Wednesday, April 16, 2008
My "acappella life story"
As mentioned here,
http://johncolton.blogspot.com/2008/03/latest-reviewer-for-rarb.html
I'm now reviewing albums for RARB.org. I've written a few reviews now, but they haven't showed up yet (still waiting on the other people who are reviewing the same albums).
But I've been posting a bit on the RARB forum, and one guy (a BYU alum who is now president of CASA) recently asked me how I got interested in contemporary acappella music. I figure I put enough effort into the reply that I should post it here. This is what I told him:
___
Short answers to your questions: a couple of acappella groups at Cal are mostly to blame for my interest in contemporary acappella. I've been in two high quality groups, but they were more classical/choral than what you'd probably call "contemporary acappella" (even though both groups perform contemporary choral-style acappella pieces). As far as my activity in the acappella world, unfortunately my "contemporary acappella" activity is pretty much restricted to attending Vocal Point/Noteworthy/other concerts, and now writing reviews for RARB.
But, since you asked, here's my longer "acappella life story"--probably many more details than you want to know!! (...but you *did* ask...)
While at Cal (1994-2000) I fell in love with the California Golden Overtones and with the UC Men's Octet. I had sung in church choirs all my life, and in the University Chorale at BYU, but never more that that. I've always been very musical, but didn't have (or didn't think I have) much of a singing voice. Anyway, one of my regrets leaving Cal was that I never auditioned for the Men's Octet. The closest I came was one semester I noticed they were a seven man "Octet", so I asked one of them if they were looking for an eighth. He said, "No, we're pretty happy with seven." That was one of the years they won the ICCA competition, so I guess he was right! But as a grad student (and a returned missionary, and married) I think I would have felt a bit out of place with the undergrads that were in the Octet, so I never did audition for them. Probably wouldn't have made it, because my voice really wasn't that great then.
After I graduated from Cal I spent two years in Maryland/Virginia, and thought about joining a singing group. I was impressed with the Alexandria Harmonizers, a large barbershop group, but they were just too far away. And nothing else was closer, so I didn't do any singing beyond church choir.
Then I moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 2003, to be a physics prof at U.W. La Crosse. We were in a branch, and it didn't even have a choir, so I decided I needed to get serious and find a place to sing. Cutting out some details, I ended up auditioning for the La Crosse Chamber Chorale. They are a 30-35 person community group, much more along the lines of the BYU Singers (though not quite as good) than Vocal Point. I think I got in mainly due to my ability to sight-read, my very good tonal memory in a few tests the director gave me, and the fact I let slip that my mom had been a professional music conductor. After I got in, I learned a lot of the mechanics of good singing that I had never been taught, and actually got to be a pretty reasonable singer by the time I left Wisconsin (last year).
Along the way I stayed very interested in collegiate acappella. While I was in Wisconsin I discovered BOCA, and got myself the complete box set for Christmas one year. I already had several acappella albums from professional groups like the Nylons, the Kings Singers, Take 6, etc, and of course all of the UC Men's Octet and Overtones albums--but I thought the BOCA CDs were (with rare exceptions) amazing.
When I got the job offer from BYU and decided to move to Utah last year, I was very excited to find out that not only did BYU have several acappella groups, but that Vocal Point and Noteworthy had actually just won the ICCA competitions the last two years! Being a little interested in broadening my acappella horizons, when I first got here I searched around for any sort of Vocal Point-like group that a faculty member could join (either through BYU, or in the community). My search mainly came up blank, although I did audition for one about-to-be-formed professional group (didn't get in; don't know if they ever materialized or not). I did find the "Utah Baroque Ensemble", which is very similar in size and style to the La Crosse Chamber Choral I was in before. I auditioned for that group in Jan, got in, and have been singing with them for the past several months.
After I realized that there really were no contemporary acappella groups I could join, I decided that I should find out what else I could do to be part of the contemporary acappella community. I talked to Deke Sharon about helping with BOCA, but he said there wasn't really anything I could do. He referred me to the CARA awards (Julia somebody), but she said they had just finished the award decisions for this year. (I might be helping out next year, I guess, if I remember to talk to her earlier in the judging season.) I hadn't known about the CARA awards previously, so I did some web searching to see what else I might not know about, and ran across RARB. After deciding that RARB is a Good Thing, I sent my "acappella resume" to Ben Stevens at RARB, and he decided that my acappella singing experience (albeit mainly classical-type stuff) combined with my love for contemporary acappella potentially qualified me to be a reviewer. He had me write a sample review for demonstration purposes. I chose Noteworthy's "On the Horizon" album--you should be happy, I gave them a 5!, and I guess he and others liked what I wrote because I got a reviewer position. I've written a couple of reviews already, but none have appeared yet.
So that's my story!
http://johncolton.blogspot.com/2008/03/latest-reviewer-for-rarb.html
I'm now reviewing albums for RARB.org. I've written a few reviews now, but they haven't showed up yet (still waiting on the other people who are reviewing the same albums).
But I've been posting a bit on the RARB forum, and one guy (a BYU alum who is now president of CASA) recently asked me how I got interested in contemporary acappella music. I figure I put enough effort into the reply that I should post it here. This is what I told him:
___
Short answers to your questions: a couple of acappella groups at Cal are mostly to blame for my interest in contemporary acappella. I've been in two high quality groups, but they were more classical/choral than what you'd probably call "contemporary acappella" (even though both groups perform contemporary choral-style acappella pieces). As far as my activity in the acappella world, unfortunately my "contemporary acappella" activity is pretty much restricted to attending Vocal Point/Noteworthy/other concerts, and now writing reviews for RARB.
But, since you asked, here's my longer "acappella life story"--probably many more details than you want to know!! (...but you *did* ask...)
While at Cal (1994-2000) I fell in love with the California Golden Overtones and with the UC Men's Octet. I had sung in church choirs all my life, and in the University Chorale at BYU, but never more that that. I've always been very musical, but didn't have (or didn't think I have) much of a singing voice. Anyway, one of my regrets leaving Cal was that I never auditioned for the Men's Octet. The closest I came was one semester I noticed they were a seven man "Octet", so I asked one of them if they were looking for an eighth. He said, "No, we're pretty happy with seven." That was one of the years they won the ICCA competition, so I guess he was right! But as a grad student (and a returned missionary, and married) I think I would have felt a bit out of place with the undergrads that were in the Octet, so I never did audition for them. Probably wouldn't have made it, because my voice really wasn't that great then.
After I graduated from Cal I spent two years in Maryland/Virginia, and thought about joining a singing group. I was impressed with the Alexandria Harmonizers, a large barbershop group, but they were just too far away. And nothing else was closer, so I didn't do any singing beyond church choir.
Then I moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 2003, to be a physics prof at U.W. La Crosse. We were in a branch, and it didn't even have a choir, so I decided I needed to get serious and find a place to sing. Cutting out some details, I ended up auditioning for the La Crosse Chamber Chorale. They are a 30-35 person community group, much more along the lines of the BYU Singers (though not quite as good) than Vocal Point. I think I got in mainly due to my ability to sight-read, my very good tonal memory in a few tests the director gave me, and the fact I let slip that my mom had been a professional music conductor. After I got in, I learned a lot of the mechanics of good singing that I had never been taught, and actually got to be a pretty reasonable singer by the time I left Wisconsin (last year).
Along the way I stayed very interested in collegiate acappella. While I was in Wisconsin I discovered BOCA, and got myself the complete box set for Christmas one year. I already had several acappella albums from professional groups like the Nylons, the Kings Singers, Take 6, etc, and of course all of the UC Men's Octet and Overtones albums--but I thought the BOCA CDs were (with rare exceptions) amazing.
When I got the job offer from BYU and decided to move to Utah last year, I was very excited to find out that not only did BYU have several acappella groups, but that Vocal Point and Noteworthy had actually just won the ICCA competitions the last two years! Being a little interested in broadening my acappella horizons, when I first got here I searched around for any sort of Vocal Point-like group that a faculty member could join (either through BYU, or in the community). My search mainly came up blank, although I did audition for one about-to-be-formed professional group (didn't get in; don't know if they ever materialized or not). I did find the "Utah Baroque Ensemble", which is very similar in size and style to the La Crosse Chamber Choral I was in before. I auditioned for that group in Jan, got in, and have been singing with them for the past several months.
After I realized that there really were no contemporary acappella groups I could join, I decided that I should find out what else I could do to be part of the contemporary acappella community. I talked to Deke Sharon about helping with BOCA, but he said there wasn't really anything I could do. He referred me to the CARA awards (Julia somebody), but she said they had just finished the award decisions for this year. (I might be helping out next year, I guess, if I remember to talk to her earlier in the judging season.) I hadn't known about the CARA awards previously, so I did some web searching to see what else I might not know about, and ran across RARB. After deciding that RARB is a Good Thing, I sent my "acappella resume" to Ben Stevens at RARB, and he decided that my acappella singing experience (albeit mainly classical-type stuff) combined with my love for contemporary acappella potentially qualified me to be a reviewer. He had me write a sample review for demonstration purposes. I chose Noteworthy's "On the Horizon" album--you should be happy, I gave them a 5!, and I guess he and others liked what I wrote because I got a reviewer position. I've written a couple of reviews already, but none have appeared yet.
So that's my story!
# posted by John Colton @ 11:06 PM 
