Tag: Forte

New Tunesday – January 21, 2020

Highline Vocal Jazz

This one is a treat for the ears AND the eyes. See them LIVE at N.E.Voices this weekend – we’ll be streaming it right here on Acaville!

The King’s Singers

Founding Harmony is coming soon and here’s the newest single from this pillar of the a cappella world.

Forte

Forte + Shams Ahmed + Plaid Productions + Justin Critchfield + Ed Boyer + Dave Sperandio + Ryan Parma = Magic. That’s how math works, right?

DCappella

Anytime the vocal percussionist gets a solo, you know it’s going to be great.

Six Appeal

This Twin Cities based group announced their new members, Mel Daneke and Virginia Cavaliere with this Beyonce classic.

NoVI

There’s a reason the a cappella community loves singing and hearing covers of this Leonard Cohen song – especially when arranged and sung well.

Anthem Lights

This group should really just consider going all a cappella.

Harvard Opportunes

A stellar live version of Hard Place featuring first year soloist, Devon Gates.

Voxy

January is a great time to put the spotlight on empowerment songs. Here’s a great medley from this San Diego quintet.

Voices Only 2019 Tracks Announced

After several years of separate scholastic and professional compilations, Voices Only Productions announced a combined double album featuring groups of all categories and styles. From Boston to London to Australia, we can’t wait to dig into this album.

Here are this year’s selections:

Volume 1
1) Between Us – Voices
2) This Is Gospel – Voicebox
3) Something – Fermata Town
4) Breathin’ – The Nor’easters
5) Sober Up – Toccatatones
6) We Can Work It Out – m-pact
7) Rowboats – Lark
8) Love Drought – Faux Paz
9) On And On – From the Roots
10) Sleep – Twisted Measure
11) 715-CR∑∑KS – Exit 245
12) Garands – The Coda Conduct
13) Never Gone – All-Night Yahtzee
14) Greedy – TAG – The A Cappella Group
15) iRobot – Reverb
16) If U Love Me Now – Unaccompanied Women
17) Freedom – Upper Structure
18) Like Real People Do – The Michigan G-Men
19) Flying – OneVoice

Volume 2
1) Hammer – The SoCal VoCals
2) You Go Down Smooth – Hyannis Sound
3) Goldmine – RHS Walk the Line
4) Tokyo Sunrise – The Swingles
5) Strange Birds – Brandeis Starving Artists
6) Get Pumped – Stiletta
7) Walls Could Talk – Notes Over Storrs
8) I Know A Place – Forte A Cappella
9) Heart of Gold – The Beltones
10) Target Locked – Drums of War
11) La Lune – Run For Cover
12) Dazed and Confused – E V O C
13) Butterfly – AA Skyline Blues
14) Tell Me How – The BluesTones
15) My My My! – Evolve
16) Yo Vivire – Business Casual
17) Vessels – DJs A Cappella
18) Sound of Awakening/Sirens – The Beartones
19) KARATE – The Sons of Pitches

Nor’easters Capture NACC Title as AEA Announces Huge News

Some of the best a cappella groups converged in Memphis this weekend to participate in the National A Cappella Convention for showcases, competitions, and educational sessions from the best in the business.

For the first time, the high school competition was swapped out for a showcase of ten top high school groups. While groups received full feedback from judges, the stress levels were reduced as no winner was named. Instead, the audience was the winner as each set was remarkable. With performances from groups like Limited Edition, Unstrumental, Forte, and G-E-T Vocal Point, this showcase was a true highlight of the weekend.

Saturday kicked off with a convention-wide TedTalk-like session from Convention founder and AEA President, Dr. J.D. Frizzell. His motivational talk put all attendees in the right mindset to learn and use their music to leave an impact on their audiences.

The day was a mix of classes, masterclasses, and more showcases, including performances from RESOUND, OneVoice, and Impromptu before the Convention came to a close with the Collegiate Invitational featuring:

EQ Blu
No Comment
The Green Tones
Voices In Your Head
The Nor’easters
Texas Songhorns
Mosaic Whispers
All-Night Yahtzee

With visually creative and emotional sets, the judges chose to honor:

Outstanding Aesthetic – All-Night Yahtzee
Outstanding Scene Painting – Voices in Your Head
Outstanding Choreography- UNT Green Tones
Outstanding Soloist – Anthony Rodriguez (The Nor’easters)

2nd Place: UNT Green Tones
WINNER: Nor’easters

The evening also featured a guest performance by Nomadic, the first group formed out of the June Foundation.

And just when we thought the weekend was over, Dr. Frizzell and Executive Producer A.J. Marino took the stage with a huge announcement – NACC would not happen in 2020. But before the audience could get too upset, Frizzell shared that the reason was that AEA will be hosting an even larger Convention in the Spring of 2021 in Orlando. Make your plans now, a cappella fans – it’s going to be the biggest event we’ve seen in a cappella yet.

 

New Tunesday – February 19, 2019

Quite a few new favorites this week – be sure to listen to them all!

Pentatonix

Proving they can cover just about anything, the latest release from a cappella’s biggest stars is a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence”. It features a particularly deep solo from Scott Hoying, showing yet another side of the versatile baritone, as well as a solo feature for bass Matt Sallee. And with the video they announced ANOTHER world tour! Get your tickets at ptxofficial.com.

DCappella

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the release of The Little Mermaid, the Disney a cappella group released a special video of “Part of Your World.” The group is right in the middle of their first ever US Tour – make sure you catch this act live!

The Edge Effect featuring Tiffany Coburn

The guys of Edge Effect do collaborative tracks like no other group in a cappella. This time they teamed up with Voctave‘s Tiffany Coburn to breathe new life into a classic.

m-Pact

Who can resist the jazzy crooning of a classic Chet Baker tune – especially on Valentine’s Day?

Forte A Cappella

One of the best high schools groups out there + top music video producer Ryan Parma + a Shams Ahmed arrangement? Ok.

Nomadic

The first full group born out of June bootcamp just dropped their next cover – this time it’s Ariana Grande’s “No Tears Left to Cry” featuring Archie Gopal and Lynique Webster on lead.

The Techtonics

Frequent top competitors at ICCA treated us to a live video of a performance of “Youngblood” originally by 5 Seconds of Summer.

MVP

A relatively new group out of Australia, this all-female quintet splashed onto the scene with a third place finish at AUSACA in 2018.

The AcaLumni Project

Now an annual tradition, this worldwide virtual group released their latest song in honor of Valentine’s Day covering Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud.”

Countermeasure

This Canadian CAL group toured Japan just last year and just released a Cowboy Bebop anime tribute cover of Tank!

Festival Statesmen Chorus

Who doesn’t love a fun Queen cover? From their A Cappella Jukebox Musical and Adelaide Fringe Fest show “Choir Boys” The Festival Statesmen Chorus.