A cappella group celebrates 20 years with Korea tour
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b vocal / Courtesy of SPA Entertainment
By Kwon Ji-youn
A host of a cappella groups have been dazzling Korean fans, but one ensemble in particular stands out ― they’re Spanish, they’re hysterical and they’re among the rare group of foreign musicians with a website carrying pages in Korean.
For the fifth consecutive year, they’re bringing their extraordinary musical groove and on-stage humor to Seoul.
B vocal, the winners of the 2010 jury and audience awards at the Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival in New York, will start its Korea tour tonight at the Seoul Arts Center in southern Seoul with a program that spans pop through folk. At the end of the night, a special stage will treat fans to a medley of popular K-pop numbers that the quintet has been practicing and perfecting over the years.
“Every year, we perform medleys of popular Korean songs to show our audience our thanks for their love,” the group said in a recent e-mail interview with The Korea Times.
“It’s always been a challenge creating the mixes of Korean songs and practicing pronunciation, but the tour we prepared for the most ― of all our concerts ― is the Korean tour, so we practice a lot. We each have different tastes in music, so the K-pop artists we each like vary, but we all enjoy K-pop in general because it’s different and exciting.”
The members of b vocal had their own respective jobs when the group was first formed in 1997 ― Augusto pursued a career in law for four years before joining, and Fermin was studying physics in hopes of becoming a professor and scholar. The remaining three were working in the arts industry, but Carlos was a film music director and composer while Alberto was a countertenor. Juan Luis served as a professional flamenco dance instructor for over 17 years.
“But as our group became better known, we had to choose between our careers or music,” the members said. “We all chose music.”
After being conferred several awards at the Graz International Vokaltotal Festival in 2006 and the Harmony Sweepstakes in 2010, b vocal was invited by Broadway to hold a seven-day encore concert, which was followed by a U.S. tour. Over a solid career of 20 years, it has performed at more than 3,000 concerts.
“This was really memorable because not only were our concerts sold out, but we also learned how much the people in the U.S. enjoy a cappella music,” Augusto said.
In one voice, the members said that they have never regretted their decisions to walk out on their careers for music.
“It was our love for music that brought us together,” they said. “It has become a way of life and our freedom to create all kinds of music makes us unique and different in Spain.”
B vocal, reputed for their finesse in recreating the soundscape of any musical piece, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and the fifth anniversary of its Korea tour.
“We always appreciate the warm reception of the Korean audience and it pushes us to work harder to bring better concerts to Korea,” Fermin said. “The first time we came to perform at the Seoul Arts Center, after the concert we spent more time signing autographs and talking to fans about the concert than we did performing.”
The highlight of b vocal concerts comes when the members invite participants from the audience to join them on stage. Tonight, this particular number, “Proposal,” will be made up of three songs ― “Only You,” “Lady Marmalade” and “Marry You.”
“Another song that the audience can look forward to is our new Korean medley,” the members said. “As this year is the fifth year anniversary of our Korea tour, we put even more thought into our new mix and believe that the audience will find it really special and fun.”
Also featured at tonight’s concert titled “Be happy, b vocal!” will be songs by Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Adele and Lady Gaga, as well as musical numbers from “The Lion King,” “Jekyll & Hyde” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” among others.