TOWNIES DO BOSS
Over the weekend of April 13-15, several members of Fermata Town attended [BOSS], the Boston Sings a cappella festival organized by the Contemporary A Cappella Society of America (CASA). Dan, Philipp, Katya, Sarah & Peter were able to soak in Boston’s inaugural a cappella festival, loving every minute of it! The weekend kicked off on Friday with a VIP cocktail hour at Foundry on the Elm in Somerville, Mass. Fortunately for the Townies, Dan was able to secure a VIP ticket to schmooze with some of the biggest names in the a cappella industry with the help of a YouTube submission, declaring why he was the ‘Boss’. If you missed it, check it out his video here.
Following the reception, the VIP’s headed over to the Regent Theater in Arlington, Mass. for the main event on the night which featured the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards (CARA’s) and the Collegiate Competition. The BOSS team did an amazing job of collaborating the CARA’s with the Competition so that in between the performances by the six college groups, some favorites in the a cappella scene presented the CARA awards including a cappella legend Deke Sharon (via a video feed), Jo Vinson from Delilah & Musea and Alfredo Austin from Overboard & Blueprint.
One of the more notable CARA’s went to Redline, an all-male group based out of Boston. The local boys took home some hardware, winning the CARA for best Contemporary A Cappella League (CAL) album with their newly released CD, Inbound.
While it was great to honor and recognize the amazingly talented year for a cappella music, the College Competition was equally as amazing with six great groups including Mind the Gap from the University of Oregon, MIT’s Logarhythems, Men in Drag and Voices in Your Head from U. of Chicago, Ithacappella from Ithaca College and The Nor’easters from Northeastern University.
All the groups were amazing but the Nor’easters and Voices in Your Head both put on incredible sets to make the judges’ decision very difficult to crown the BOSS 2012 champion. The nod went to Voices in Your Head but no one would have been surprised if the Nor’easters took home the crown because both sets were full of exciting choreography, high energy arrangements and passionate solos that wowed everyone in the packed crowd.
The weekend continued on, starting up at 8:00 AM on Saturday with the workshop portion of the program. Every hour for the majority of the morning and afternoon, several different workshops were offered with a wide variety of topics ranging from in-studio soloing to licensing to planning a tour. The five of us were able to spilt up and attend almost every session that was offered, getting to tune in specifically to the workshops that interested us the most.
The real treat of BOSS would take place later on Saturday evening at the professional showcase that featured Redline, Traces and Cadence.
Redline showed everyone why they won the CARA for the best CAL CD, putting on a killer 20 minute set before handing over the mics to Traces, a NYC based all-female professional group. Fermata Town had never heard of Traces prior to BOSS but wow, they certainly got our attention! These five ladies had some serious soul and were all holding it down on stage for an electrifying set that ended with a standing ovation. Cadence closed out the night and what a treat that was, hearing some of the tightest, smoothest harmonies in a cappella from our Canadian neighbors.
We were unfortunately unable to attend the Sunday workshops because we were in the studio recording for our own album, but who knows, maybe next year Fermata Town will be fortunate enough to be considered for some CARA’s!
In the meantime, we’re just going to keep working our butts off in the studio so we can put a CD in your hands sooner than later!
