The London A Cappella Festival is an annual series of concerts based at

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. It has housed the editorial offices of ''The Guardian'' newspaper since December 2008 and is the for ...

, London, showcasing

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

acts from around the world, curated by the vocal group

The Swingle Singers 270px, The Swingles at the Black Forest Voices Festival in Kirchzarten, Germany">Kirchzarten.html" ;"title="Black Forest Voices Festival in Kirchzarten">Black Forest Voices Festival in Kirchzarten, Germany on 29 June 2019 The Swingles are a v ...

and Ikon Arts Management. The aim of the festival is to celebrate the human voice in all the wide-ranging musical forms; including

choral A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

singing,

beatbox Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.

, barbershop,

gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

close-harmony A chord is in close harmony (also called close position or close structure) if its notes are arranged within a narrow range, usually with no more than an octave between the top and bottom notes. In contrast, a chord is in open harmony (also c ...

, pop, and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

Inaugural Festival 2010

The inaugural festival ran from 13 to 16 January 2010 at Kings Place, the arts venue at Kings Cross. Musicians included early music ensemble

Stile Antico ''Stile antico'' (literally "ancient style", ), is a term describing a manner of musical composition from the sixteenth century onwards that was historically conscious, as opposed to '' stile moderno'', which adhered to more modern trends. ''Prim ...

, pop/jazz group

Voces8 Voces8, styled VOCES8, is an a cappella octet from England. They have appeared internationally and made recordings of classical music, jazz, pop, and their own arrangements. Recent recordings are for Decca Classics and under their own label, Voc ...

, Out of the Blue, London Adventist Chorale, and the

Swingle Singers 270px, The Swingles at the Black Forest Voices Festival in Kirchzarten, Germany">Kirchzarten.html" ;"title="Black Forest Voices Festival in Kirchzarten">Black Forest Voices Festival in Kirchzarten, Germany on 29 June 2019 The Swingles are a v ...

. Free foyer performances with groups such as The Oxford Gargoyles, and afternoon workshops made up the remainder of the festival programme.

2011 Festival

The second festival took place in January 2011 at

, curated again by the Swingle Singers and Ikon Arts Management. Headline acts included

The Real Group The Real Group is an a cappella group from Sweden. Members are Emma Nilsdotter, Lisa Östergren, Anders Edenroth, Anton Forsberg and Jānis Strazdiņš. The group's members compose and arrange most of their songs. They sing in English and Swedis ...

Witloof Bay Witloof Bay is a Belgian a cappella group. Biography In 2005 six friends who all shared a love of jazz, pop, a cappella and beatbox decided to perform as a group. They took their inspiration from The Real Group, Take 6, The Swingle Singers ...

(with

RoxorLoops Senjka Danhieux (born 28 April 1984, in Jette), better known under his stage name RoxorLoops, is a Belgian beatboxer and songwriter. He currently lives in Denmark, where he studied vocal leading and singing at the Royal Academy of Music in Aal ...

), the Swingle Singers, and the

London Bulgarian Choir The London Bulgarian Choir (LBC) is a London-based amateur choir specialising in Bulgarian folk music. Dessislava Stefanova has led the choir since its formation in 2000. Primarily a performing choir, the LBC perform around twenty concerts a ...

, Eclectic Voices, and Hertfordshire Chorus.

2012 Festival

The 2012 Festival featured the Vasari Singers directed by Jeremy Backhouse, The Boxettes featuring beatbox champion

Bellatrix Bellatrix is the third-brightest star in the constellation of Orion, positioned 5° west of the red supergiant Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis). It has the Bayer designation γ Orionis, which is Latinized to Gamma Orionis. With a slightly va ...

Cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (1999) ...

, the best of British Barbershop from Cottontown Chorus, London Vocal Project, The Swingle Singers and, making their London debut, Scandinavian group FORK. There were free foyer performances and workshops from vocal educators such as Pete Churchill.

2013 Festival

Headline acts included

The Magnets The Magnets are a five piece British a cappella group, comprising Callum McIntosh, Michael Conway, Nick Girard, Stevie Hutchinson, Ross Hunter and Mc Zani. Hobbit, Alfredo Austin III and Aaron J Boykin also perform with the group. The group for ...

(supported by

All the King's Men ''All the King's Men'' is a 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren. The novel tells the story of charismatic populist governor Willie Stark and his political machinations in the Depression-era Deep South. It was inspired by the real-life story of U.S ...

), the

King's Singers The King's Singers are a British a cappella vocal ensemble founded in 1968. They are named after King's College in Cambridge, England, where the group was formed by six choral scholars. In the United Kingdom, their popularity peaked in the 1 ...

and the festival hosts the Swingle Singers. Other headline acts included the Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Postyr, and Retrocity. The festival included workshops, foyer performances, lectures, and interactive events. The festival also marked the beginning of the London A Cappella International Summer School.

2014 Festival

Performers included

The House Jacks The House Jacks is a professional a cappella quintet from San Francisco, founded in 1991 by Deke Sharon. The House Jacks describe themselves as a "rock band without instruments", their live shows typically include not only singing but also vocall ...

(U.S.), The Real Group (Sweden), Slix (Germany), Backstep with

(UK), The Songmen (UK), Time Ensemble, Swingle Singers (UK) and the

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EPCC) is a professional choir based in Estonia. It was founded in 1981 by Tõnu Kaljuste, who was its conductor for twenty years. In 2001, Paul Hillier followed Kaljuste's tenure, becoming the EPCC's princip ...

(Estonia).

References

{{reflist

External links

Official site
Music festivals in London Annual events in London 2010 in London 2010 establishments in England Music festivals established in 2010 A cappella