2019 Asian Cup A Cappella Competition
Asian Cup A Cappella Competition has been held during the Vocal Asia Festival since 2012. It is one of the biggest A Cappella competitions in the world with an outstandingly high level. The competition aimed not only to promote contemporary A Cappella music, but also to ignite singers’ passion toward A Cappella. Through the competition, the talented A Cappella groups around Asia will get the chance to present the music and culture of their own countries.
In order to develop contemporary A Cappella music and encourage people to refine and share their music, Vocal Asia is organizing the Asian Cup A Cappella competition. We hope to ignite singers’ passion through this competition. Plus, aside from receiving the prize of 3,000 USD, the champion will be invited to Shanghai A Cappella Festival in 2020.
Date : August 9, 2019
Time : 17:30-20:30
Location : Grand Hall, Rexxam Hall (Kagawa Prefectural Hall)
Tickets : Free admission for audiences
The contestants :
Resound (China)
Whale’s Garden (Korea)
Nagie Lane (Japan)
太陽雨教師清唱團 Sunrain (China)
はらけーじ Harake-ji (Japan)
Groundbreaker@HKMM (Hong Kong)
Voctronica (India)
Acapellago (Philippines)
(Listed in competition order)
The Jury :
Jim Daus Hjernøe (Denmark)
Joanna Goldsmith-Eteson (The Swingles, UK)
Jon Smith (The Swingles, UK)
Junko Kamei (Japan)
Peter Lane (USA)
(Listed in alphabetical order)
Guest Performer
Business Casual (US)
(2019 VoiceJam Champion)
Business Casual is an a cappella band based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. Using only their voices, this young vocal group puts a fresh spin on vintage chart toppers and today’s hits. Winners of the San Francisco regional Harmony Sweepstakes a cappella competition in 2015 and 2017 and champions of the VoiceJam competition in 2019, Business Casual has performed at weddings, corporate events, and live public shows throughout the Bay Area since 2012.
Website: www.bcvocals.com
EXIT (KR)
(2019 VAF Promotion Ambassador)
EXIT is one of the few voice bands in Korea, which was founded in 2008. EXIT's music entices audience's to escape the boring routine of daily life. When they start, most of them have known each other since high school, when they were all choir members. They have released four singles and one mini album with their own personal pieces. You will be impressed by their hilarious and captivating lyrics which are not only about love, but also about other daily issues which most of us can resonate with.
Website: www.vbexit.com
The contestants of Asian Cup A Cappella Competition
Resound (CN)
Resound Vocal Group was established by a group of graduates and undergraduates from conservatory of music of Guangzhou in 2012. By means of several years’ shaping and rough development, the group is becoming more sophisticated, and it’s marching toward a field that is higher and more professional.
Honour:
1.“The 5th National A Cappella Competition”—“Runner-up”,”The best lead singer”,”The best Orchestrations”.
2.“The 1st Choir Festival of Guangzhou Opera House”—“Silver Award” of A cappella team.
3.”Guangzhou Bands Competition”of Guangzhou Publicity Department—“Gold Award”.
4.”Kugou Dream of Campus’Star”—“Overall Winner Award”.
5.”Master Kong Fresh New Voice National Group Competition”—“Overall Winner Award of South China”.
6.”The 7th Higher Education Institutions Talent Show of Guangdong”—“Overall Winner Award”.
Whale’s Garden (KR)
Whale’s Garden is a mixed a cappella group from Republic of Korea, consisting of five members: Hyunjeong Jang, Soyeon Park, Changjun Baek, Sunghyun Chun, and Hyunchul Jang.
The Group was founded in the year of 2017, but it did not take long to get their feet on the firm ground because most of the members have professional vocal background. Currently the group is performing at the local festivals and live clubs around Seoul.
Nagie Lane (JP)
We are Nagie Lane, formed with 5 female and male Japanese members in 2018 and has ever since been active mainly in Shibuya, creating melodies only with our voices, influenced by the 70's City Pop Genre.
太陽雨教師清唱團 Sunrain (CN)
Sun Rain Teacher Chorus was founded on December 16th, 2015 and it is the first A Cappella chorus in Dalian. The chorus has two teams: team one has 9 members and team two has 8 members——all of them are music teachers. Ever since the chorus was founded, each teacher has held the educational belief that flowers should be cultivated with dew. All the members make full use of their spare time to do hard training and practising in order to transform their personal skills into teaching abilities, which will benefit more students. So far, Sun Rain Teacher Chorus has launched 11 works. In 2018, it has given performances in CCTV Chorus Gala, Dalian Internet Spring Festival Gala, Dalian TV New Year’s Eve Concert. It has won the first prize in The Eighth National A Cappella Competition.
はらけーじ Harake-ji (JP)
Nice to meet you, everyone. We, Harake-ji come from University of Tsukuba. We start our running on January, 2018. We have joined many a cappella events and competitions, and got the highest award in the Datenamati Yonntyoume a cappella street 2018, which is held in Sendai annually. We sing songs of love, especially the situation of which is a separation from someone you loved. We hope you feel something through our performance.
Groundbreaker@HKMM (HK)
Founded by 6 experienced singers in Hong Kong in 2017, Groundbreaker@HKMM is an uprising vocal group. With a repertoire of strong beat music like Electronic Dance Music, they commit to unveil the endless possibilities of the human voices. Recently, in addition to their presence in the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, they also performed for the FIVB Volleyball Nations League in HK Coliseum, 2018 & 2019 HKFYG International a cappella Festival - a cappella Extravaganza in Queen Elizabeth Stadium, and performed in the 2018 Vocal Asia Festival held in Taiwan, all with unparalleled receptions.
Voctronica (IN)
Voctronica is a versatile all-vocal ensemble that combines a cappella, beatboxing and other innovative vocal tones to make music with a modern sound. This band is one of the first of its kind in India doing an evolved vocal style of music professionally since 2013. The band was set up by world renowned beatboxer, Shlomo (UK), along with MC Testament (UK) in collaboration with British Council (UK). Comprising of a melodious blend of beat-boxers, Indian classical, pop, blues and rock vocalists, Voctronica bring to you the real power of the human voice. Our live performance showcases a mix of originals along with popular English and Hindi covers presented in a highly interactive performance and the band has developed a sound and style that is unique, drawing from an eclectic set of musical genres.
We are currently a 6 member band based out of Mumbai, and actively perform all over India. We perform at corporate events and public events like music festivals or live music venues. We have been in the circuit for nearly 5 yrs now and have had the opportunity to perform on TV, and recently participated in the Moscow Spring A Cappella Festival 2019.
Acapellago (PH)
Acapellago is one of the most influential pop a cappella groups in the Philippines today. The group leads in winning top prizes in local and international a cappella competitions in Singapore, Taiwan, China, Austria, Russia and the Philippines. They are a 2-time Awit Awards awardees for their original songs “Stars Are Aligned” and “Peroplano; and 3-time Ani Ng Dangal recipients for three consecutive years since 2016. They are the only Philippine pop a cappella group to interpret at the Philippine Popular Music Festival (Philpop) twice, and to produce a physical and digital CD under Viva Records Inc. Currently, they are the endorsers of Ming’s Pei Pa Koa, and Rebisco Combi Biscuits for three years now. As they believe in the magic of harmony, they continue to be ambassadors of contemporary pop a cappella music, spreading the genre all over the world.
Regulation
⊙ About the competition
Asian Cup A Cappella Competition has been held during the Vocal Asia Festival since 2012. It is one of the biggest A Cappella competitions in the world with an outstandingly high level. The competition aimed not only to promote contemporary A Cappella music, but also to ignite singers’ passion toward A Cappella. Through the competition, the talented A Cappella groups around Asia will get the chance to present the music and culture of their own countries.
⊙ Qualification
1. The competition is open to everyone; it is not required to register the Vocal Asia Festival.
2. All singers should be 18 years old or above, each group is made up from 3 to 8 members.
3. Each group is required to pay the Entry Fee of $50 USD for preliminary selection.
⊙ Jury
The jury consists of the instructors from the festival and other professional judges.
⊙ Attentions
1. Please read this notice and fill out the application form thoroughly.
2. Each group should send 2 high quality videos or rehearsal audio files recorded in the past 3 months for preliminary selection (web links of videos are acceptable). Please note that pitch and time editing is not allowed.
3. 8 groups at most will be selected to enter the final competition. The result will be announced on June 12, and please confirm your attendance before June 19.
4. The final groups should send the scores in JPG or PDF file to [email protected] before June 26. (The group should be responsible for all copyright issue.)
5. Each group has one chance to change the competition song list and singers (no more than one third of the group members) before June 26. No changes will be accepted after the deadline.
6. For groups that will bring their own equipment, please provide the tech list before June 26.
7. Singers are not permitted to participate in more than 1 group.
8. The competition order and mic sheet sample will be provided on July 10, and please return the mic sheet before July 22. Please note that no mic sheets will be accepted after the deadline, the group that doesn’t hand in the sheet will need to do microphone settings within the 15 minutes sound check time.
9. Sound check will be held on the competition day (15 mins per group). The detailed schedule will be provided 2 weeks prior to the competition. Please make sure to be present for your sound check.
10. Please hand in all required materials on time, or it may affect your competition rights.
⊙ Regulations
1. Number of singers: 3-8 per group. 8 handheld wireless microphones will be provided.
2. The time limit for each group is 12 minutes (no limitation for number of songs). All songs should be in 3 or more different voice parts.
3. There is no limitation on song selections, but it is encouraged to include songs that could represent the “signature” or “style” of your culture and country.
4. The competition is judged on a point basis. Group that a) reaches over 90 points and/or b) gets the highest score will be the champion.
5. A timekeeper will be started upon the pitch is given. The penalty for each exceeding 30 second is 0.5 point; 60 second is 1 point, and so on.
6. The contestant should take care of all copyright issues of the scores. The organizer will not take any responsibility on copyright issue.
7. Groups are allowed to bring ONE sound engineer. During the sound check and the competition, the sound engineer is allowed to operate the mixing console under the supervision of the organization’s chief sound engineer. Related information of the sound equipment will be provided 3 weeks prior to the competition.
8. Groups are allowed to use their equipment, operated by their sound engineer during the sound check and the competition. Please provide the tech list before June 26. The setting time will be scheduled on the morning/afternoon of August 9, please make sure to be present for it.
9. Groups which use IEM during the competition, please note it is allowed to give a sign in click or pitch through IEM. However, cue-tracks and click tracks are not allowed.
10. Groups which use loop station during the competition, please note pre-recorded vocal tracks are not allowed.
11. There will be no light effects during competition.
12. The competition order will be determined by means of drawing lots, and the result will be announced via Vocal Asia Festival website.
13. Groups dropping out for anything other than unforeseen circumstances will not receive a refund.
⊙ Rights and duties
1. The champion must perform in Gala Concert on August 11.
2. The champion will be invited to Shanghai A Cappella Festival in 2020.
3. The group who wins VoiceJam Award will be invited to the VoiceJam Festival (USA) in 2020.
4. Participants are not allowed to record/video during the competition.
5. Participants are not allowed to acclaim any right of the recording, videotapes and photography of all the activities mentioned above. The organizer reserves all rights of making edits and publications of the activities through media.
6. Judges will be available for comments directly after the competition. No written comments will be provided.
7. It is understood that each group participates in this competition fully accepts the rules and regulations above.
⊙ Judging Criteria
⊙ Prizes
Note :
1. The payment of prize, except for the 1st Prize, will be made in cash after the competition, and each group should assign a representative to receive the prize.
2. The payment of the 1st Prize may only be claimed when the winner group performs in the Gala Concert on August 11, and it will be received after the concert.
3. If two or more groups win the same prize, the award will be equally shared.
4. The winner of VoiceJam Award will be determined by the VoiceJam Artistic Director.
5. Price of the VoiceJam Award may only be claimed after completed the memorandum with the organizer before October 31, 2019.
- Please check here for competition regulation.
Application
1. Registration Time: March 5, 2019 - May 24, 2019 (GMT+8, Taiwan Standard Time).
2. Competition Application Form and Entry Fee must be received before May 24, 2019.
3. Please click here to download the competition application form, and send the required materials to [email protected] before the deadline.
- Please check here for competition regulation.
Payment
Please click here for the application form.
1. The Entry Fee is $50 USD/per group.
2. The payment shall be made by Paypal.
3. Please note that the price does not include handling fees.
4. The Entry Fee cannot be refunded except under circumstances whereby the entry is rejected by the organizer.
5. No refund will be made if the group fails to pass the preliminary selection.
6. Application will be confirmed only upon VA has successfully received the Entry Fee for competition.
7. No other payment is required for the final competition.