Six Appeal Wins The PNW Harmony Sweepstakes

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Six Appeal entertains the audience with "I Will Walk 500 Miles"

By Laurie O’Brien

A six man a cappella group from Minneapolis, Minnesota came into town and stole the show and the top prize at the annual Pacific Northwest Harmony Sweepstakes Competition held at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday night.  They will represent the region at the 2012 National Championships in San Rafael, California this May.

AM 1240 KGY DJ Smilin Jay served as the emcee for the evening.  He has served in this capacity for a number of years now and has become a huge a cappella fan in the process.  “The ability to do on-the-fly a cappella, tight, close harmonies is such an art form.  When you sit in the audience and realize that all the music you’re hearing on stage is nothing but the human voice, it’s indescribable,” said Smilin Jay.

The official hosts for the evening were last year’s winners, The Baud Boys, a group of eight men all of whom work or have worked for Microsoft.

Seven groups with a broad spectrum of musical genres, sounds, and presentation styles competed this year.  Each group was scored by a panel of four judges.  50% of the score is musicianship; 50% is showmanship.  For many in the audience, the singing this year was the most consistent it’s been in recent memory.  Each group brought a different style and sound to the stage, and each had some great musical moments. For the audience and judges alike, it came down to showmanship.

The Wild Rose Chorale was the first competitor to take to the stage.  A nine person group from Port Townsend, Wild Rose Chorale has both male and female members.  Because Harmony Sweeps rules limit the number of singers on stage to eight, one of the female members rotated out on each song.  The musical highlight of Wild Rose Chorale’s ten minute set was an a cappella arrangement of The William Tell Overture.

5bit is an all-male a cappella group from Marysville.  Many of them started singing together as students at Shoreline Community College.  A five-voice rendition of Maroon 5’s current single “Moves Like Jagger” had the audience dancing in their seats.

Strangers in Harmony from Beaverton, Oregon have competed at the PNW Sweeps before as a quintet.  This year they sang as a quartet and had the audience in stitches with their version of “White Bread,” a rap song extolling the virtues of Wonder Bread.

A four part arrangement of Aerosmith’s “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” was the highlight for The Uptown 4 out of Renton, Washington.

The final three contestants proved to be the most dynamic and entertaining groups of the evening.

Rezonate, a six man group from the Willamette Valley down in Oregon, are past winners of the PNW Sweeps and have placed as high as third at the national competition.  This year they took third place on the regional stage with a tender rendition of the current hit “Jar of Hearts” and the upbeat classic “I Just Want to Celebrate.”

Weird Al’s “Since You’ve Been Gone” as performed by the second place group,  Bodacious Ladyhood, received one of the strongest ovations from the sold out crowd at the Washington Center.  The trio of women has been performing all over the Puget Sound area for the past decade and recently represented the region as guests on “A Prairie Home Companion.”  This was their first time to compete at the Sweepstakes, and according to member Loretta Deranleau Howard, the group was thrilled to place as high as they did, and are already contemplating a return trip next year.

In addition to winning the grand prize, airfare and accommodations to the national finals, Six Appeal won both the best arrangement award for “I Will Survive” and the best original song award for “On Your Love.”   The group also won the highly coveted audience favorite and brought down the  house with an over-the-top version of The Proclaimers “I Will Walk 500 Miles.”

Hosts The Baud Boys, emcee Smilin Jay, and all the groups end the night with "Good Night Sweet Heart"

Although the Harmony Sweeps is not officially associated with television program “The Sing Off,” many of the groups who compete in the regional and national competitions have gone on to participate on the NBC show.  CJ Mickens of Rezonate said, “The Sing Off has done so much for a cappella, so a lot of younger people are getting into it.”  He noted that you don’t have to be restricted to one certain style of music to sing without instrumental accompaniment.  Classical, barbershop, modern, pop, jazz, even rap – anything goes.

The National Harmony Sweepstakes have been held since 1985.  The Pacific Northwest Harmony Sweepstakes regional contest has been taking place since the mid-nineties.  It is held every year in mid-March at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts and is organized by Masterworks Choral Ensemble.  This year’s program was sponsored by Washington State Employees Credit Union and Mikael Kautsky, DDS PS.

To learn more about The Harmony Sweepstakes check out the following links:

http://www.harmony-sweepstakes.com/

http://www.harmony-sweepstakes.com/pacificnw.html

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