Thomas J. West Music

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 organizing and executing the A Cappella Project - Philadelphia 2nd Annual Winter Workshop, which will take place on Saturday, January 21, 2012.

The workshop is a full day of sessions and clinics for anyone interested in contemporary a cappella singing. In this, our second year, my goal was to open the event to the public and charge admission so that we could bring in some nationally-recognized names in contemporary a cappella, and boy have I succeeded in that regard! Our headlining clinician is Barry Carl, the man that the Contemporary A Cappella Society of America called "the most influential bass singer in the last thirty years." Barry was the original bass singer for Rockapella and makes his living now as a voice-over professional, recording his basso profundo in about a dozen different languages.

Joining Barry Carl is one of the hot names on the national a cappella scene right now - Tom Anderson. Tom has sung professionally with Ball In the House and is most noted as the a cappella arranger who brought us the fantastic arrangements sung by On the Rocks from the University of Oregon on Season 2 of the NBC television series The Sing-Off. Tom's arranging service, Random Notes LLC, has written custom arrangements for a cappella heavyweights Peter Hollens, the Swingle Singers, and others.

The workshop begins at 9 AM with two simultaneous sessions from our presenters. Tom Anderson will be presenting A Cappella Arranging for All Experience Levels, while Barry Carl will present Vocal Technique and Ensemble Performance for All Experience Levels. In the second session, Anderson will preside over Vocal Percussion for All Experience Levels, and Barry Carl will share his knowledge on Stage Presence and Presentation.

After a provided lunch, full a cappella groups will take the stage as Anderson and Carl will provide live commentary to the performers. Eight groups will each have a half-hour to present two songs to the clinicians and observers and receive feedback. So far, the following groups have registered to perform:

54th & City, an all-male collegiate group from St. Joseph's University

KeyStone A Cappella, a semi-professional group from Philadelphia, PA

The Counterparts, a post-collegiate group from Philadelphia, PA

Ace Harmony, an co-ed high school group from Lower Merion High School

Ace's Angels, an all-female group from Lower Merion High School

Up the Octave, an all-female group from Cheltenham High School

Sons of Pitch, an all-male group from Cheltenham High School

After a dinner break, the high school groups will take the stage again as part of the Lower Merion A Cappella club's Winter Invitational concert. The Invitational is free and open to the public. It begins at 7:30 PM. Refreshments are available during the show, and the proceeds will be divided between The A Cappella Project - Philadelphia and Lower Merion A Cappella.

Registration to attend the workshops and clinic will remain open through January 14. You can register yourself or a full a cappella group at http://bit.ly/winterworkshop12 - registration is $25 for adults and $20 for students. For clinicians of this caliber, that is a bargain boardering on grand theft.

I hope you will make plans to join us. Whether or not you do, help us pray for favorable winter weather!

This article (c) 2011 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

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