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2016 Top 10 Asia A Cappella News

Origin From: The VoiceBox
Author: A for acappella 情报站、vocalbox、The VoiceBox
Date (Published on): 2016.12.24

Compiled by A for A Cappella News (HK), Vocalbox (TW) and The VoiceBox (SG) from a list of 30-over newsworthy happenings, the two-week long poll concluded with enthusiastic voters voting for their TOP 10 out of 12 shortlisted.

List is in no particular order.

● Gili 織樂 (Taiwan) swept multiple wins across Asia this year at: 2016 Vocal Asia Festival – Asia Cup, Champions (Organized by Vocal Asia) Taiwan International Contemporary A Cappella Competition, Champions for Domestic and International categories. (Organized by the TCMC台灣合唱音樂中心) Hong Kong A Cappella Competition, Open Category Champions.

● Hong Kong’s 一舖清唱 Yat Po Singers has conferred the 2015 Arts Development Award awarded by the Hong Kong government.

● In September, AKA A CAPPELLA, a vocal festival (Singapore) presents the inaugural Asia-Pacific A Cappella Championships League which featured 6 groups, of which Acapellago (Philippines) championed the competition, followed by Drums of War (Australia) and 斑馬線 Popphone Singers -A Cappella Group (Taiwan) in Second and Third place respectively.

● 斑馬線 Popphone Singers -A Cappella Group (Taiwan) also made waves by releasing an album 13 (also marking the 13th cohort for this university-based group). Adding to their joy was the selection of a track, Olive Tree (橄欖樹) into the latest SING 13 compilation by CASA – The Contemporary A Cappella Society. Upon this line up’s graduation, they’ll rebrand themselves as B-MAX 馬克筆人聲樂團.

● 問樂團 Guess What (Taiwan) got nominated for 2 categories at CASA – The Contemporary A Cappella Society’s newest award, the A Cappella Video Awards. The group is nominated for Best Video by a Professional Group and Best Jazz Video.

● Pentatonix made more stops this year in Asia, with maiden concert stops in Taiwan and Hong Kong, whereas their Singapore pitstop (pun intended) was for the Singapore Grand Prix as stage acts alongside major acts like Imagine Dragons, Adam Lambert, etc..

● Singapore’s very own MICappella joins the Universal Music family in 2016, also releasing their latest album, MICappella Reloaded.

● 尋人啟事人聲樂團 The Wanted Vocal Band (Taiwan) competed at the second VoiceJam A Cappella Festival (USA) and emerged as champions, also bagging Best Vocal Percussionist and Most Popular Act.

● 國際阿卡貝拉音樂藝術節在臺東 2016 Vocal Asia Festival in Taitung gathered all participants and clinicians to put together a special tribute “Voice Will Guide You“ to Taitung in wake of the typhoon that devastated the town. Also, this year’s Master Vocal group is Cuba’s Vocal Sampling, other clinicians (Michele Weir, Ray Yl Chu, and Kwok-tung Fung) also took time out to present lessons relevant to vocal groups.

● Philippines’ longest-running A Cappella competition Akapela Open opens an International Category, with 두왑사운즈 – DooWop Sounds (Korea) and Guess What (Taiwan) as finalists. Championing the competition was Astrafellas (Philippines), while DooWop Sounds came third.

By Popular Note

This year’s vote featured a section where the public was asked what they feel should join the ranks of 2016 Top 10 Asia A Cappella News. After sieving through, these are what The VoiceBox selects as Top 10 worthy to be our HONORARY ELEVENTH!

 - Many happenings at TCMC台灣合唱音樂中心:

● At the 2016 Taiwan International Contemporary A Cappella Competition, Gili 織樂’s place as International category Champions is a first in the category’s history since 2005, where so far, non-local teams have championed the category, while Taiwanese groups also shared the remaining two places with international teams in the same category: Czech group Skety and 純粹人聲樂團 The Pure (Taiwan) shared second place, while Guess What took third place with Japan’s Murasakinoue.

● Visually-impaired A Cappella 蝦米視障人聲樂團 The Bleinders (Taiwan) charmed audiences in Graz at their invitational performance at vokal.total in July. Upon returning, the team wowed local Taiwanese audiences and government officials.

Editorial Notes

As ProfRed and TheFounder deliberated alongside the committee with the two other agencies, we are glad that more news from other parts of Asia has been well regarded.

With this year’s voting included strong entrants from China, Philippines, Malaysia, and Korea, we hope more in Asia will step up in activity to create more awareness for the art form, creating a vibrant and diverse community.

We’d like to thank A for A Cappella News and VocalBox for the chance again to be on the panel, and we would take this opportunity to thank everybody who has taken part in the poll and we hope to see through another round for 2017 Top 10 Asia A Cappella News!

 

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