Newsletter Archive
Newsletter from 15.07.2008 - "Jou san!"
07-15-2008
...is the Cantonese welcome visitors to the harbor state of Hong Kong
on the South China Sea can expect.
And so we're saying: "Welcome!", dear frieds of vocaldente, to our 2nd and latest newsletter this year!
The suitcases are packed, the tickets are checked - we're off to Hong Kong this week! Don't worry, we're not planning to emigrate! This is just a little short trip following an invitation to appear at a festival as this year's American National Champions, which will also act as a prelude to our upcoming South-east Asia tour in October, taking us to Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea - featuring our brand new 2nd Tenor Micha who'll be joining us to replace Niklas… In short: there's a whole bunch of news from the vocaldente universe! But one thing at a time...
Firstly: Yes, we did it! We can proudly announce our victory at the 24th Annual armony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival, the "All American Open A Cappella Championship" - the amazing conclusion to a trip that was as much exciting and breathtaking as it was hilarious and inspirational. We're now honoured with the official title of "National Champions 2008", which is in fact a triple honour, as we're also the first non-English speaking AND only the second non-American group ever to win this.
After we claimed victory at the Mid-Atlantics Regional Finals in Washington D.C. in March, the second and final stage was to come on May 3rd 2008: The National Finals, taking place in the city of San Francisco. The venue, the Marin Veteran's Auditorium, was completely sold out, as an audience of 2,000 gathered to hear the winners from all the regional finals. The rules were clear: the performance was only allowed to last 12 minutes (overrunning for more than 30 seconds brought penalty points), identical microphones for all contestants, no technical additions or special technical effects - purely a cappella!
Although before all this even started… we got almost disqualified! Haunted by jetlag, we were snoozing peacefully whilst the final briefing of all contestants was taking place. Only the ever restless Tobek, idly wandering around the hotel lobby, was caught by a group of fellow contestants and taken to the meeting - where he received a lecture from the organisers like a pupil back at school, informing him that such a snubbing of the competition's procedures had never occurred before in the 24 years of the Sweep's history, and that this could only ever be amended by winning the competition! Embarrassing!
The following soundcheck demonstrated the amazing quality of American a cappella; the competition was truly challenging. This makes us all the more overwhelmed that we eventually prevailed - and, on top of that, convince the audience, winning the Audience Favorite award! Therefore, we now have the honour of being hosts for next year's 25th Annual Harmony Sweepstakes Festival in San Francisco, which will even be filmed by Sony Pictures for American TV due to the anniversary. In addition, we're also planning to visit the US twice for a more extended tour in Spring 2009, visiting both the East and West Coast.
With this achieved, we managed to dash back to the airport, with just 30minutes to spare, to travel home to Germany - but before we could board the plane, the phone went and we were put straight through to the final concert of the Internationale A Cappella Woche, an international a cappella festival that was taking place at this time in Hannover - live! So whilst Tobi was filming for our next videocast and the other 3 handling the check-in, Tobek was chatting with the host of that final concert, Desimo, with another cheering audience of 1200 in the background. A very special experience, that's for sure!
Speaking of the videocast… After our 2nd videocast documenting our first US experiences in March (the short tour and the East Coast A Cappella Summit in Washington D.C.) was put online in early June, we now proudly present our latest oeuvre: videocast no. 3. Follow vocaldente through the Regional Finals in Washington D.C. in April and the National Finals of in San Francisco in May, be part of the excitement and tension - up to its hilarious happy end. VIDEOCAST
And there's more to discover online about vocaldente. Don't miss our vocaldente .blog on MySpace: Find out about vocaldente being "Sleepless in Slovenia", travelling night and day and "climbing up the greasy pole". And for all those who wondered whether rock 'n' roll can be combined with a cappella… Take a look at our exclusive star photo with The Scorpions - where a cappella meets hard rock! ;-)MYSPACE MUSIK Portal
And so we're saying: "Welcome!", dear frieds of vocaldente, to our 2nd and latest newsletter this year!
The suitcases are packed, the tickets are checked - we're off to Hong Kong this week! Don't worry, we're not planning to emigrate! This is just a little short trip following an invitation to appear at a festival as this year's American National Champions, which will also act as a prelude to our upcoming South-east Asia tour in October, taking us to Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea - featuring our brand new 2nd Tenor Micha who'll be joining us to replace Niklas… In short: there's a whole bunch of news from the vocaldente universe! But one thing at a time...
Firstly: Yes, we did it! We can proudly announce our victory at the 24th Annual armony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival, the "All American Open A Cappella Championship" - the amazing conclusion to a trip that was as much exciting and breathtaking as it was hilarious and inspirational. We're now honoured with the official title of "National Champions 2008", which is in fact a triple honour, as we're also the first non-English speaking AND only the second non-American group ever to win this.
After we claimed victory at the Mid-Atlantics Regional Finals in Washington D.C. in March, the second and final stage was to come on May 3rd 2008: The National Finals, taking place in the city of San Francisco. The venue, the Marin Veteran's Auditorium, was completely sold out, as an audience of 2,000 gathered to hear the winners from all the regional finals. The rules were clear: the performance was only allowed to last 12 minutes (overrunning for more than 30 seconds brought penalty points), identical microphones for all contestants, no technical additions or special technical effects - purely a cappella!
Although before all this even started… we got almost disqualified! Haunted by jetlag, we were snoozing peacefully whilst the final briefing of all contestants was taking place. Only the ever restless Tobek, idly wandering around the hotel lobby, was caught by a group of fellow contestants and taken to the meeting - where he received a lecture from the organisers like a pupil back at school, informing him that such a snubbing of the competition's procedures had never occurred before in the 24 years of the Sweep's history, and that this could only ever be amended by winning the competition! Embarrassing!
The following soundcheck demonstrated the amazing quality of American a cappella; the competition was truly challenging. This makes us all the more overwhelmed that we eventually prevailed - and, on top of that, convince the audience, winning the Audience Favorite award! Therefore, we now have the honour of being hosts for next year's 25th Annual Harmony Sweepstakes Festival in San Francisco, which will even be filmed by Sony Pictures for American TV due to the anniversary. In addition, we're also planning to visit the US twice for a more extended tour in Spring 2009, visiting both the East and West Coast.
With this achieved, we managed to dash back to the airport, with just 30minutes to spare, to travel home to Germany - but before we could board the plane, the phone went and we were put straight through to the final concert of the Internationale A Cappella Woche, an international a cappella festival that was taking place at this time in Hannover - live! So whilst Tobi was filming for our next videocast and the other 3 handling the check-in, Tobek was chatting with the host of that final concert, Desimo, with another cheering audience of 1200 in the background. A very special experience, that's for sure!
Speaking of the videocast… After our 2nd videocast documenting our first US experiences in March (the short tour and the East Coast A Cappella Summit in Washington D.C.) was put online in early June, we now proudly present our latest oeuvre: videocast no. 3. Follow vocaldente through the Regional Finals in Washington D.C. in April and the National Finals of in San Francisco in May, be part of the excitement and tension - up to its hilarious happy end. VIDEOCAST
And there's more to discover online about vocaldente. Don't miss our vocaldente .blog on MySpace: Find out about vocaldente being "Sleepless in Slovenia", travelling night and day and "climbing up the greasy pole". And for all those who wondered whether rock 'n' roll can be combined with a cappella… Take a look at our exclusive star photo with The Scorpions - where a cappella meets hard rock! ;-)MYSPACE MUSIK Portal
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But the biggest news is yet to be announced… Indeed, we've got a new 2nd tenor!
We searched for the best and we got him!
His name's Michael Schöpe, a fantastic singer and dancer, who's also a skilled actor - and on top of that, he's simply a charming and nice person, fitting ideally to vocaldente. We found the chemistry's perfect between us, as our first rehearsal proved. Micha's been a student at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig (university of music & theatre in Leipzig, Germany), and only just successfully graduated after studying musicals. With his profound experience in a cappella singing, he'll be joining vocaldente as the 2nd tenor full-time from September on, although already participating in short gigs and our upcoming Hong Kong tour. More about Micha:NEWS After returning from Hong Kong, we'll firstly be off on a well-deserved summer break, followed by performances in Eschwege (near the city of Kassel), at the festival "Les voix de l'Aure 2008" in Bayeux (France), the Waldbühne Bremke (near the city of Göttingen) together with the renowned group Ganz Schön Feist, and giving several performances at the "Lange Nacht der Museen" in Arolsen (again near Kassel). All these performances, up to the end of August, will be done using both the old lineup with Niklas and the new one with Micha. As always, you can find all the details as well as the 2008 tour plan here:LIVE |
Phew, that's it! Now here's to a 12 hour plane flight (hopefully without almost missing it this time), a 6 hour time difference and 3 days of Hong Kong experiences…
But not without wishing you all the best for your holiday, or to speak with the lyrics of our "Sommersong": Summer, sun, beach and sea…
Yours,
vocaldente
