London A Cappella Festival
Encyclopedia
The London A Cappella Festival is a series of concerts based at Kings Place
, London
, showcasing some of the finest a cappella
acts from London and the surrounding area. The inaugural festival, in January 2010, was curated by the international a cappella outfit, Swingle Singers. The aim of the festival is to celebrate the human voice in all the wide-ranging musical forms; including Renaissance polyphony
, beatbox, barbershop
, gospel music
, close-harmony, pop
and jazz
.
. Artists performing in the festival included early music ensemble Stile Antico
, hot young pop/jazz group Voces8
, Oxford's a cappella collegiate champions Out of the Blue
, gospel stars London Adventist Chorale, and the Swingle Singers. Free foyer performances with groups such as The Oxford Gargoyles
, and afternoon workshops made up the remainder of the festival programme, enabling people of all ages and abilities to take part and celebrate the human voice.
Kings Place
Kings Place is a building in London’s Kings Cross area, providing music and visual arts venues combined with seven floors of office space, a home for The Guardian newspaper since December 2008 and the headquarters of Network Rail...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, showcasing some of the finest a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
acts from London and the surrounding area. The inaugural festival, in January 2010, was curated by the international a cappella outfit, Swingle Singers. The aim of the festival is to celebrate the human voice in all the wide-ranging musical forms; including Renaissance polyphony
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
, beatbox, barbershop
Barbershop music
Barbershop vocal harmony, as codified during the barbershop revival era , is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture...
, gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, close-harmony, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
.
Inaugural festival
The inaugural London A Cappella Festival ran from 13 to 16 January 2010 at Kings Place, the arts venue at Kings CrossKings Cross, London
King's Cross is an area of London partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the London Borough of Islington. It is an inner-city district located 2.5 miles north of Charing Cross. The area formerly had a reputation for being a red light district and run-down. However, rapid regeneration...
. Artists performing in the festival included early music ensemble Stile Antico
Stile antico
Stile antico, literally "ancient style", is a term describing music from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries. It refers to a manner of composition which is historically conscious, as opposed to stile moderno...
, hot young pop/jazz group Voces8
Voces8
VOCES8 is an international award winning a cappella octet from the United Kingdom. Formed in 2005, Voces8 has a diverse repertoire ranging from early English and European Renaissance choral works, by e.g...
, Oxford's a cappella collegiate champions Out of the Blue
Out of the Blue (Oxford University)
Out of the Blue is an all-male a cappella group at University of Oxford in England. The student-run group sings an eclectic mix of songs, focusing on covers of modern rock and pop hits....
, gospel stars London Adventist Chorale, and the Swingle Singers. Free foyer performances with groups such as The Oxford Gargoyles
The Oxford Gargoyles
The Oxford Gargoyles is a mixed-voice jazz a cappella group from Oxford University, England. The group's repertoire is rooted in the jazz songbook but also extends to pop, soul, Latin and gospel numbers. The group was founded in 1998 and has been instrumental in the rise of collegiate a cappella in...
, and afternoon workshops made up the remainder of the festival programme, enabling people of all ages and abilities to take part and celebrate the human voice.