Author: Amanda Cornaglia

New Tunesday – November 6, 2018

In addition to all of the great variety of a cappella you can hear ’round the clock here at Acaville Radio, we’re going to bring you some bonus releases each Tuesday to make sure you’re finding all of the latest and greatest this talented community has to offer.

Here are our favorites this week:

Duwende

Here to save us from U.S. Election Day madness, the magical voices of Duwende are back with a cover of the Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love.” Just pour a glass of wine and put it on repeat as the polling results come in.

HALO

This game-changing Harmony, Inc. quartet had a pretty great week in Orlando – they finished 13th overall in the International Quartet Contest and also received service award at IC&C on behalf of Harmony, Inc. for their community work with Race and #RealTalk.  Here is their rendition of Fats Waller’s and Andy Razaf’s “Black and Blue” – arrangement by David Wright.

Backtrack

In honor of Halloween, Backtrack gave us the “The Sort-Of Ballad of Sweeney Todd” featuring an arrangement and guest appearance on bass by Evan Feist. Pretty amazing set provided by YouTube, too!

Ardú

Top Irish vocal band, Ardú, released another music video from their latest album, Gravity. This time it’s Elbow’s “Lippy Kids” now on rotation on Acaville!

Iris

2018 AcaOpen Champions dropped their first music video this week and it brings back all the warm fuzzies that took over Carnegie Hall the night of their big win. Here is “My Favorite Things.’

ember

Just ahead of their main stage appearance at SoJam, ember gave us a spooktacular video for their cover of “Copycat.”

Gold for New England Voices In Harmony and Aged To Perfection

In two very hotly contested finals, Harmony, Incorporated now has a new champion chorus and four new Harmony Queens.

On Friday, New England Voices in Harmony of Nashua, New Hampshire topped the field with a 79.7%. The group performed a special Disney themed set in a risky director-less set, but proving that Director Renee Tramack had prepared them well, they sang “That’s How You Know” from Enchanted and “I See the Light” from Tangled in gorgeous jewel-tone gowns.

New England Voices in Harmony - 2018 Gold Medal Chorus
New England Voices in Harmony – 2018 Gold Medal Chorus

The Village Vocal Chords, under the direction of the legendary Jeanne O’Connor, took second place for the second time with a score of 78.9%. Jordan Travis and A Cappella Showcase from Milton, Ontario finished in third with 78.4%. Limestone City Voices and Sounds of the Seacoast round out the medals in fourth and fifth, respectively.

See the full scores for the Chorus Finals.

The contests came to a close on Saturday afternoon with the Quartet Finals that ended with Aged To Perfection winning the crown. This team of two mothers and daughters scored an incredible 80.7%, edging out T4 who finished with an 80.0%.

Aged To Perfection - 2018 Harmony Queens
Aged To Perfection – 2018 Harmony Queens

Alexa Beal, Gaye LaCasce, Kathy Pomer, and Ellie Pomer are now a long distance quartet and all first time queens. Scoring 1441 in the Semi-Final round with a phenomenal rendition of “Blues in the Night” and “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?,” Aged To Perfection raised the bar in the Finals with a total score of 1463 singing a solemn “Cry Me A River” and a lively, and genuinely adorable uptune in “Together, Wherever We Go.”

Rounding out the medals were Area 3’s Lip Service finishing third with 76.0%, Area 2’s Balancing Act in fourth with 75.2%, and Tonic! in fifth with 73.8%. Tonic! was also honored with the Image in Harmony Award and the Accord Award.

See the fulls scores from the Quartet Finals.

The IC&C closed out with a Showcase of Champions to a room full of Harmony Sisters (and a T-Rex), marking the end of Christina Lewellen’s two-year term as International President. The gavel was turned over to Donna McKay, who will push forward with the new initiative, “Harmony. Stronger.”

Harmony, Inc. Names The Ten

25 quartets from across the U.S. and Canada crossed the stage in Orlando yesterday for the Semi-Final rounds at Harmony, Inc. International Contest & Convention.

Rogue & Lip Service at IC&C
Rogue & Lip Service at IC&C

The day started off with outgoing Queens, Charisma, on stage as Mic Testers and after the judges worked through some technical difficulties which had FireStorm performing twice, the day was filled with ringing chords, emotion, and laughter.

The top ten quartets will return to the stage on Saturday at 1 pm at the Hilton in Disney Springs. In performance order they are:

  1. Skyfall
  2. True Colors
  3. Rogue
  4. T4
  5. Aged to Perfection
  6. Balancing Act
  7. enJOY!
  8. Tonic!
  9. Lip Service
  10. Just Jump

Something Good finished in 11th with 71.6 and will be Saturday’s Mic Testers.

Other highlights from the day include a vampire-themed set from The Karamels, HALO’s rhythmic set with a little Stevie Wonder, a reprise of the Kismet Cowgirls, and a female empowerment set from High 5s which included a song about a dress with pockets (what every girl wants!)

The finals will be broadcast live on FloVoice.

Harmony, Inc. Installs New International Board

In a night of classy pomp and circumstance, Harmony, Incorporated opened up the 2018 International Contest and Convention in Orlando last night. The installation ceremony highlighted the organization’s commitment to youth, with three youth members – Emily Travis (age 9, Area 5), Bryn Lewellen (age 13, Area 3), and Vincenza Como (age 16, Area 6) – leading the evening.

The new International Board of Directors, who will embark on the organization’s new mission, “Harmony. Stronger.” is:

International President: Donna McKay
Vice President, Convention & Contests: Donna Clarkson
Vice President, Education: Kelly Thomas
Vice President, Finance: Christina Lewellen
Director of Business Services: Jan DelVecchio
Director of Communications: Mary Ann Wert
Director of Membership: Amy Johnson
Director of Music Programs: Katie Taylor

The evening also included a treat of a performance from BHS Quartet Silver Medalists, Signature. The contest action gets underway today at 1 pm with Quartet Semi-finals, which will air live on FloVoice.