Each Tuesday, The A Cappella Blog presents a link to a collegiate a cappella performance, or related material, that we recommend to you.
We welcome clip suggestions from anyone who would like to submit them.
This week, we present the 2010 ICCA champions, The Univeristy of Southern California SoCal VoCals, performing The Rescues’ ”Crazy Ever After.”
—-
Trying to find a group? Search or sort The ACB Group Directory–the most comprehensive and up to date directory of collegiate a cappella groups anywhere on the Internet!
Midnight Echo is a top-notch mixed group out of The Claremont Colleges. Business Manager Peter Tu took the time to answer questions from The A Cappella Blog.
The A Cappella Blog (ACB): Where did the group name Midnight Echo come from?
Peter Tu (PT): So I went back and asked a lot of members from before and I guess I found a lot of different conflicting stories as to how it came about. I’m tempted to just guess at what happened though: turns out we’re all college students and so we’re extremely busy all the time, and we do almost all our work at night. Our rehearsal times are also generally really close to midnight, as well as our arch concerts and other events. Since the space just outside the room we rehearse inl is a really echo-y hallway, we felt that it was both interesting and appropriate that our group would be called Midnight Echo.
ACB: What is the audition process like for Midnight Echo?
PT: Here at the Claremont Colleges, all the groups have a unified audition schedule, so we all have the same audition day. The funny thing is, the club fair that lets students about clubs and on-campus groups actually happens after the auditions, so we can’t pass out flyers then. We then rely on emailing student email lists and Facebook announcements to get news out.
For the actual audition process we do some pretty standard things–have the auditionees do some warm-ups, figure out their range, and also have them do a short sight-reading exercise. After that, we see how well they can do a vocal swell, and see how well they can repeat for us a sequence of notes played on the piano with increasing difficulty. Finally, they sing a roughly 40 second solo that they’ve prepared to show us what they can do.
The A Cappella Blog is proud to announce the top finishers in our first annual ICCA Bracket Contest.
The second runner-up is Ben Haist, from Tulane University’s THEM, who will receive five ACB VH1 Save the Music wristbands, for which five dollars will be donated to the Save the Music Foundation.
The first runner-up is Susan LaBarr who will receive a copy of the 2010 Best of Collegiate A Cappella CD.
And, our grand prize winner is Jacob Schwartz who will receive a Best of Collegiate A Cappella prize pack with every CD from 1999 through 2009. Jacob is the now-former director of Lehigh University’s A Whole Step Up, who will be singing with Celebrity Cruise Lines on their boat The Infinity from July through mid-January with his vocal quartet On Tap.
Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who entered!
—-
You can support music in our schools through the VH1 Save The Music Foundation by purchasing a wristband from our site. Go to our Donate to Save the Music page for more information!
On selected Thursdays, ACB Production Manager Mike Scalise makes his recommendations on a cappella performance in a DO and DON’T format.
DO: Record Your A Cappella Music DON’T: Only Perform Live Shows
Whether your group has been around for years or you have a recently formed ensemble, you should record your music and let it be known to the world. There are myriad reasons recording is a good idea, but here are some key ones:
1. With today’s technology, it’s relatively inexpensive. If you keep your track list modest and split the bill amongst the members of the group, or pull from a central fund, it won’t cost you a lot, and you can get a very good return on your investment, both in terms of money and recognition.
2. You can reach audiences you would normally never reach. Why is Facebook so popular? Because it connects people across the world. While recording and selling CDs won’t connect you to quite the same extent, it can certainly be a great start. Many of the a cappella groups I’ve grown to like have had their start (for me) in my car’s CD player.
3. It leaves a footprint of memories which your group and fans can be look back on or share. Whether you’re recording an album for mass-consumption, or creating more of a “yearbook” compilation (give every member a solo and record everything you did for the year) a CD creates a unique memento for a unique group of people.
We at ACB are always looking for new recordings to listen to and review. Consider emailing us about your next recording, and we’ll try to include a review of them on the site!
—-
Want to write for The A Cappella Blog? Want to have your photos posted on the site? Want to join The ACB team in another capacity? You’re in luck because we are looking for new staff! Go to our contact page and write to us about what you would like to do.
Across the country, and, indeed, around the world, there are numerous a cappella groups who have stumbled upon the very same songs to perform. In some cases it may just be a popular song of the moment. In others, it might be a unique album track that a number of music aficionados agree it might be neat to make their group’s own. Still yet, there are times when a song is just easy to arrange and is, therefore, subject to constant covering.
Whatever the case may be, in The Run Off, The A Cappella Blog brings together three to five different renderings of the same song, and, in the name of sharing different visions, and for the sake of friendly competition, puts them side by side for readers to vote for their favorites. Please feel free to post your rationale in the comments section. Winners will be announced three weeks after the polling begins.
In the most recent edition of The Run Off, we took a look at “Faith.”
For this edition of The Run Off, The Treblemakers came out on top with 46 percent of the votes as of midnight the morning of Wednesday, May 19, EST. Congratulations to Casual Harmony, and thank you to those who voted!
—-
Trying to find a group? Search or sort The ACB Group Directory–the most comprehensive and up to date directory of collegiate a cappella groups anywhere on the Internet!
RSS
Loading ...