Thomas J. West Music

This particular performance is not of the caliber I normally include in the Great Performances series, but the novelty of how it is being performed is worth observing. Walk Off The Earth is an Ontario-based independent contemporary band that specializes in inventive covers of popular songs and their own originals, This particular cover of "Somebody I Used to Know" by Goyte was shared with me on Google Plus. All five members of the band play one acoustic guitar, each taking a piece of the comp...

KeyStone A Cappella is my newly-formed semi-professional contemporary a cappella singing group. We were formed in April of 2011 and sang our first public performances in December. KeyStone sent an application to the Mid...

Yesterday, I shared one side-project that has kept me from writing my typical blog posts this fall. Today, I will r...

Things have been pretty quiet on my blog lately, and with good reason. Besides my extremely busy schedule with my primary teaching job, I am currently involved in two projects that have taken up a lot of my available time and energy. The first of those projects is org...

'Tis the season for holiday flash mobs!

This is a particularly good one. It begins with a solo alto saxophonist playing in the University of Minnesota's Calson School of Management foyer. Singers begin to join in, and then security shows up. And THAT'S when it starts getting interesting!

Well played, Golden Gopher School of Music, well played.

The King's Singers are in my top five all-time favorite close harmony vocal groups. This is one of their recent offerings on a DVD entitle "King's Singers Christmas". This performance is stunning and poignant.

I saw the King's Singers in 1994 live, back when long-standing tenor singer Bob Chilcott was still in the group. They perform in the tradition of the madrigal - no amplification in smaller venues that allow their natural, pure voices to fill the hall. It was an amazin...

Close harmony singing is a personal joy of mine - one that I have been actively engaged in on and off for the past 20 years. Over the past three years, I have made a return to contemporary a cappella singing after a long haitus. Coming back to a cappella in the age of Social Media has brought me all sorts of new access to groups and fellow enthusiasts that I have never had before. I mean, seriously - I'm Facebook friends with people like Barry Carl from Rockapella and I'm talking to members o...

Those of us who were alive and old enough to understand remember clearly the day of September 11, 2001 and the weeks immediately following the damage. Tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of the falling of those two gigantic buildings.

One of the defining moments of those early days was President George W. Bush's visi...

I have been a fan of Symphony of Science since discovering it two years ago. While music has always been the central focus of my life, I developed a strong interest in quantum theory, consciousness and the mind, cymatics, and spiritual geometry over the past five years. Symphony of Science is a m...

Well, here it comes. It is with a great deal of pride and lots of effort on my part that I am pleased to announce our first annual A Cappella Summer Showcase Concert sponsored by The A Cappella Project - Philadelphia. See the above poster for details.

This concert is a new offering this year bei...