A cappella group b vocal starts Korea tour
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Spanish a cappella quintet b vocal / Courtesy of SPA Entertainment
By Park Jin-hai
Spanish a cappella quintet b vocal will embark on a Korean tour, Wednesday.
For the sixth consecutive year, 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 under the concept of “Do It A Cappella!” at the Seoul Plaza Hotel, central Seoul.
The group’s repertoire spans from classics to pop to heavy metal.
As a finale to the concert the group will perform a medley of songs by Big Bang, b vocal’s favorite K-pop band.
“We choose songs, through which we can communicate and connect with our audiences. We try to find songs that the audiences would enjoy most,” the group said in a recent email interview with The Korea Times. “We also include our favorite songs, which we would like to share with the audience. One of our favorite pieces in the repertoire is our Korean medley.”
Formed in 1997 with five unlikely people from different professions ― lawyer, physics student, composer, countertenor and flamenco dance instructor ― the group’s music is full of diverse energy and on-stage humor.
“I am looking forward to sharing a whole new musical experience we have prepared specially for our Korean fans. Feeling, passion, rhythm mixed with a cappella b vocal humor,” said Carlos Marco, a former film music director who composes and beat boxes within the group.
Also featured in tonight’s concert will be popular tunes by Queen, Elton John, Bruno Mars, Guns and Roses, Bon Jovi and Enrique Iglesias as well as beat box and flamenco performances.
B vocal, known for its finesse in recreating the soundscape of any musical piece, held a week long stint on Broadway in 2011, which was followed by a U.S. tour. They perform around 200 concerts annually.
The members said that they have never regretted their decisions to walk out on their previous careers and follow their passion for music.
“It was our love for music that brought us together,” the members said. “b vocal is not only a group or a job … b vocal is a way and style of life, and, from the beginning of the group, my life also,” said Augusto Gonzalez, a former lawyer, and song-writer and composer for the group.
The greatest appeal for the music genre of a cappella they say comes from the harmony created between human voices, which can express the entire range of musical instruments. “There are so many sounds and people can mimic those sounds with greatest skills. But we think about how they are presented in the big picture of music,” they said. “We often say that let’s not be the musical instrument ourselves. When the harmony of the chorus is given too much emphasis, it is easy to make sound like an emotionless musical instrument.”
They said that unique “editing,” varied by the number of group members, their respective vocal ranges and formats of performance, can make the same a cappella song sound differently each time.
“We make a big show out of human voice. We will continue create more natural and synthetic sounds through a cappella and experiment with different genres, including musicals, opera, and popular music in order to create unique and creative music,” said the group.
Tickets for performances cost from 30,000 won to 100,000 won. For more information, call SPA Entertainment at (02) 523-5391.