2025 Participating Groups
 | | New York
Classic Sounds
If you close your eyes and think back to Murray the K, the Brooklyn Paramount, the street lights on Belmont Avenue, the boulevards of Bensonhurst, straphanging from a leather strap on your way to see "Dem Bums", Frankie, Dion, WMCA Good Guys, cruising the streets in a '56 Chevy with the windows cranked down, singing to the tunes on your portable AM radio, and a host of other good times, you'll know why "The Classic Sounds" sing DooWop. That's why a surgeon, a plumber, 2 teachers, and a musician can lean in close to each other, sing those back-up sounds that are second nature to us all, give you a little hand jive and a smile, and make you remember what "feel good" acappella music is all about.
Members: Julie Seda, Bob Seda, Gabriel Dassa, Alan Fennell, Steve Aversano
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Bay Area
Halfway to Midnight
Halfway to Midnight is a band of musical miscreants who serendipitously found each other in the midst of the great big beautiful Bay Area. Their life stories are as varied as their voices, yet they find common ground in their love of instrument-free music-making. These playful performers possess diverse backgrounds, united by an unbridled passion for making marvelous, mic'd-up music. For over a decade, Halfway to Midnight has blended their bright, bold, and brassy voices into irresistibly infectious a cappella grooves. Covering everything from sultry 70s soul, to contemporary pop/rock anthems, with unexpected mashups at every turn. Get ready to experience the electrifying energy of Halfway to Midnight!
Members: Scott Adler, Gonzalo Alonso, Michael Barrientos, LeAnn Duong, Vivek Saraswat, Elana Zizmor
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 | | Mid-Atlantic
Smoke Ring
Smoke Ring is a mixed voice barbershop and contemporary a cappella quartet based in New York, NY. Since their start in January 2023, they have taken the barbershop world by storm, having won the 2024 Mid-Atlantic District championship on their first go in a historical win as the first-ever mixed voice quartet to earn the championship title! And more recently, placing 9th in the world at their debut at the Barbershop Harmony Society s International quartet contest. They re currently the highest-ranked mixed voice quartet in the world.
Members: Stephanie Taglianetti, Becca Eckes, Gabriel Spector, Alexander Ronneburg
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Pacific Northwest
Verdant
Verdant is an award-winning professional a cappella group located in Eugene, Oregon. Established in 2016, our name is inspired by the lush greens of our home state. From our 2nd place win at Harmony Sweepstakes 2022, to creating our recent EP Daybreak, we imbue everything we do with our unique style and flair. Together we shape dynamic, compelling arrangements of songs from a variety of genres, including Top-40, indie pop, classic rock, and more.
Members: Cameron Graham-Mask, Cassidy Finch, Chad Lowe, Connor Eyler, David Fowler, Lexy Menjivar-Grueskin, Rami Holmes
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 | | Chicago
Vocalight
Vocalight is a 5 member a cappella group based out of Dayton, Ohio. All five members are former alumni of the High School A Cappella group, Forte. Vocalight started in 2017 and then broke up before coming back together in 2024 with 5 all new members and a completely updated sound. They look forward to continuing the legacy of the original group while also creating their very own brand new a cappella style.
Members: Natalie DiPietro, Cara DiPietro, Sydney Korpusik, Sammy Villalva, Joel Korpusik
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With Special Guests
2018 National Champions
Business Casual
| Business Casual is an a cappella band based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. Combining elements of pop, jazz, and other genres, this young all-vocal group puts a fresh spin on vintage chart toppers and today's hits. Winners of the National Harmony Sweepstakes a cappella competition in 2018, Business Casual has performed at weddings, corporate events, and live public shows throughout the Bay Area since 2012. |
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Your Emcee for the Evening 
Deke Sharon
| Heralded as “The Father of Contemporary A Cappella” Deke is a performer, arranger, music producer, author, producer and coach is credited by many as being responsible for the current sound of modern a cappella. While at college, he pioneered the dense vocal-instrumental sound that we today take for granted as the sound of contemporary a cappella. He is also contemporary a cappella’s most prolific arranger, having arranged over 2,000 songs, with over a thousand of them in print worldwide. He has written 6 books: “A Cappella Arranging” (2012), “A Cappella” (2015), “The Heart of Vocal Harmony” (2016), “A Cappella Warmups for Pop and Jazz Choir” (2017), “So You Want To Sing A Cappella” (2017) and “Teaching Music Through Performance In Contemporary A Cappella” (2020). |
2025 Judges
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Aaron Director
Aaron Director has been involved in a cappella music since the late 1980s and for the past twelve years has been fully immersed as founder and executive director of Acaville, a nonprofit dedicated to a cappella, with streaming radio, a video channel, event coverage, and more. That role has enabled him to sit down with groups across the decades, coach, and teach. As a singer, he has performed with opera companies and jazz combos, and lots in between. When his headphones aren't on, he spends time with his family just outside of Portland, Oregon. |
Reggie Moore
Reggie Moore, member of a cappella legends The Persuasions, is a native Washingtonian who began his long singing career in the DC area. Moore has performed at every cultural institution in our Nation's Capitol, including The White House, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution, The Library of Congress, The Shakespeare Theatre and The Corcoran Gallery of Art Music Series. He has also been a featured performer at The National Folklife Festival of American Music, on Black Entertainment Television (BET) and has traveled internationally with several music ensembles. Charged with holding the musical torch of The Persuasions, Moore continues the a cappella/eclectic tradition that has made the group one of the most beloved in the industry. |
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Angie Doctor
Angie is a jazz singer and arranger, has brought her extensive experience in solo and small group harmony singing to workshops and festivals as a judge and clinician for over 35 years, and has been an additional singer for groups such as The Manhattans, Heatwave, Gene Chandler, Barbara Lewis, Billy Paul, and many others. She is a studio singer and voice-over talent, is the soprano in the jazz vocal quartet Clockwork and was the Girl Bob in the wackiest of all a cappella groups in the last 6 years of their 36-year run, The Bobs. Additionally, she has been singer and soloist for music projects with Bobby McFerrin, Sufjan Stevens, Sweet Honey in the Rock, John Zorn, Meredith Monk, performing at venues that include Zellerbach in Berkeley, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Philharmonie Berlin. Her vocal work is on many recording projects, including as a featured soloist on the Grammy-nominated recording of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” (Harmonia Mundi), conducted by Kent Nagano. Angie has recorded two albums of a cappella jazz duets with Dan Schumacher of “The Bobs”, arranged, recorded and produced by Richard Bob Greene. He Said, She Said, “Duets For Two Voices” and “Two: Vol. 2”.
A member of the San Francisco Bay Area vocal music community since 1995, her latest project was as Music Supervisor/Vocal Director/Arranger for a new musical about the life of Betty Reid Soskin, at Z Space in San Francisco March/April 2024. Angie was the vocal jazz ensemble instructor for all voice majors at the California Jazz Conservatory from 2014 through Spring 2020 and has been teaching a vocal jazz ensemble for community singers at the JazzSchool in Berkeley, California since 2014. More info and music can be found at angiedoctor.com. |
Bryan Matheson
Bryan Matheson is the owner of Skyline Studios in Oakland, recording music since 1993. Bryan has had extensive experience on both sides of the glass, as a recording engineer/producer and as a singer, and has won numerous awards for his film, TV and radio work, including a Grammy nomination singing with The Pacific Mozart Ensemble on the Leonard Bernstein Mass, performed and recorded with The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin for Harmonia Mundi.
Bryan has recorded countless A Cappella groups including The Edlos, Solstice, Clockwork, Ro Sham Bo and The Bobs. Bryan is also the founder and CEO of iMusicast, which from 1999 to 2005 produced hundreds of live streamed concerts from its venue in Oakland.
He is faculty emeritus at San Francisco State University, Chabot College and Diablo Valley College, where he taught music recording technology and music business.
Bryan won a Grammy in 2022 for recording vocals on Esperanza Spalding’s “Songwrights Apothecary Lab” album, which won a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Bryan also sings Tenor in Pacific Edge Voices. |
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Craig Knudsen
In 1999, Craig Knudsen founded the talent agency, Knudsen Productions and it quickly became one of the most highly regarded US agencies representing vocal ensembles (both national and international). His agency’s current roster features two recent Harmony Sweeps National Champions: Six Appeal (2012) – Grand Prize Winners of the 2018 A Cappella Moscow International Championship, and Women of the World (2014). Additional past and current representation includes the multi Grammy Award winning British a cappella legends, the Swingle Singers; the multi Grammy nominated British early music vocal ensemble, Stile Antico; the SF Bay Area’s beloved women’s vocal ensemble, KITKA; the legendary BOBS! (also Grammy nominated); The Choir of Clare College Cambridge; The Marian Consort; and ModernMedieval. For 11 years Craig also served as the music director of the Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre Project. In 2014, Craig was the recipient of the Arts Northwest “Coyote Award”, an award recognizing his “outstanding service to Arts Northwest and the western performing arts field”.
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Interested in Competing?
We are always seeking groups who would like to compete in our events.
Groups of any style are welcome, but you must have between 3 and 12 members. We have a rule book which explains many of the details of the event, which you can see by clicking here. All groups must audition in order to compete. Generally this is done by sending a current tape and photo, although live auditions are sometimes arranged. The purpose of the audition is to make sure the group is appropriate for the Festival and to help the Director determine the performance order. If a group has competed previously, the audition process may be waived.
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