2013 National Finals Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival

29th Annual

The Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival is the premier American showcase for vocal harmony music. The annual national competition draws from hundreds of vocal groups from around the country with regional competitions in eight cities. The winning group from each festival is flown to perform in front of celebrity judges and a sold out house of enthusiastic a cappella fans at the National Finals.

2013 National Finals Champions

Honey Whiskey Trio

Honey Whiskey Trio blends sounds and styles from folk, bluegrass and jazz. This trio found its roots in the vocal jazz department of CSU Long Beach where the members all studied with Christine Guter, though at different times. Years later, well into their own careers as musicians and educators, the need for a new outlet for musical exploration brought Courtney, Ann and Christina together and the Honey Whiskey Trio was formed.

2013 Results
1st	Honey Whiskey Trio
2nd	Lustre
3rd (tie)	Fermata Town
3rd (tie)	Rainbows
Audience Favorite(tie)	Honey Whiskey Trio
Best Original Arrangement	"I Feel Good" arr. The Rainbows
Best Original Song	"Starting Line" - Fermata Town

2013 Participating Groups

TBA

2013 Judges

Sunshine Becker

Sunshine Becker (formerly Sunshine Garcia) is a singer, songwriter and vocal performance coach, who has been a 20 year member of the award winning vocal band and National Harmony Sweepstakes champions SoVoSo. She just recently came off 5 years of touring in the Grateful Dead spin-off band Furthur with Bob Weir & Phil Lesh. She leads her own solo project: The Sunshine Garcia Band & continues to teach vocal performance and stays busy doing studio sessions, CircleSinging and improvising in many other headlining jam bands. Sunshine lives and breathes a cappella. Her bassist husband and 7 year old son are wonderful enough to play along!

Robin Cohn

President of City Hall Records. City Hall began in Robin's San Francisco garage in 1973, expanding steadily to become the leading national independent wholesale distributor of hundreds of specialty labels, both domestic and international. From blues, jazz, urban, nostalgia, world, and yes, a cappella - including artists such as the Swingle Singers, the Bobs and SoVoSo - City Hall has built its success and reputation through supporting independent music.

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”.

Katy Leaver

Katy Leaver attended the LAB, Broadcasting School in Hollywood, graduated and was offered a job at KKGO (America’s Jazz Station) in Westwood, California. After two years at KKGO where Katy anchored the morning news and worked as a Jazz DJ in the evenings, the Bay Area where she grew up, beckoned her back. She was hired by KGO Radio to fill in for well-known traffic helicopter reporter, Lu Hurley. She fell in love with chopper reporting and worked in the bright red jet copter for 12 years, winning numerous reporting awards along the way. In 1998 she was hired by ABC-7 but after a year of television Katy was lured back to KGO Radio, and offered a position as the weekend news anchor, and weekday breaking news reporter at the number one news station in Northern California. Katy sings rock, blues and jazz standards with her band Go! Kat Go! and performs all around the Bay Area at clubs and parties.

Scott Mathews

Music Producer, Composer, Arranger, Song Doctor, Multi–instrumentalist & Tiki God. PRODUCED, RECORDED and/or PERFORMED WITH:- The Beach Boys * The Blind Boys of Alabama * David Bowie * Zac Brown * Jimmy Buffett * Johnny Cash * Rosanne Cash * Glen Campbell * Eric Clapton * Elvis Costello * Ry Cooder * Robert Cray * Dick Dale * Dave Edmunds * Roky Erickson * Jefferson Starship * Jerry Garcia * Billy Gibbons * Sammy Hagar * Herbie Hancock * John Hiatt * John Lee Hooker * Etta James * Mick Jagger * Booker T. Jones * Patti Labelle * Huey Lewis * Nick Lowe * Taj Mahal * The Mamas & Papas * Steve Miller * Eddie Money * Van Morrison * Aaron Neville * Roy Orbison * Van Dyke Parks * Steve Perry * The Pointer Sisters * Bonnie Raitt * Joey Ramone * Keith Richards * Todd Rundgren * Carlos Santana * Joe Satriani * Boz Scaggs * Ringo Starr * Barbra Streisand * Allen Toussaint * Trip Shakespeare (Semisonic) * The Tubes * Joe Walsh * Robin Williams * Carl Wilson * Brian Wilson * Bobby Womack * Stevie Ray Vaughn * Dwight Yoakam * Neil Young....

Complete list of 2013 participants

National Finals Recordings

Interested in Performing?

We are always seeking groups who would like to participate 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.

How to enter

Please send music and photos to the regional director :

Our Hall of Fame - The Harmony Sweepstakes National Champions