LACF Panel: The Global A Cappella Community

by Christopher Sutton on January 16, 2012

Panel session on a cappella competition and collaboration at LACF2012

This is one of a number of posts on the London A Cappella Festival 2012. You can also read more about Saturday’s events and several other posts about the festival!

It would be a great pity to have so many top a cappella groups, and industry movers-and-shakers in one place and not sit them down to discuss the state of the world. Fortunately this year just such a panel was organised.

Part one: Competition & Collaboration

Led by Jes Sadler, the panel session had two halves. The first part was a discussion of the value of competition and collaboration in the world of a cappella music, and featured Clare Chen (Vocal Asia), Florian Städtler (VocalBlog), Bill Hare (legendary a cappella producer) and Belinda Magee (Sing A Cappella). Though the discussion was brief, there were some great points made. I particularly liked Bill Hare’s assertion that the vibe at a really good a cappella competition is much the same as a friendly a cappella festival. The talk around the unreality of reality TV and drama shows like Glee was also interesting.

One funny but non-trivial issue raised by an audience question was whether the a cappella community is, in fact, too nice… It was suggested that some grittier collaborations, or simply less chirpy an attitude might help make a cappella music more accessible to those who write it off as superficial or cheesy.

It certainly is a remarkable close-knit and welcoming community in my experience. You only need to look at [click to continue…]

Tagged as: a cappella, audio effects, competition, discussion, FX, LACF, LACF2012, London, music industry, music production, opinion, promotion, social media, technology, Twitter

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Improv, Crossfire, Cottontown Chorus & The Refrains at LACF2012

by Christopher Sutton on January 15, 2012

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After two stellar nights at the London A Cappella Festival (Thursday, Friday), I was excited to get stuck into the jam-packed Saturday agenda: three full concerts, plenty more foyer performances, an improvisation workshop, a panel talk and a music education discussion group.

Improvisation Workshop

I started the day by attending one of the three vocal workshops – the topic was improvisation, taught by Pete Churchill, whose London Vocal Project choir were performing later in the day.

I hadn’t been sure what to expect from a vocal improvisation workshop, but Pete quickly explained he wouldn’t just be spending an hour teaching us to sing scat! Instead he focused on how to manipulate a melody and play around with the rhythm to create your own improvised performance versions. The core message was on keeping a rock solid sense of the beat and auralising the standard melody in your head so you could improvise freely around it with a reliable rhythmic accuracy. It definitely stretched my ears in a good way – and being reminded of the importance of rhythmic discipline is never a bad thing. His suggestion that we kick back some evening, crack open a bottle of wine and spend some quality time with our metronome was heard loud and clear!

Pete Churchill teaches with a natural ease and the kind of clear, relaxed explanations that only come of real musical mastery. The workshop was a great experience, gave me lots to go away and think more about, and made me even more excited to see the London Vocal Project later in the day.

The workshop ended just in time to catch the tail-end of [click to continue…]

Tagged as: a cappella, barbershop, choirs, concert, Cottontown Chorus, Crossfire, folk, improvisation, irish, Kings Place, LACF, LACF2012, live music, London, music education, Rún, singing, The Refrains, workshop

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Cadence and FORK at LACF 2012

January 14, 2012

Another amazing night at the London A Cappella Festival. I’m trying hard to avoid these posts just being whole-hearted enthusiasm, but the music is just so good – and let’s face it, there are plenty of professional music critics who can cast a negative light. Let them. I’m having a fantastic time! Tonight’s line-up was [...]

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The Vasari Singers and The Boxettes at LACF 2012

January 13, 2012

Last night was the first night of the London A Cappella Festival 2012, and it certainly got off to a tremendous start. The evening began with foyer performances by several choirs from the “Music In Offices” initiative, including from the BBC and Channel 4. They sang from the balcony above the concert hall foyer downstairs, [...]

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How to teach music… in perfect harmony

January 9, 2012
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Discussion group“How to teach music… in perfect harmony”at the London A Cappella Festival 201214:50-15:30 in The Wenlock RoomSaturday 14th January, Kings Place, London The last few years have seen a sharp increase in people’s interest in singing. From X-Factor and Pop Idol, to SingStar and Rock Band, to High School Musical and Glee, it’s clear [...]

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Marc Sings For You. Why doesn’t everyone?

January 2, 2012
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I recently wrote something about the future of classical music, and asked whether classical artists like James Rhodes and Thomas Hewitt Jones were leading the way by using social media to break down the stigma which normally goes along with classical music. This time I want to look at another example of an artist – [...]

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The spaces between the notes

December 23, 2011

There’s no such thing as not playing. Music has rests in it. So, you’re on a rest and the music will begin shortly. Tom Waits, Fresh Air interview on NPR If you’re interested in musicianship, aural skills, and ear training, most of the practice you do probably revolves around listening to sounds. Whether you use [...]

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A New Life for Music in the Church (Part Four): Taizé

December 22, 2011
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This is part four in a series of posts on music in the Catholic Church. Previously: Part one, part two and part three. One big discovery for me during the World Youth Day trip was the music of Taizé – a Christian community in the East of France, where they have cultivated a distinctive style [...]

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A New Life for Music in the Church (Part Three)

December 17, 2011
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This is part three in a series of posts on music in the Catholic Church. Part one covered my background and experience of Church music growing up and part two looked at the modern “happy clappy” style of church music. Last time I was fairly critical of the upbeat poppy style of church music which [...]

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Can classical music engage modern music fans?

December 14, 2011
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To many of my generation, classical music is unfamiliar and, sadly, unappealing. I was lucky enough to get a fair bit of exposure through my childhood music education, but must admit that I still feel very ignorant of the standard classical corpus. I have a lot of respect for classical repertoire and those who play [...]

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