A festival that celebrated the sheer joy of singing culminated in a jubilant concert at Stirling High School’s new music centre on Saturday evening.
About 50 young people from all over the city attended the Bloom A Cappella Festival at the weekend for a series of workshops on vocal techniques, performance practices and industry insights.
Dressed in uniform blue T-shirts and jeans, singers showed off what they had learned in a series of rousing contemporary a cappella songs workshopped over the long weekend.
Beat boxing and pitch-perfect harmonies made musical instruments obsolete as vocalists performed songs such as Hit the Road Jack, Fireflies and Rehab, and the talented Stirling Vocal Group sang Two Loves.
Singers were mentored by the city’s musicians Leoni Armour, Germaine Gamiet, Una Driver-Boon, Kerry Hiles, Nathan Johannisen, Jacques du Plessis, as well as Lynette Peterson from George.
They also received valuable vocal input from Samro Overseas scholarship award-winning singer Monique Hellenberg, who recorded the national number one single, This is How it Goes, with accomplished electro-funk outfit Goldfish. Hellenberg opened the festival last Wednesday night.
A brainchild of University of Fort Hare music lecturer Gamiet and Stirling music teacher Armour, the festival was first held two years ago, but Gamiet is angling to make it an annual event.
“It has been really fantastic. It’s a great opportunity for pupils to sing in a non-competitive environment,” said Gamiet after an upbeat finale which saw the festival participants and their mentors perform Here We Go, a Jacques du Plessis composition heard for the first time on Saturday night.
“The beauty of this is that pupils from all over East London, as well as music teachers and professionals, can sing together.”
George Randell pupil Khanyisile Bam, 17, said the festival had taught her how to breathe properly and sing circle songs, while Robin Castle, 17, of Stirling High said it had crystallised his goal to become a jazz singer. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
Love of singing a beautiful thing
About 50 young people from all over the city attended the Bloom A Cappella Festival at the weekend for a series of workshops on vocal techniques, performance practices and industry insights.
Dressed in uniform blue T-shirts and jeans, singers showed off what they had learned in a series of rousing contemporary a cappella songs workshopped over the long weekend.
Beat boxing and pitch-perfect harmonies made musical instruments obsolete as vocalists performed songs such as Hit the Road Jack, Fireflies and Rehab, and the talented Stirling Vocal Group sang Two Loves.
Singers were mentored by the city’s musicians Leoni Armour, Germaine Gamiet, Una Driver-Boon, Kerry Hiles, Nathan Johannisen, Jacques du Plessis, as well as Lynette Peterson from George.
They also received valuable vocal input from Samro Overseas scholarship award-winning singer Monique Hellenberg, who recorded the national number one single, This is How it Goes, with accomplished electro-funk outfit Goldfish. Hellenberg opened the festival last Wednesday night.
A brainchild of University of Fort Hare music lecturer Gamiet and Stirling music teacher Armour, the festival was first held two years ago, but Gamiet is angling to make it an annual event.
“It has been really fantastic. It’s a great opportunity for pupils to sing in a non-competitive environment,” said Gamiet after an upbeat finale which saw the festival participants and their mentors perform Here We Go, a Jacques du Plessis composition heard for the first time on Saturday night.
“The beauty of this is that pupils from all over East London, as well as music teachers and professionals, can sing together.”
George Randell pupil Khanyisile Bam, 17, said the festival had taught her how to breathe properly and sing circle songs, while Robin Castle, 17, of Stirling High said it had crystallised his goal to become a jazz singer. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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