2012 National Finals Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival

28th 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.

2012 National Finals Champions

Six Appeal

Is Six Appeal a comedy group, a vocal ensemble, or a rock band? Audiences have been trying to answer that question for years. Swearing off instruments, Six Appeal uses a cappella singing to span decades of classic oldies, current chart toppers, and catchy original tunes. Featuring vocal dexterity and adventurous song selection, the group explores all genres with a far-reaching repertoire that will surprise and captivate audiences regardless of the setting. Despite their cheeky group name, the antics of these six young gentlemen provide a good natured atmosphere for their electrifying performance. A Six Appeal show will split your sides, feed your musical sweet tooth, and leave you wondering how in the world they pulled it off just with voices.

2012 Results
1st	Six Appeal
2nd	GQ
3rd	Foreign Exchange
Audience Favorite	Six Appeal
Best Original Arrangement	Katie Macdonald and Katie Gillis - "Timshel"
Best Original Song	"On Your Love" - Andrew Berkowitz, Six Appeal

2012 Participating Groups

TBA

2012 Judges

Steve Baker

Steve Baker has been the Executive Director of the Freight & Salvage since 1996. Since its founding in 1968, the Freight has been a leading presenter of a cappella music—perhaps, as some have described, "the home of Bay Area" a cappella.” Groups who have performed there include The House Jacks, Bobs, M-Pact, Kitka, Hookslide, Edlos, Da Vinci's Notebook and many others. Before joining the Freight family he worked in the nonprofit arts sector as an attorney and a program administrator and attorney. In addition, Steve plays guitar and performs regularly with his musical cohorts at clubs and private events throughout the Bay Area.

Charles Eisler

Charles Eisler is one of San Francisco's leading producers and managers of live theatre. Mr. Eisler has produced Beehive the 60’s Musical Sensation in Las Vegas, Detroit, Houston, Fort Worth, San Jose, and Phoenix, and on a 70-city national tour. In San Francisco, productions include the Cole Porter musical revue Cole, Forever Plaid, and Noises Off that toured to many West Coast cities. Mr. Eisler has acted as general manager for Sylvia, Free Food, Together Again, starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, Night Dreams, and Tunnel Rats. Mr. Eisler owned and operated the Mason Street Theatre in San Francisco, where Shear Madness played for four years, and the Union Square Playhouse, which housed the comedy hit Late Nite Catechism. On Broadway, Mr. Eisler produced the Alan Jay Lerner musical, Music! Music! He general managed the national tours of Man of La Mancha with Richard Kiley, and Fiddler on the Roof with Hershel Bernardi; The Abbey Theatre; the Shenyang Acrobats, and the Wushu Martial Arts Exhibition from the Peoples’ Republic of China; The National Theatre of Greece; The National Folk Theatre of Ireland; and the Gavella Theatre of Zagreb. Mr. Eisler is currently co-writing a new musical that uses the words and music of Cole Porter.

Shai Fishman

Shai's credits as a composer include the I-Max film Future Moon, Dinosaur's Prophecy, 2012: Secrets of the Mayans and Night of the Titanic. His original musical theater productions include: Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Rachav's Cabaret, The Dream: A Band, Return to Sender, Samson & Delilah, and Towards the Horizon. Shai was recently honored for his musical direction and arrangements on T-Mobile's "Welcome Back" campaign and received the BTAA's 2011 best commercial of the year. Shai currently spends his time between New York City and Los Angeles, where he operates and runs Fish-i Studios - a production house and music label, in which he composes music for motion pictures, television, commercials and theater. Shai Fishman Serves as head composer for NASA, Houston Museum of Natural Science Avela Communications, Carnegie Museum of Natural History E-planetarium and RICE University and also as Project Manager at Amoeba Music, Hollywood and is the LP Restoration and digitization Project leader for Amoeba.com

Jesse Hamlin

Jesse Hamlin is an award-winning music writer and a respected veteran reporter of the the San Francisco entertainment scene. Hamlin has a regular column in the San Francisco Chronicle where he has worked as senior jazz critic and arts reporter for many years. He also contributes regularly to SF Arts magazine and to San Francisco Classical Voice, where he writes about jazz, Latin and classical music. His work has appeared in the New York Times, California magazine and in many other print and online publications.

Chloe Veltman

Chloe Veltman covers arts and culture stories both locally and nationally for NPR and PBS. Prior to joining KQED in 2015, Chloe launched and led the arts bureau at Colorado Public Radio, was the Bay Area’s culture columnist for the New York Times, and was also the founder, host and executive producer of VoiceBox, a national award-winning weekly podcast/radio show and live events series all about the human voice.

Chloe is the recipient of numerous prizes, grants and fellowships including both the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship and Humanities Center Fellowship at Stanford University, the Poynter Fellowship at Yale University, the Belle Foundation Prize, a Wattis Foundation grant, the Sundance Arts Writing Fellowship and a Library of Congress Research Fellowship.

Complete list of 2012 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