The Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival, 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.
Working out of Fort Collins, Curious Gage has been a fixture in the contemporary a cappella scene for over three years. With performances throughout Colorado, including the Denver Coliseum, this award-winning a cappella ensemble flawlessly captures the energy and intensity of today‚s hottest Rock bands. Their unique blend of pop, jazz, Rock and soul unites in strikingly vibrant harmony, complemented by their extensive professional backgrounds. With commanding solos, powerful bass and driving vocal percussion, Curious Gage is one group you don‚t want to miss!
Members: Nic Widhalm, Zach Tait, Phil Thompson, Tom Miles and Carleen Widhalm
2006 Results |
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1st
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Curious Gage |
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2nd
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Cool Shooz |
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Audience Favorite
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6 Guys Name Blake |
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Deke Sharon Award
Best Original Arrangement |
"Come Together" Arr. Dave Small - Cool Shooz |
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Jeffery Harris Award Best Original Song
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"Yo Ma Ma" Arr. Denny Malone - Ignition |
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Jerry Lawson Award for Best Soloist
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"Come Around" - Kevin Heinz - Left on Spruce |
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Wes Carroll award for Best Vocal Percussion
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Nic Widhalm - Curious Gage |
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CVJS Award for Best Stage Performance
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Plumbers of Rome |
2006 PARTICIPATING GROUPS
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Six Guys Named Blake actually consists of seven guys, but of course, there are eight guys in our photo and six of them aren‚t actually named Blake. Never mind. ŒSix Guys‚ discovered their love of a cappella music at Fairview High School via three great vocal music directors who have opened doors for many performers. A cappella has become a creative outlet for the young men of this group as well as an opportunity to "let loose" and perform with Œflare.‚ Since all but one of the seven guys are seniors, lessons learned through this vocal band adventure will be carried on elsewhere as they continue their musical quest. Members: Blake Stepan, Trevor Babb, Jesse Thurston, D.L. Mungo, David Paxman, Daniel Cooper and Peter Driscoll. |
| Cool Shooz is an amazing group of six singers who perform classic Rock and R&B, sprinkled with some gospel and jazz. They have performed along the Front Range for ten years, wowing crowds with great harmony and making them laugh in the process. The guys started out singing for tips on Boulder‚s Pearl Street Mall and have built a solid reputation as professional entertainers and top notch musicians. „Fun, amazing, funny‰ is how one fan described our show. Cool Shooz can be seen (and heard) regularly at clubs and festivals in the Denver area and along the Front Range ˜ anywhere harmony is appreciated Members: Dave Small, Chase Darnell, Jeff King, Marc Johnson, Dutch Miller and Tom Conner. |
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Working out of Fort Collins, Curious Gage has been a fixture in the contemporary a cappella scene for over three years. With performances throughout Colorado, including the Denver Coliseum, this award-winning a cappella ensemble flawlessly captures the energy and intensity of today‚s hottest Rock bands. Their unique blend of pop, jazz, Rock and soul unites in strikingly vibrant harmony, complemented by their extensive professional backgrounds. With commanding solos, powerful bass and driving vocal percussion, Curious Gage is one group you don‚t want to miss! Members: Nic Widhalm, Zach Tat, Justin Adams, Tom Miles and Carleen Widhalm. |
| Launched in 2004, this (mostly) young quartet began with four voices and a whole bunch of dreams. Ignition! first competed at the Rocky Mountain District International Preliminary Competition, taking second place after only a few weeks in existence. In October of 2005 Ignition! won the Barbershop Rocky Mountain District competition. But more important than any contest is our love of the stage. Ignition! lives to perform their wide variety of vocal styles and unique arrangements for any audience . The big bonus is that our famous Bass, Mr. Denny Malone, will show you how "old guys still got it." Members: Dan Testa, James Taylor, Curtis Terry and Denny Malone. |
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If you're driving through Boulder Colorado, take a left on Spruce. Look for the second house in, follow the walkway to the front door, and inside, five singers are speaking a cappella. No way, oh? Way, ah. Left on Spruce started as a creative outlet for its five members, all of whom have a rich history of vocal performance and music education - as rich as one can be at twentysomething. Every performance brings solos, vocal percussion and unique chords from all directions. Arranging music as a group, pushing each other's creativity and locking into a cappella are the things that drive Left on Spruce. Members: Scott Callahan, Kevin Heinz, Cory Winding, Edwina Hebert and Brenda Poell |
| The Plumbers of Rome: It was a more civilized time, when the world's foremost sewage engineers spent their weekends singing in their choir togas on street corners in ancient Rome. All that ended with the little-known Roman Ice Age (AD 126-28) that plunged the empire into too-cold-for-toga temperatures. Too cold for even wool togas. By the time things thawed, singing plumbers had fallen out of fashion. Many plumbers took up a monastic lifestyle to cope with their shame. Some fled to the new world. Some invented the Olympic sport of Curling. The Plumbers of Rome appear tonight courtesy of the Ancient Waterworks Federal Heritage Committee. Members: Randy Jackson, Ernie Stuckowitz and Ron Gilgamesh |
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Stayin‚ Outa Treble is one of the newest and most exciting vocal bands to appear on the Rocky Mountain scene. Refugees of such prestigious choral groups as Colorado Chorale and as sublime as folk trio Cottonwood, our collective stage and studio accomplishments are awesome. Our common bond is love of mountains, and the fact we are a band of borderline schizophrenics drawn together by an eclectic assortment of a cappella. Our music includes pop, Rock, folk, show tunes and straight-ahead jazz. We do it the big vocal band style ˜ with a wonderfully perverse sense of humor. That‚s how we are Stayin‚ Outa Treble.. . Members: Julie Cotton, Nikki King, Sandy Buckstein, Ray Podjasek, Eva Bridgeforth, Barb Henry and Bill Wilton |
2006 Judges
JOSEPH DiMASI
Fourteen years ago, Joseph transformed his life by jumping into his first a cappella group as a founding member of the renowned Penn State Pennharmonics. Since that time, he has created, directed, or performed in over a half dozen groups across the country, participated in competitions, organized concerts and benefits, engineered recordings, written dozens of arrangements and provided coaching for other groups to find their own voice. In his latest chapter of Colorado life, he has performed with CU‚s „In the Buff‰, as well as being the founding director/creator of CU‚s „Extreme Measures‰. And of course, his most notable accomplishment is creating Boulder‚s vocal band sensation, „face‰.
REGGIE McDANIEL
Reggie is a story all by himself. Somebody could write a good a cappella song about him. He retired from a military career sometime back and was working as a research manager when he realized he was spending an awful lot of his time researching entertainment items and, in particular, movies. His first love is the Silver Screen and his second love, good food. Just behind that is his admiration for singers and good harmony. His work got him into the habit of listening to talk radio as he traveled. He soon started Œtalking back‚ on his cell phone. His career at 850 KOA began as a caller to the afternoon drive show. The rest ˜ as they say ˜ is history.
BRIAN MICHAELS
A Cappella Œmedia mogul‚ and Midwest Regional Ambassador for the Contemporary A Cappella Society, Brian became Œhooked‚ with a cappella on May 3, 1993 when he saw The Blenders for the first time. He turned his Œfan-ship‚ into the syndicated radio show „The A Cappella Hour‰ in 1997, from which, with his library of over 1,400 a cappella CDs, he has been promoting our kind of music in every market he can find interest. Brian is now looking into syndication, as this past Christmas his yearly holiday special was aired in more than 10 cities across the US. He, along with his wife and two young sons, has come all the way from Fargo, ND.
TERI WILLMARTH
Teri directs the vocal music program at Lakewood High School in the Denver Metro area. She received two degrees from Metro State University, after a year at Cincinnati's Conservatory of Music and two years at the University of Texas in San Antonio. An accomplished vocalist, she has performed extensively in jazz clubs and received vocal awards from the Hadley Crawford Foundation, the Colorado Opera Guild and the Dante Di Aligari Society. Her vocal credits also include opera and musical theater roles in New York City and regional venues. Her very popular high school ensembles include Encore, Eclipse and Kaleidoscope, all receiving kudos at the UNC Jazz Festival and the Colorado Music Educators‚ Conference.
· The "Jerry Lawson" Best Soloist: This award will go to the singer whom the judges believe to have performed the best solo as part of a group's presentation.
· The "Deke Sharon" Best Original Arrangement: This award will recognize an arranger (group member or other) who the judges believe provides the best group arrangement. The song need not be original. No chart is required.
· The "Jeff Harris" Best Original Song: This award will recognize a composer (group member or other), who the judges believe provides the best original song performed by a competing group. No chart or lead sheet is required.
· The "Wes Carroll" Best Vocal Percussionist: This award will go to the group vocal percussionist who the judges feel has performed the best VP as part of a group's presentation (first year offered).
