40th Annual

Bay Area Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival, acapella singing competition, san francisco

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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.

April 5th, 2025 - 8pm

THE PALACE OF FINE ARTS THEATER

3301 Lyon Street
San Francisco, CA 94123

Hosted by

2024 Bay Area Champions

Side Note

Side Note is a fun, funky, exuberant group of friends who jam together every week to sing pop, funk, disco, soul, R&B, jazz, and more. Though their diverse careers (writers, teachers, architects, engineers, dancers, nurses, entrepreneurs) make a cappella a "side note" in their lives, they work hard on their musical craft and are delighted to share it with you - let the good times roll!
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2025 Participating Groups

Aca-word
Yes we are. Formed in 2012, we have been performing original covers of everything from classic rock hits to contemporary pop tunes. As a 13 person a cappella group, we achieve a unique sound by fusing new and old music in sophisticated arrangements. We strive to bring joy to our audience and hope to share our Aca-love of singing to everyone within earshot!

Members: Daniel Jones, Jake Lagrave, Diego Lopez, Anya Parco, Valeria Huaco, Adrienne Johnson, Sam Michael, Carina Romano, Audrey Parco, Rjay Molo, Marizel Mendoza, Casey Calderon

Coda Conduct
SF Coda Conduct is one of the Bay Area s newest a cappella groups. Founded in early 2024, the group brings together a diverse blend of voices with backgrounds spanning a cappella, musical theater, Indian classical, and Western classical choral music. After a year of jam sessions in living rooms across San Francisco, the group has grown into a close-knit, dynamic ensemble that puts a fun and heartfelt twist on your favorite contemporary and nostalgic pop hits. Follow along our aca-journey on Instagram @sfcodaconduct

Members: Alex Bignell, Ashley Saldana, Ben Alpers, Caroline Meinhardt, Dhanya Jayagopal, Jon Abello, Jonathan Bloom, Julia Rogers, Laynee Daniels, Richman Neumann

Creative Differences
Four musical leaders from Fog City Singers, with extensive individual backgrounds in collegiate a cappella, classical choral, barbershop and contemporary a cappella

Members: Ben Laboy, Jeff Howe, Mark O'Meara, John Rae-Grant

Find A Capella
We are a group of vocal singers, music lovers, and young professionals based in the Bay Area. We held our first concert on Oct 15, 2022, a few days past our first anniversary. We hosted 200 people and sang 14 songs throughout the concert. We found in music not only friendship, excitement, emotional support, but also most importantly, each other. We work on pop songs and musicals, and we also love jazz, folk, and church songs. We hope to deliver our good vibes to our audience and the community. We are 'Find A Cappella'.

Members: Jiawei Huang, Musheng He, Rui Yang, Jeffrey Wang, Yulou Zhou, Yunfei Song, Yichao Wu, Zhihao Li, Di Zha

Halfway to Midnight
Halfway to Midnight is a co-ed band of musical misfits who, having missed the thrill of the a cappella world and desiring an outlet to strengthen our individual instruments, serendipitously found each other in the midst of the great big beautiful Bay Area and begun gathering weekly to share in the blend of our voices together. Our life stories are as varied as our voices yet we find common ground in our love of instrument-free music-making and we truly hope you like what you hear.

Members: Scott Adler, Gonzalo Alonso, Michael Barrientos, LeAnn Duong, Vivek Saraswat, Elana Zizmor

Noteworthy
We re a lower-voices a cappella group known for our fun performances and fresh takes on popular songs! It always feels sunny when we perform, and not just because of our golden vests! Since our founding in 2000, we ve gone million-view-viral on YouTube multiple times, released an album entirely composed of original songs, and performed at UC Berkeley's commencement in 2022 and 2024.

Members: Allison Cheng, Madlen Jalalyan, Tatiana Liang, Dylan Yamzon, Nimbus Ryu, Stephanus Yang, Ethan Jang, Ellington Chen, Kevin Chung, Alex Pease, Alex Yang, Richard Luo

The pH Scale
Coming from Pleasant Hill, CA... The pH Scale, Diablo Valley College's premier mixed a Cappella group. Established in 2022, they have accomplished great things so far, like winning best choreography at ICCA West Quarterfinals in 2023 and placing 3rd at Harmony Sweepstakes Bay Area Regional in 2024. Whether they are showing off their dances moves or belting ballads, The pH Scale is ready to bring their all and give you a show that is off the scale!

Members: Casey Calderon, Nate Brown, Hari Cabingad, Elise Esterlin, Courtney Wieland, Mouse Tungpala, Bella Hernandez, Marina Garcia, Alexa Parco, Courtney Lucas, Sarina Marchand, Anna-lei Jones

UC Men’s Octet
The UC Men's Octet is an eight member a cappella singing group comprised of the finest singers at the University of California, Berkeley. Founded in 1948, the Octet has entertained audiences around the world with its unique mesh of close harmonies and zany stage antics. Dazzling fans with wide repertoire of barbershop, doo-wop, contemporary pop, modern alternative, and of course, Cal fight songs, the group has released dozens of recordings over the years. The Octet has shined on the biggest stages, winning the International Competition of Collegiate A Cappella twice. The group has performed for audiences around the world, having toured the United States, Europe, Australia, Indonesia, and China.

Members: Chuong Nguyen, Risa Schapiro, Daniel Lin, Rico Bolos, Hiroyuki Tominaga, Anish Gupta, Amiel Shine, Ben Farfan

VOENA
Voena (Voices of Eve 'N Angels), founded in 1994, has performed for Presidents Clinton and Bush in Washington D.C. and Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in Rome. As goodwill ambassadors, they have toured with their message of celebrating global diversity to China, Mexico, Italy, Greece, and Japan - from the White House, Mondavi Music Festival, Davies Hall to Carnegie Hall. With 100 + voices ranging in age from 6 to 18, VOENA achieves rich and inventive a cappella vocal arrangements by using multiple percussion instruments, dance, and theatrical elements, performing in a splash of color, and embracing our many cultural differences.

Members: Skylar Vandeweg, Maggie Liu, Ava Letherman, Annika Arvik, Avery Jenest, Emma Newton, Rose Eiss, Amelee Freytag, Josie Fecteau, Grace Martin, Macayla Sedeno, Maximillian Burgess-Shanon

Western Addition
Named after both the neighborhood and their role within the greater barbershop community fabric, Western Addition are a top-level barbershop quartet based in San Francisco, CA. They have been singing together since 2018, and love to dazzle audiences with their close harmonies and lively performance energies that are hallmarks of the barbershop style. They are now the four-time BHS Far Western District quartet runner-ups. WA is thankful for every opportunity to share their music, and to represent the barbershop style amongst an amazing array of vocal talent.

Members: Trip Master, Matthew Fellows, Jeremy Raven, Matthew Herweyer

With Special Guests



Fog City Singers

The Fog City Singers were founded by six members of the Bay Area choral and barbershop communities. They had a simple question: what would happen if barbershop music were infused with influences from San Francisco's rich musical tapestry? Specifically, what might Barbershop have to gain from the diverse music singing all around the city? Likewise, what might others learn from the techniques and traditions that barbershoppers cultivate in that unique American art form?

To explore these ideas, our founders invited 25 of the best singers they knew to memorize four songs at home, attend three rehearsals, then perform a friends-and-family concert immediately following the third meeting. In the end, we were pleased to discover that this was a winning strategy. The music gelled instantly, and the sound we produced was one that none of us had expected. For some of us, we were moved to unabashed squeals of excitement.

Nearly 100 people attended our debut concert on November 7th, and thousands more have watched our concert video on social media since then

Our mission is to create a close fraternity of musicians; to apply diverse, world-class resources; and to revolutionize how barbershop music is performed and appreciated.



Your Emcee for the Evening

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.

2025 Judges TBA



Complete list of 2025 participants







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 :

John Neal (Bay Area) Beginning as a local event the Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival, under Neal’s guidance, has grown to become the most significant live showcase for a cappella music in the nation and attracts hundreds of groups and thousands of audience members every year. The Harmony Sweepstakes was the original inspiration for the NBC prime time series The Sing-Off and Neal was hired as a consultant to the series. Neal is president of Primarily A Cappella - (www.singers.com) which is the nation’s leading vendor of a cappella music including recordings, arrangements, DVDs, songbooks and instructional material for singers. Neal writes the informative blog at www.acappellanews.com which has a large and loyal readership.

PO Box D, San Anselmo, CA 94979
415-455-8602
festival (at) harmony-sweepstakes.com


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The Palace of Fine Arts Theater

The Palace of Fine Arts was built as part of The Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915, an event dedicated to progress, the celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal, and the rebirth of San Francisco following the disastrous 1906 earthquake. The only remaining building from the Exposition the Palace slowly crumbled from the ravages of the weather and ill-use. Finally, after World War 2, the structure had to be fenced off as it was a public hazard. Then, in the late 1950's, a group of dedicated citizens, led by philanthropist Walter S. Johnson, initiated a drive to rescue the Palace from planned demolition and restored it to its former glory.Directions -Yelp reviews -Photos


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