) and Gregorio Hernandez ( SLIXS, Germany) Familiar faces, happy faces everywhere and of course „the Sound of Music“ coming from „Voices Only“ in the Foyer.

The first ensemble I heard was the Woofers, the choir of basses directed by the Swingle bass Edward Randell  (no tweeting or no birds allowed). Those Guys put their hearts and souls into those charts with deep rich bass and versatile baritone soloists. I heard Lewis Daniel, the bass from Vive also for the first time and he „saaaang“ as the Amis would say.

Of course I had no tickets for the workshops but as fate would have a certain Californian mixer and masterer decided to sing with the Single Singers and gave me his workshop ticket for Pass Me The Jazz with the Real Group! Aca kindness. The main theme was „Listening“ „We know very little about singing. But one thing we know: You have to listen.“ were Katarina Henryson’s opening words. She and Morten Vinter then had the packed auditorium find a unified pitch from a cluster and find a tempo by listening and reacting to each other. 200 highly motivated singers mastered each of these tasks in less than 30 seconds.

Lesson? „We might go down in pitch & tempo, but we would do so totally together instead fighting each other!“ said Morten Vinter We spoke about group dynamics and the importance of positive reinforcement. Katarina said that singers are their own greatest critics and we tend to transfer our harsh judgement of ourselves unto our fellow singers. We usually know what we did wrong. Leave that for a constructive rehearsal and focus on the great things that happened.  „We ( the Real Group) have a 20-minute rule after concerts: Say nothing negative right after the concert. We are all very vulnerable.“ I personally love that 20 minute rule and the Bonner Jazzchor tries to implement this as best we could… It is so difficult but so worth it, I can tell you! We were then treated to a 20 min Interactive master class with the Hungarian mixed vocal quintet Jazzation who won the jazz category & the Ward Swingle Award at Vokal Total. Needless to say they were brilliant with an incredible feeling for swing. Katarina and Morten had them shadow each other resulting in a slightly different interpretation each time. „It is important to know your instrument.. In this case the characteristics and timbres of the voices in your ensemble and to experiment with the sound. Know what’s going on with the middle voices“ We learnt so much at that workshop. The Real Group has always made it their mission to teach and share their 30 years of experience as a group.

We were all now ready for the concerts.

There was a lot more going on in the Foyer but I decided to focus on my highlights here. After a quirky boy group opener from Penny Arcade the Swingles came on stage and introduced SLIXS as “ some good looking Germans backstage ready to groove“ Everybody knows how much I love SLIXS and boy did they deliver! From Bach to Funk, from their own made up language to pure body percussion, they were charming, amusing, profound, sexy, groovy, cool. They were so funky that when Konrad Zeiner suggested we seat dance, the whole crowd got up and jammed to the groove…. The British got up and danced!!!! Unheard of!!! Goosebumps, eargasms, neck- snapping groove … They were on fire and I felt as though SLIXS as Germans had made the greatest impression on a British audience since Boris Becker and the FIFA World Cup in Germany 2006! Standing ovations and encores. They are no longer Germany’s best kept a Cappella secret!

MIX from the University of Colorado Denver, winners of the collegiate A Cappella Competition SoJam 2013 in Raleigh, North Carolina impressed me and obviously the Swingles so much so that they were invited to open for the Swingle’s concert. They took the stage and presented their blend of country and soul combined with a perfect stage performance as  if they had always graced the great stages of the world. They had stepped up their game in 10 weeks and had even Nicholas Girard from the House Jacks lost for words at their awesomeness.

 And then came the Swingles. I had heard them in Stockholm, Raleigh and now here on home ground and this was my most intense experience of their world class singing. They spun my emotional kaleidoscope. My favorites this time were After The Storm with the magnificent Oliver Griffiths on the lead, the heavenly rendition of Debussy’s Clair de Lune and the heart- wrenching mash up of Blackbird/ I Will with the Jo Etson’s soothing English rose mezzo soprano and Oliver Griffiths‘ heartbreaking tenor. A Swingles concert makes me feel as though I’ve had a decadent bath in champagne and cuddled up in silk sheets.

Everyone was on a high afterwards. There were tons hugs, lots of photographing and bonding going on. The a cappella year had gotten off to a grand start and although I had only been there for one day the LACF 2014 I am full of joy and music Thank You all, especially Jessie Hill, Mama LACF. Post Festival Blues are predestined!

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für Conducting pop/rock/jazz choir (60 ECTS) courses in Aarhus

Further Education at The Royal Academy of Music in Denmark

Professional Master (60 ECTS)
– is for music teachers, music pedagogues and others with a passed music education containing choir conducting at a bachelor level or equivalent qualifications with at least two years relevant professional experience with choir conducting. The main focus is upgrading the pedagogical and artistic activities at an advanced level.

Diploma Course (60 ECTS)
– is intended for teachers, pedagogues and others having a 3-4 year long university education, higher education or other corresponding qualification supported with at least a 2-year professional experience. The emphasis is on the principal study in pop/rock/jazz choir conducting. The study course is meant to develop the students’ skills, musicianship and pedagogical competences.

Both study programs are part-time study courses divided over 4 terms (2 years) corresponding to one study year of 60 ECTS. The study course will primarily take place at the Academy’s department in Aalborg, Denmark, supported by extensive feedback via a unique virtual classroom.

Application deadline: February 17, 2014
Audition date: March 9, 2014, Aalborg
For further information visit: http://www.musikkons.dk/index.php?id=1346

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für In the groove?!

In rhythmical (vocal) music, musicians often talk about this thing called ‚groove‘. And I’ve been asked for some explanation about this topic many times. Because most of the time, we talk about groove as if it’s something that’s just ‚there‘, but a lot of people don’t really know how to describe it. I’m gonna give it a try! 

First, if we say that a certain song has a ‚groove‘, we imply that the song has some sort of rhythmic feel. Let’s say that in the music genre in which we (or at least I) work, almost every song has a groove. By which I mean: you can hear an ongoing rhythmical feel. I think that’s what makes our genre ours. Even though I hate putting music into boxes, most classical music has no groove, while pop, jazz, folk and other styles we sing often have. So that’s why I think ‚rhythmical music‘ kind of explains the pile of genres we all like to sing together. You might also say ’non-classical music‘, but that doesn’t sound really nice, does it? But to be honest, we are still waiting for someone to come up with the perfect name for our type of music…

The groove. When I was a student in Holland, I was told that the groove of a song is the combination of the rhythm and bassline. It’s what makes a song recognisable for us. If you put on a song like ‚I want you back-Jackson 5‘, ‚I wish-Stevie Wonder‘ or ‚Thriller-Michael Jackson‘, of course everyone instantly links the groove to the song. But to be honest, maybe groove should be just about rhythm, and not so much about pitch…

Therefore, I have another description of what makes the ‚groove‘. It consists of three components. The first one is the pulse/tempo. It should be steady and (almost) the same every time you play a certain song. The second one is subdivisions. If you have a song with a rhythmical feel, let’s say 4 beats per bar, there will be different types of notes in one bar. If you find the shortest one (for example an 8th note or a 16th note) you’re able to fill up the whole bar with these notes. So now every beat has 2/4 subdivisions, possibly going very fast. The third one is accents. Once you feel that the pulse/tempo is steady and every beat has subdivisions, it’s time to create the groove! Within all of the subdivisions, there are accents. Once you are able to sing the accents while you internally still feel all of the other subdivisions, you are able to ‚get into the groove‘! 

And then, to make it even more complex, there’s also a thing called ‚timing‘. If you want a song to be laid back or ’stuwend‘, as we say in Dutch, (like pushing or in front), you must implement this timing into the subdivisions feel. There’s for example also a difference between heavy swing and light swing and this also shows in the ‚groove’…

I’m looking forward to hearing what you think! 
Hugs, Merel 

This post can be found also on Merel’s blog: http://merelmartens.blogspot.de/2013/11/in-groove.html

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für ItAcA – Italian A-cappella Project

Italian a-cappella community ready to rumble with ItAcA!

The project is going to turn the lights on in few days, after over a year of planning and discussing and singing! Dozens of singers, hundreds of audio tracks, an inedited composition and a mix of smartness, innovation and cheek!

October 2012. After eleven years of experience in a-cappella world, tens of gigs, journeys and some tours, I decided to open a Facebook group, as I saw there were already some around the social network concerning a-cappella fans and singers (Japan A Cappella Society, CASA and others). It was born “Italian A-cappella Society”, specifically addressed to open a real exchange of “know-how”, competences and opinions in a virtual community.

The group was the “place” where I met Lorenzo Subrizi. Chatting a bit, divided by 1400 km, we found out there was something missing in our community: awareness of Us and will of sharing. We have so many vocal groups around the Country, young and less young, internationally experienced or just locally, but – to our eyes – there was not a feeling of what was/is going on around Us. It seemed like the grass was always greener on the other side, but shorter and drier at the same time. Envy and spurn together!

ItAcA – Italian A-cappella Project is born to allow everybody to really share and to benefit  competences grown up in Italian A-cappella overview in last 25 years. Here’s the outline:

  • rigging up a virtual choir composed by all Italian vocal groups that decided to be part of the project
  • to involve individual singers too, essentially everyone who wanted to support our idea
  • to sing an inedited music, composed just for Us (ItAcA and each single fellow who wants to share and to learn from this experience!) by Erik Bosio, on lyrics written by Sara Boero
  • using our local frameworks and structures for recording sessions
  • making a music video
  • bringing out our local peculiarities – in a national perspective – during the video sessions

It could sound quite familiar to someone – as idea – thinking about Whitacre’s VC, but with two essential differences:

  1. a higher audio quality
  2. a different point of view, less centripetal, due to a choral idea of the project itself.

These don’t want to absolutely be critics to Whitacre and his projects, that remain innovative and gorgeous, like his music. It’s just a clarification.

The project wants to be a start up for something bigger. A prelude to a concrete, national and cooperative idea of education and sharing, with the purpose of creating a deep awareness of what is “doing a-cappella”, knowing that the most important thing in a-cappella is joy to feel the others, learning a new way to know, feel and get in touch with the others, both singers and audience.

Here some links:
https://www.facebook.com/italianacappellaproject
http://www.itacaproject.it/

ItAcA – Italian A-cappella Project is under the patronage of Cultural Association “The Slash of Unashamed Singers”, and it is completely self-financed.

by ·Kommentare deaktiviert für My SoJam Highlights as a First Timer

When I said that I was going to SoJam, the reactions ranged from „Nice, what is that?“ to „All that way for a weekend of a cappella…On your own???“ It is actually Twitter’s fault. While following Vocalblog, I got caught up in an onslaught of overwhelmingly enthusiastic Tweets from SoJam 2011. Those who know me know that I can also be enthusiastic about things a cappella, but this was a completely new dimension, and it made me curious to see what the hype was about. The seed for my trip was planted.As fate would have it, I was in for six weeks of hardcore a cappella from September on, filled with choir competitions, the Bonner Jazzchor „Bottle This Moment“ CD Release Tour, and culminating in SoJam.So was it worth it? Definitely! Here are my personal highlights:

  1. Finally meeting dear Facebook and Twitter friends – Tone Siwela and Tara Marie Ahn – a cyber SoJam story. I struck up a great a-cappella-based friendship with both of them because of their effervescent 2011 SoJam Tweets, and meeting them in person was like a reunion of dear old friends.
  2. The pre-SoJam meeting at Jimmy V’s with CAL founder Tom Keyes, the A Cappella Recording Guru Bill Hare, Mr Vocalblog himself Florian Stadler, the CASA Ambassador for Ohio and Africa Tone Siwela, and myself …Aca Nerd.  Learning firsthand about the history and purpose of The Contemporary A Cappella League and discussing the regional benefits and the international relevance…Extremely informative…especially when interspersed with travelers‘ anecdotes!
  3. Chucks! This is THE Burger Temple of Raleigh. Try a Dirty South with Sea Island Red Pea Chili, crispy tobacco onions and Ashe County Mountain Cheddar. The owner won’t hesitate to explain where all the ingredients are bred or grown. Delicious!
  4. What does an a cappella ensemble from Singapore do when it realizes that a great fan cannot come to its concert because he can’t close his Chinese restaurant? A flashmob, of course! MICappella sang a beautiful contemporary Chinese song after ordering their food, much to the joy of the restaurant owner and astonishment of the customers. Extremely cool!
  5. UCD MIX. I was excited about the collegiate a cappella competition. I had heard all sorts of things varying from „If you like Beatbox, CPR, and Octavers…“ to „You can’t beat the enthusiasm of these youngsters“…all of which proved to be true! The ones that stood out that night, however, were MIX from the University of Colorado Denver. They were innovative and edgy with strong soloists but still a perfect blend, as well as fantastic drama in choreography that told the story. They practically goldfished me. I could have seen them among the Top 3 in the Vocal Ensemble competition at the Aarhus Vocal Festival. I. Was. Impressed. Needless to say, they won! Congrats!
  6. Hot on the heels of this experience came the MIX Masterclass with the Swingle Singers…great to see how Excellent can become Superb with a few tips on stage presence and tuning from the experts. MIX blew me away with their intensity even without stage props, costumes and microphones. We will hear a lot more from them in the future.
  7. Canadian party a cappella group Eh440 kept the audience entertained between the competition sets. They gave myself and Tone a ride in their car, and we all sang Lionel Richie’s „All Night Long“ in 6 improvised parts on our way to the SoJam After-Party (#carjam), and they even took us in as VIPs! A cappella bonds…just like that!
  8. A customised Vocal Jog for Dee around the Sheraton block with Florian Städler between discussions about EVA and CASA in the quest for an elusive taxi to the North Carolina University campus for the workshops on Veterans‘ Day…. an almost impossible task but we made it.
  9. MICappella…Asian a cappella took the stage by storm last Saturday. Not only are these guys cool to hang out with, their mix of pop, rock and ballads interspersed with stories of myths about Singapore … (They are neither in China, Malaysia nor Japan!!) , crowd approval gestures Asian style, a bass from hell, a mad beatboxer and strong vocalists made for a fired-up audience and good vibes all around. The modern day lighter song, aka „hold-up-your-flashlight-on-your-smartphone“ during a Chinese ballad was literally a brilliant moment for all.
  10. And then came the Swingles. All of a sudden there was a refined, pure, clear, beautiful sound encompassing us all like a tunnel of light shining into a clearing in the forest. The bass and the vocal percussion were defining but not intrusive, balm for my ears… Sara Brimer’s soaring soprano, Clare Wheeler’s unbelievable scats, Oliver Griffiths soul- wrenching tenor, Jo Etson’s refined mezzo… I was moved to tears by the Swingles for the first time, and I have seen them at least 4 times in the last 2 years. Their performance was a display of elite a cappella–aristocracy if you wish–hand-picked and handed down over the 50 years of the group’s existence. Yes, the Swingles totally own their art form!

PS.  Sunday morning brunch at Jimmy V’s … scrambled eggs, sausages and bacon, scones, bagels, fresh fruit and yoghurt, and coffee served in a real cup for the first time in 5 days! How I had missed that. And no, I will not descend into a German rant about Schwarzbrot, but this brunch really compensated for all the fast food and coffee to go.. I could laugh and sing again!