Vocal Blog | The Vocal, A Cappella & Choral Music Online-Mag

by Peder Karlsson (The Real Academy), Tobias Hug (The Swingle Singers), Jim Daus Hjernoe (The New Vox North), Volker Bauer (A Cappella Online), Peter Martin Jacob (magenta concerts), Tilo Beckmann (leading voices) and Florian Städtler (Vocal Blog)

The EVA core team, Ludwigshafen/GER 2010

These are exciting times for contemporary vocal music in Europe. The pioneers and legends of the vocal and a cappella scene are passing on the baton to an ever-growing number of amateur and pro vocal groups, festivals, schools. Slowly but surely vocal music is becoming more audible and visible in mainstream media. Global companies are using singers, beatboxers and vocal groups for their marketing, e.g. T-Mobile (“Welcome Back” London Vocal Flash Mob).

With all these things happening, a core group of a cappella activists started to work on a European vision of contemporary vocal, a cappella and choral music. Exactly one year ago we started a journey and today we want to make you, people who proved that they get things done musically and business-wise, passengers on this journey.

After one year of preparation, discussion and mutual inspiration, Peder Karlsson (The Real Academy), Tobias Hug (The Swingle Singers), Jim Daus Hjernøe (Aalborg Conservatory, The New Vox North), Peter Martin Jacob (magenta concerts), Tilo Beckmann (leading voices), Volker Bauer (A Cappella Online) and Florian Städtler (Vocal Blog) are excited to present you with a new organisation working for all people dedicated to our art form, vocal music: The European Voices Association (EVA)

As a very first step, we wrote the European Voices Manifesto, which lays down the principles that EVA stands for.

We are now asking all those of you who are responsible for the incredible development of European vocal music to sign the Manifesto to show your support.  If you haven’t done so yet, send a digital scan of your signature to staedtler@spielplanvier.com.

If that’s a technical problem, just send your signature on a piece of paper to the EVA contact adress. More information about the plans for the European Voices Association, the Manifesto and the EVA core team members can be found at www.europeanvoices.net, our first humble online proof of existence. And here are the names of those who already joined the movement and showed their support for the Manifesto (in alphabetical order:)

Lucy Bailey (The Swingle Singers/UK), Daniel Barke (Tonalrausch/GER), Volker Bauer (A Cappella Online/GER), Marco A. Billep/GER), Sara Brimer (The Swingle Singers/UK), Fausto Caravati (Solevoci/ITA), Emily Dickens (VOCES8/UK), Jean Digby (Singacappella/UK), Deniz Dönmez (SpielPlanVier/GER), Anders Edenroth (The Real Group/SWE), Joanna Eteson-Goldsmith (The Swingle Singers/UK), Jürgen Faßbender (GER), Fabian Fehrenbach (SpielPlanVier/GER), Kevin Fox (The Swingle Singers/UK), Christopher Gabbitas (The King’s Singers/UK), Alexandra Godfree (Voice Festival/UK), Colin T. Graham (UK), Havard Gravdal (Pust/NOR), Oliver Griffiths (The Swingle Singers/UK), Line Groth Riis (Postyr/DK), Andrea Haines (VOCES8/UK), Lydia Haschke (medlz/GER), Maria Heinig (medlz/GER), Jim Daus Hjernoe (The New Vox North/DK), Jesper Holm (Touché/DK), Jonathan Howard (The King’s Singers/UK), Tobias Hug (The Swingle Singers/UK), David Hurley (The King’s Singers/UK), Sandra Hylla (mad4music/GER), Christopher Jay (The Swingle Singers/UK), Peder Karlsson (The Real Academy/SWE), Sabine Kaufmann (medlz/GER), Morten Kjaer (DK), John Kjoller (Basix/DK), Andrea Kühn (SpielPlanVier/GER), Thierry Lalo (The Voice Messengers/FRA), Philip Lawson (The King’s Singers/UK), Claire Long (Music Prod./UK), Charles Alexander MacDougall (VOCES8/UK), Michele Manzotti (ITA), Silvana Mehnert (medlz/GER), Miklos “Mickey” Nemeth (Fool Moon/HUN), Lars Orhoj (DK), Nelly Palmowske (medlz/GER), Staffan Paulson (Vocal Six), Costa Peristianis (Ikon Arts/UK), Ane Carmen Roggen (Pitsj/NOR), Nina Ruckhaber (Jazzchor Freiburg/GER), Romy Schmidt (Spectaculum Mundi/GER), Till Schumann (Unduzo/GER), Kristian Skarhoj (Songs of the Moment/DK), Joakim Skog (SWE), Barney Smith (VOCES8/UK), Paul Smith (VOCES8/UK), Robert Robbie Smith (VOCES8/UK), Florian Städtler (SpielPlanVier, Vocal Blog/GER), Indra Tedjasukmana (Sonic Suite/GER), Kristoffer Fynbo Thorning (Postyr/DK), Idun Thorvaldsen (NOR), Elin Valvatne (Apes & Babes/NOR), Marty van der Staak (NED), Saso Vrabic (Perpetuum Jazzile/SLO), Chris Wardle (VOCES8/UK), Cleveland Watkiss (UK), Timothy Wayne-Wright (The King’s Singers/UK), Sebastian Weingarten (Renitenztheater/GER), Clare Wheeler (The Swingle Singers/UK), Eric Whitacre (UK), Holger Wittgen (Kultursommer Rheinland-Pfalz/GER), Dingle Yandell (VOCES8/UK).

Isn’t that amazing!?!

See you in Aarhus!! From left to right: Peter, Jim, Peder, Tobi, Volker, Tilo, Florian

We would love if you added your signature to the Manifesto and want ot meet as many of you as possible at the EVA kick-off meeting. This meeting will mark the foundation of The European Voices Association and will give the opportunity to meet the complete core team and many more movers and shakers of European vocal music. It will take place on the final day of Aarhus Vocal Festival, May 9th 2011, 9:00 am at Aarhus, Musikhuset (Kammermusiksalen). The festival, featuring concerts with Bobby McFerrin, Vocal Line, Pust, Basix, Postyr as well as a fantastic workshop and coaching programme, will go ahead from the 6th to the 9th of May – exactly four weeks from today!

Thank you very much for supporting EVA and for marking Aarhus in your calendars. If you have questions concerning the Manifesto, the kick-off meeting or EVA in general,  feel free to get in touch with Florian Städtler (staedtler@spielplanvier; +49 761 38 94 74) anytime.

Looking forward to getting your feedback and your signatures and meeting all of you in person in Denmark!

Best wishes

Peder, Jim, Volker, Tobi, Peter, Tilo & Florian

www.europeanvoices.net

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Want to contribute to the development of European vocal, a cappella and choral music? Why not write a blog post on your activities, ideas and visions here at Vocal Blog? Or just post your comments and tell the acaworld what you want EVA to achieve for the community!

from Paul Smith‘s VOCES8 diary, 3rd of April 2011

Monday: Got back from opening a choral festival and performing with 5 choirs from Spain and the Canary Islands at 1:30am! A fantastic couple of days that had included a full concert recorded for Spanish National Radio, and set in beautiful Pamplona.  All the choirs were competing for prizes, and we were there to sing a couple of concerts for them – it was great to spend time with so many passionate singers.

Arrive for an a cappella festival day in Brighton with about 230 singers from 8 different choral groups at 9:30am – really in need of a few cups of coffee! Different members of VOCES8 work all day with different groups, and we also rehearse a couple of joint numbers.  The evening concert is hosted by VOCES8, and we sing a couple of numbers, but we really enjoy listening to the great performances put together by all of the different vocal groups – with student ages ranging from 6 to 18.  The packed out concert venue rises as one to applaud the hundreds of young singers.

We head home to try and get some sleep despite the adrenaline that’s still pumping through our bodies.

Tuesday: The group is off to Cardiff University for a composition masterclass with the Phd students and an evening concert.  A hundred miles into the journey, the VOCES Mobile breaks down! Quick calls, roadside assistance, hire cars and we still make it for the start of the session – just. We spend a few hours working with the students on their contemporary compositions, talking about how we as singers and performers would approach their music, and then we prepare to give a concert.  It’s Andrea’s old university, so a very special day for her.  A great reception from the students, and we enjoy drinks with some of the faculty staff and students after the concert.

Wednesday: Up to Bedford today for workshops with 12 vocal groups in the county.  VOCES8 members are spread far and wide as we help students and vocal groups prepare for the ‘B Festival’ which takes place at the end of April.  Top prize for the competing groups this year is free recording studio time, so all of the 300 or so performers are getting very excited and working really hard for the big day.  And, to make the B Festival even better, we’re going to be joined this year by our good friend, and world class beatboxer, RoxorLoops, as well as one of the newest, hottest groups on the a cappella scene, Apollo 5 (www.apollo5.co).  It’s going to be quite a night!

Thursday: Into Hackney in London for another end of project performance day with 8 choirs from schools in the borough.  About 250 students join us for the afternoon, rehearsing songs with their VOCES8 mentors and then spending some time practicing as a massed choir.  The concert is a great success, but
VOCES8 don’t stay for any post concert drinks tonight, as we have to be up at 3:30am to go to….

Friday: Nigeria.  Oh my god! We head out to Lagos via Amsterdam.  It turns out that one of the people who has booked us is a senior director for KLM.
Great flight. We arrive, are met by US Embassy staff and a security team and driven straight to a champagne reception hosted by the MD of Heineken in Nigeria.  It’s amazing to see the group perk up at the sight of the champagne after 13 hours of travelling…

VOCES8 in Lagos, Nigeria 2011

Saturday: We spend the morning working with some students to prepare them for their evening performance with us, before heading to the US Consulate General’s residency to prepare for the evening performance.  Hours of sound testing for the outdoor event in 33 degree heat leaves us with a tan! The event is sponsored by Moët & Chandon and Heineken, so it’s bound to be a good night! 400 guests arrive in black tie and, along with all of us, make it through many levels of security checks.  The event is so stylish – a stunningly beautiful setting on the waterfront and a night to remember.
Everyone at the event seems to enjoy a cappella music (and a few were rather new to it!)… and James Bond tunes in particular go down well. Fireworks finish the night (accompanied by the Star Wars theme!) and, as if it couldn’t get any better, I win VIP tickets to the Nigerian Cup Final! I don’t think I can make it…

Sunday: Up early (for an a cappella group) and we’re all smiles, as we get driven straight to the Lagos Boat Club, loaded onto the Shell and Heineken speed boats and, in minutes, we’re loving the feel of the wind in our hair as we pass through the amazing harbour, the numerous abandoned tankers and out towards the beach paradise beyond.  After the week we’ve had, it seems like the perfect place to unwind for a few hours.  We spend the day sipping yet more champagne and enjoying time with our new friends from Lagos.  In the last couple of weeks, we’ve performed in Spain, across the UK and in Nigeria, and worked with over 40 vocal groups – and more than 1000 singers – along the way.

And that’s why we love the world of a cappella!

VOCES8 on The Great Wall of China

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I’m pretty sure that many of my readers also experience amazing things while being on tour, on stage, backstage and elsewhere in #acappelland. Let us know about it and become a Vocal Blog guest blogger. Feel free to send me your suggestions to info@vocal-blog.net – really looking forward to your stories!

interview with Patrick Chiu (conductor of The Hongkong Melody Makers)

by Florian Städtler on March 19, 2011

It was in September 2010 when I was among the chosen few to be invited to Peder Karlsson‘s farewell concert as The Real Group‘s baritone. In a small Stockholm jazz club called “Fasching” I had one of the most amazing a cappella experiences ever. The whole Swedish music miracle called The Real Group, 25 years of musical and personal history unfolded in an incredible show featuring former and current TRG members, Finnish soulmates Rajaton, Peder Karlsson’s daughter (joining Peder singing “Mr. Father”!) among others.

But not only the stage personnel was extraordinary: The audience at “Fasching” consisted of a long list of vocal music movers and shakers from Scandinavia, Europe and even Asia. So after the show I had the opportunity to meet and talk to Patrick Chiu for the first time. Patrick is the mastermind of the Hongkong a cappella music. And when we finally had to part in Stockholm, Patrick promised to visit me when coming to Germany in March 2011. And he kept his promise: Just before the 2011 Hongkong International A Cappella Festival began, Patrick took a train from Stuttgart, where he joined a conducting masterclass with German choral music legend Helmuth Rilling, to my home town Freiburg.

Florian Städtler & Patrick Chiu at the SpielPlanVier office in Freiburg

Here’s the exclusive Vocal Blog interview, the first in a 12-part series of interviews with well-known and yet hidden a cappella stars.

Vocal Blog:  The first thing I heard about this year’s Hongkong A Cappella Festival was when Peder Karlsson told me that he was to perform in front of 3000 kids in a stadium to open the festival. Sounds amazing!

Patrick Chiu: The opening concert in this big venue presents up-and-coming groups both from Asia and other continents. The festival organizers want to present vocal music to as many young people in Hongkong as possible. In another concert we present one international top group and we’re happy to present The Swingle Singers this year. There are other, smaller concerts and a lot of workshops, too.

Vocal Blog: Tell me a bit about the Hongkong A Cappella scene – how has it developed since you started your work for the Hongkong Federation of Youth Groups?

Patrick Chiu: When we started around five years ago, we didn’t have many vocal groups on a good musical level, maybe five teams, as we say. But now, I think, we have about twenty groups who perform on a regular basis. For the groups whose quality is OK, we have one outdoor concert as their opportunity to present themselves at the festival.

Vocal Blog:  What role do educational events play in the festival?

Patrick Chiu: We do a lot of workshops. There are in-school workshops, which means we bring a HK team (=group) to a school. For other educational events, people come to our venues, e.g. masterclasses or lectures. We’ve also started a cooperation to make Peder Karlsson’s Real Academy work in Hongkong. And we think that the concept of an online school is very innovative and good. On the other hand, the young, unexperienced singers over here need personal, face-to-face coaching very much. So we hope to bring Peder and his team of teachers over here many more times. We also would love to invite Tobias Hug, bass of The Swingle Singers or Jim Daus Hjernoe from Denmark to do some educational work.

Vocal Blog:  It might be interesting for our readers to learn more about the organisational background of the festival…

Patrick Chiu: The festival promoter is The Hongkong Federation of Youth Groups, a huge organisation including all kinds of youth groups. Actually music groups are only a small fraction of this organisation. Six years ago the CEO of the federation had the idea of founding a vocal group in Hongkong. At this time I had just finished my studies in the US and I helped her to establish the group called The Hongkong Melody Makers. The groups was quite successful and so she had another idea: Why not organise a festival or rather a concert series that involves international groups.

Vocal Blog: More than 200.000 children and teenagers are members of the Federation of Youth Groups – how many of them are singers?

Patrick Chiu: Actually, I don’t know – because we simply never counted the members. The Melody Makers, the Federation’s official choir has 40 members, and we don’t want the choir to become bigger as we think that it wouldn’t be possible to keep the quality that we want for the group. On the other hand, if the general quality of young singers will improve, we would probably start new ensembles or divide the existing by age. At the moment a singer can stay with The Melody Makers until he turns 30 – but most of them are much younger right now, so that’s not a problem.

Vocal Blog: Are you supporting other groups, too?

Patrick Chiu:  We try to give promising new groups advice, invite them to workshops and create opportunities to perform. We are convinced that concerts of newcomer or professional international groups have a strong impact on the Hongkong newcomers: These concerts, workshops and meetings can really stimulate young singers.

Vocal Blog: What about the recent tv programmes like “Glee” or “Sing-off”: How popular are they in Hongkong?

Patrick Chiu: As a matter of fact, they’re not as popular as in the USA. But people can watch these programmes and the singers do so and see that vocal music can make it into mainstream television. And the interested students in Hongkong use the internet a lot: Some of them are well aware of the international music scene.

Vocal Blog: Let’s look into the future: Will there be a Hongkong International A Cappella Festival 2012, 2013 etc.?

Patrick Chiu: We very much hope so. And it has turned out that the purpose of supporting young people to be involved in music and musical education creates good opportunities to find sponsorship. Only sponsors like the Hongkong Jockey Association make invitiations of a cappella superstars like The Real Group or The Swingle Singers possible.

Vocal Blog: Patrick, thank you very much for taking the time for this meeting and interview – hope to hop over to Hongkong for one of the future festivals. Good luck and say hello to Peder, the Swingles and all the enthusiastic singers!

The Hongkong International A Cappella Festival brochure

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Read Patricks introduction to the festival here.

And let us know what you think about vocal and choral music in Asia – I’m looking forward to your comments.

If you haven’t joined the Vocal Blog facebook group, why not do it right now: You can meet over 700 a cappella activists there. Same goes for Twitter (@vocalblog), which is a lot of fun as it keeps you up to speed with aca-tweeps like @dinkyswingle (Clare Wheeler, The Swingle Singers), @joeteson (Joanna Goldsmith-Eteson, The Swingle Singers), @ericwhitacre (Eric Whitacre), @madsbass (Mads Iversen, Pust), @therealgroup, @theswinglesingers, @naturally7, @amalkoff (Amy Malkoff, CASA) and many, many more.

by Florian Städtler

This story begins in the middle of 2010. On our way to another European a cappella network meeting, Tobias Hug (Black Forest-raised & London-based bass with The Swingle Singers) told me of a new all-female vocal group he discovered in London.

OK, this pic does NOT show the band, but four Swingle Singers (Tobi’s the one on the right) with an unknown die-hard fan.

Where was I…ah yes…Tobi, the world’s greatest vocal and a cappella networker and also a highly talented scout told me of Bellatrix, the female beatbox world champion.

This video of Belle Ehresmann, Guildhall doublebass student, has gone viral quite a while ago. But Belle is not only a human beatbox and lipbuzz virtuoso, Tobi told me. She put together a five-piece all-female, vocal beatbox group. “You’d better check out these insanely talented girls before someone else does”, that’s what Mr. Hug told me. But I was busy as always and already taking care of booking for five international a cappella top acts, so I just didn’t manage to follow up right away.

But my old choir buddy Tobi can be persistent if he really thinks that something is worth being like that. And so he kept me updated on a regular basis until I searched the web, found rough, but fascinating videos of The Boxettes and was finally hit by their sensational video single “Free” . That was – if I remember it right – in the beginning of January, and I had decided much earlier to do two things: See and meet the group at the London A Cappella Festival (12-15th of January) and bring them to Germany’s top showcase events, the Kulturbörse Freiburg.

To make a long story short, it was a great night at King’s Place: Neo, Alyusha, Harriet, Yvette and Bellatrix are young, sexy, charismatic (despite their age) and most importantly: truly talented and musically original. We have nothing like this in the EU. Nor in the States. Probably not in Asia, Australia either. Well, to be honest, their show is far from being perfect. This group is a raw diamond yet. But the singers are 100% authentic and there is only two ways that you can leave a Boxettes concert: Confused because this doesn’t fit into your world of vocal and a cappella music. Or enthusiastic that there is a band that seems to bring a whole new groove and sound to this art form.  I generally love artists who make at least 20% of the audience look like living question marks and shake their heads in doubt and disbelief. Because these are the same bands that make 80% of the people dance and bang their heads in pure joy. That’s what the Boxettes will soon be doing to many more people all around the world. And probably/hopefully they will reach a much broader, pop audience.

Naturally7 live on stage

Speaking of a vocal group aiming at a mainstream pop audience, there’s one group that has been going that way for years and is probably today’s most successfull vocal group: Naturally 7, led by vocal music mastermind Roger Thomas. What happened after my London A Cappella encounter with The Boxettes (+ The Swingle Singers, The Real Group, Witloof Bay and many more aca-people from all over Europe), is a kind of fairy tale. Or maybe a science fiction. Yes, it reminds of the incredible space ship “Heart of Gold” in Douglas Adams’ cult novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. The engine of the ship is based on a technology called “The Infinite Improbability Drive”, which makes it possible to cover unbelievable distances in no time. But it has a second effect. On their journey from the place where the Earth used to be (before it was destroyed to build a hyperspace byway…) to “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe”, the most improbable, unbelievable and mind-boggling things happen.

Why am I telling you that? Well, read on what happened.

When we were checking our diaries to make The Boxettes’ continental premiere happening, I discovered, that on the two days before the Freiburg showcase, Naturally 7 had two gigs very close to Freiburg. When I told Tobi about that, he acted very quickly. Of course he and Roger Thomas met before (there’s a video on YouTube with N7 singing a song backstage at a Michael Bublé show at the O2 in London – the The Swingle Singers being their audience) and so Tobi tried to get in touch with Roger right away. But nothing happened for 5 or 6 days. We had to book flights as they became more expensive every day…and right after we had booked the air tickets from London to Basel/Freiburg Tobi forwarded me THE E-MAIL. It said: “The girls can do a half-hour show at Denzlingen and Stuttgart opening for N7.” Well, rarely did I change flights so happily…

Naturally7 & The Boxettes, Stuttgart/GER

The rest, they say, is history: The Boxettes flew into Basel, met the boys and more than warmed-up the Denzlingen crowd. After the show we celebrated Roger’s birthday with a very special birthday cake (no alcohol, no nuts) served by the ultimate N7 fans Vera Yu and @Laydee_Tea who probably saw their 693rd show of Roger and the boys. On the next day I had the pleasure to be the band bus driver to Stuttgart where the girls rocked the sold-out house and jammed with Roger backstage before saying Farewell around midnight. We arrived in Freiburg around 4 am, knackered but happy. Find many more pics and a backstage video of the Naturally Boxettes meeting at the Vocal Blog Facebook group. And be sure to check out the blog post Roger Thomas dedicated to The Boxettes shortly after the two shows in Germany.

Finally the group had the opportunity to present their show at the Kulturbörse Freiburg in the 1st A Cappella Special presented by SpielPlanVier and magenta concerts. The triple showcase featured Freiburg local heroes Acoustic Instinct, a beatbox-impro-comedy duo, The Boxettes and Dutch a cappella comedy pop act, iNtrmzzo (currently participating in the Dutch version of The Sing-Off). What a night! The house was packed, the stage looked great and the audience was enthusiastic how different and colourful contemporary a cappella can be. It goes without saying that this all ended up in a nice little Dutch-German-British after show party.

On our way home we were so hungry that we stopped at the nearest fast food restaurant and when we had eaten, we realized that the girl’s wireless equipment was gone…you should have seen Trevor’s face at that particular moment. But two phone calls and a friendly chat with a Freiburg cab driver later made him all smiles. All the stuff was found and returned, which meant that The Boxettes weren’t broke before their career took off.

And that’s  the end of this first chapter of my Boxettes story – great stuff (quote Neo)! And thanks so much, Tobi, for keep pushing me. Let’s keep pushing vocal music to ever new areas and helping talents like Neo, Yvette, Belle, Alyusha and Rhiannon to  get on with their careers.

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Have you seen The Boxettes live? What do you think makes them special? Would you call their music a cappella at all?

Let me know what you think, I’m looking forward to your comments!

by Florian Städtler

January 2011 – what a month! Never before have I experienced such intense days meeting musicians, talking to movers and shakers, of watching world-class ensembles live and hanging out with them after workshops, masterclasses and shows. “Vocal Blog on tour”, the face-to-face part of the Vocal Blog project is pure inspiration: You meet the people who sing to make a living and those who would (almost) die to see the best of the best. Compared to events like Sojam (USA), Festival für Vokalmusik Leipzig (GER, hosted by amarcord), Solevoci (ITA), Hannover A Cappella (GER), Vokal.Total (AUT), Voice Mania (AUT), Vokal Total (GER) and The Vocal Jazz Summit (GER), London A Cappella rather is a newbie. Like The Real Festival (hosted by The Real Group/SWE) and Aarhus Vocal Festival (hosted by Vocal Line/DK), London A Cappella is hosted by an international a cappella top act, the Swingle Singers. Here’s a little report of my week-long trip Freiburg-Basel-London-Northampton-London-Cologne-Freiburg.

>> Tuesday, Jan 11

- 6pm:  illegally parking my car near Freiburg station, catching the shuttle bus to EuroAirport Basel-Freiburg-Mulhouse

- 6:30pm: trying to eat a yoghurt whilst responding to some e-mails on my iPad and failing at not smearing the touchscreen

- 7:30pm: arriving at Terminal 1, well there is only one, so it’s rather THE terminal, checking in rather my heavy suitcase

- 7:42pm: buying loads of duty-free Swiss chocolate for the Ikon Arts team and the Swingles ladies

- 7:55pm: Working at Gate 29 – a nice little Pages presentation about the future European a cappella infrastructure

- 8:25pm: Presentation almost finished, boarding cattle class EasyJet flight to London, well almost: Gatwick it is

- 8:55pm: Take-off, almost but not quite on time, listening to Mouth-off podcast episodes of the past. #hilarious

- 9:25pm: Touchdown, yeah, England, I love to be back. Wondering about how much international roaming will cost me this time

- 9:44pm: Thanks to foolproof instructions by the wonderful Ikon Arts office team, I’m NOT boarding Gatwick Express but some other train and thus saving truckloads of money, which I can spend in more Swiss duty-free chocolate next time I come to see female a cappella singers

- 10:30pm: Arrival at King’s Cross/St. Pancras, the London’s Northern train station. Haven’t eaten much since I’ve spilled my yoghurt over my iPad, so I’m grabbing some delicious British station snack to prepare myself for the march to the hotel + the welcome beer at a pub “quite close to King’s Cross, down the street to King’s Place”

- 10:50pm: Finally found my hotel, deciding to think of running around the block with my heavy suitcase twice as a deliberate extra workout, taking a speed shower and almost without any detour entering the pub to find a whole bunch of singers, conductors and aca-people: Tobias Hug (The Swingle Singers), Jo Eteson (The Swingle Singers), Willy Eteson (former Swingles tenor), Peder Karlsson (former The Real Group baritone), Sara Brimer (The Swingle Singers), Clare Wheeler (The Swingle Singers), Neo Jessica Joshua (The Boxettes), Kevin Fox (The Swingle Singers), Katie Birtill, Oliver Griffiths (The Swingle Singers), Lucy Bailey (The Swingle Singers) and many more friendly folks who keeping me from paying for my drinks until we left. Rumour had it that Clare and Tobi were successful in convincing Jussi Chydenius, bass with Rajaton, to fly in from Helsinki later during the festival.

- 1:15am: Tobi taking Peder to his place, the rest catching the last bus home and me returning to my hotel round the corner, being not particularly drunk.

>> Wednesday, Jan12

- 7:15am: Getting up and ready for a little run around windy, rainy London town. Ended up at Covent Garden, asking for King’s Cross direction only once during my way back.

- 8:15am: Breakfast, unfortunately continental breakfast, unfortunately rather bad continental breakfast, unfortunately in an overheated, overcrowded cellar room with no daylight and a waitress yelling at clients “Toast? Two slices!?” #quickbreakfast

- 9:45am: Trying to find out how to get to a Tube station called Rotherhithe (that’s where Swingles tenor CJ lives). Clerk neither being able to  pronounce it nor to find it on the map. Eventually finding it myself and explaining it to her. #service

- 11am: Meeting with The Swingle Singers – discussing future plans and strategy. So interesting to get direct feedback from the eight of them. Very helpful, thank you! By the way: Since I’ve been working for the group they were always good, but the group of today is fantastic, full of energy, determination and creativity. #proudagent

- 1:35pm: Back on the Tube. After changing trains I’m seeing a woman that looks almost exactly like Lucy. Same hair, same shoes, same jacket, same make-up, same bag, it’s amazing.

The one and only Lucy Bailey - with a nerdy camouflage

- 1:36pm: Saying hello to Lucy. And goodbye having to get out of that train at King’s Cross. Taking the completely wrong way out (again).

- 1:51pm: Starving. Regretting not to having eaten from the infamous Swingles #morningditty cookie box at CJ’s place.

- 1:53pm: Last resort King’s Cross station supermarket. While I’m trying to not throw down two apples, a banana, my credit card and two pseudo-healthy muesli bars, my mobile is ringing. It’s Peder Karlsson. He’s calling from Islington and can’t find the Business Design Center: “Florian, have you got the adress?”

- 1:55pm: Dropping one apple, two muesli bars and an iPhone, the latter surviving the crash. Telling Peder the adress and agreeing on meeting at Ikon Arts/Swingles office at 3pm.

- 3pm: Discussing world domination with Peder. Costa Peristianis, Swingles agent, and his three lovely ladies are taking care of the duty- but not exactly calories free gifts from Basel Airport.

- 4:25pm: World domination is imminent. Very important result of our very heated discussion: They serve excellent tea at the Business Design Center and we of course we have to to it all much better, quicker and more successful than the Americans. #topsecret

- 5:25pm: Departing to King’s Place, getting excited and in festival mood. #vocalblogontour

- 5:55pm: Entering the lobby of King’s Place. Bumping into dozens of singers, aca-vips, old and not-so-old friends. Happiness, fun, pleasure!

Costa Peristianis & FSt

- 7:30pm: The Oxford Gargoyles open the evening after some superman-ish announcement and tongue-in-cheek welcome to London A Cappella No.2 brought to Hall 1 by CJ and Kevin of the curating Swingle Singers. (Again the college group’s name is reminding me of the galactic hitchhiker’s favourite drink, the Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster…#veryverycareful)

- 8:00pm: The Real Group live in London. I will later learn that this was actually the first gig with that particular programme featuring the new line-up: Morten Vinther Sorensen (replacing Peder Karlsson as baritone) and Emma Nielsdotter (returning from maternity leave). This concert will result in a phenomenal review by The Times. 80 minutes of top-notch a cappella originals and covers, TRG is a unique work of vocal music art. Thank you for the music!

The Real Group's Anders Jalkeus & Emma Nilsdotter

- 10pm: After three encores, including the hilarious “Cocktails for Two” and the epic Peder Karlsson composition “Gota”, Anders Edenroth temporarily cannot find his suit (which Emma took to the hotel), legends meet in the lobby and the Swingles crew is announcing the name of the pub, where the after show party will take place.

- 10:35pm: Everybody’s there, it’s amazing. Almost as amazing as the fact that again, I’m not able to pay for one single drink or at least a package of peanuts. #freeloader

- 0:00am: We have to move to another room at the same pub. #british

- can’t remember am: Going home, respectively the hotel. Remembering that we will go to Northampton tomorrow, on my first tour with The Real Group. #excited

- zzz, zzz… (to be continued soon)

Willy Eteson, Jo Eteson, Morten Vinther, Florian Städtler, Peder Karlsson, Clare Wheeler, Janne Apelholm, Anders Jalkeus

Tobias Hug, FSt, Anders Jalkeus - hitting a low note (I like it - gefällt mir!)

The Real Vocal Blog, The Real Lucy, The Real Anders Edenroth

Have you been to London A Cappella, too? Let me know what you liked best, who you met and which concerts you won’t forget.

Or maybe write a blog post about your favourite festival experience, no matter where or when? Go ahead, looking forward to your articles!

And don’t forget: The next “vocal summit”, the place to be for everybody who really is into vocal, a cappella and rhythmic choral music is Aarhus Vocal Festival, May 6-9 in Aarhus, Denmark. Check out all the details and the fantastic line-up featuring Bobby McFerrin + Vocal Line, Basix, Pust and many more at www.aavf.dk. This will also be a unique opportunity to meet movers, shakers and acastars like Jens Johansen, Jim Daus Hjernoe, Holger Wittgen, Peter Martin Jacob, Jake Moulton and many more. Vocal Blog will be on tour and on a very special European networking mission, more details soon to come. So make sure you’re going to make it to Aarhus in May, it will be a blast!