REPORT FOR A CAPPELLA CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010

The A Cappella Championships ‘10 were held on 21-22 August at The Arts House Chamber and 23 August at Esplanade Recital Studio.

The first day at The Arts House hosted the Pop Choir category where the Filipino Voice Symphony, Singapore’s all-Filipino choral ensemble was crowned Champion of the category. This year marked the entry of full chorales like the Singapore Men’s Chorus into the competition.

As the event proceeded into the evening hours, we recorded a full house which saw fine performances throughout from all the groups in the College category. Soul 9 from Republic Polytechnic won the title as Champions. The prevalent opinion from the international judges and audience members was that the standard of A Cappella groups in Singapore has increased drastically and is very high as witnessed in the competition.

On 22 August was the High School and Open categories where we saw a wide range in the age of participating groups and still a rather low number of participants in the Open category as there has been a decline in interests for ensemble singing, much less for a cappella after most people leave their collegiate groups. The mixed-school team The V.O.calists and Malay-based Juz-B took the titles as High School and Open category winners respectively.

On 23 August was the International Category and Beatbox Battle at Esplanade Recital Studio, a first for us as we host 4 foreign teams from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia for the International Category. Taiwan’s jazz ensemble Green Onion proved winner with their all jazz repertoire and evening-wear costumes to match.

The first Beatbox Battle held by us was a success, having 5 very competent beatboxers who battled it out in a 2-stage, knockout round; followed by a Finals, where the remaining 4 contestants fight it out with another finalist to determine the title-winner. Kai (Hwang Kai Wen) emerged as 1st Runner Up, as Zack Arif was crowned Champion after a highly intensed 1-v-1 match before our esteemed judges.

Furthermore, the quality of singing over the period of the competition was high in general which strengthens our hope that the past work is bearing fruit and can be sustained in the future.