2022 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: Juli Fong, Sophia Guastucci, Jazlyn Lopez, Sarah Brumfield, Sam Michael, Adrienne Johnson, Marizel Mendoza, Eddie Ayala, Diego Lopez, Jake Lagrave, Daniel Jones, Rjay Molo
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Acanonymous
Acanonymous is a 9-person a cappella group, originally formed from Concord High choir members looking to expand their music. With high energy pop tunes and familiar classics, they always put on a fun and engaging performance for their audience. Although the group was recently formed, most of the members have been singing together for 7 years.Members: Courtney Lucas, Lana Neal, Chloe Short, Rachel Lloyd, Bea Cruz, Jonathon Down, Jaden Talosig, Dennis Dunn, Samir English
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 | | Beyond Zebra
Beyond Zebra is a newly formed a cappella group who enjoys expressing unique, intricate arrangements with heartfelt emotion. Like the Dr. Seuss book On Beyond Zebra about an alphabet beyond Z, the music of Beyond Zebra takes audiences beyond what they might know and expect. When you go Beyond Zebra, who knows what wonderful things you might hear?Members: Fiona McCrae, Zareen Levien, Miya Kanzaki, Jon Pilat, John Kelley, John Rae-Grant
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Dotter's Knot
Dotter's Knot brings a fresh approach to some old familiar ren faire favorites, as well as introducing the audience to some little known material drawn from traditional folk music, with a smattering of original pieces. We feature memorable, sing-able, audience-pleasing melodies, and intricate harmony.Members: Kathleen MacKay, Pam Shugarte, Alanna Fairbairn, Faith Michele, Jennifer Bristow, Liesl Buchbinder, Deborah Black, Vonnie Galusha, Vicki Solomon, Jerusha Simon, Karen Scarborough, Chris Fairbairn
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 | | Lullabies and Honey
Lullabies and Honey is a Bay Area vocal quartet spontaneously created in 2019 out of a love of harmonizing and performing meaningful music. They draw from a wide swath musical experience from classical piano and violin to modern collegiate a cappella and glee clubs, bringing together an eclectic mix of genres mashed up in their whimsical, soulful, and beautiful arrangements.Members: Michael Khor, Hahns Shin, Selina Sun, Wenley Tong
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Side Note
Hip. Imaginative. Fun. Fresh. Funky Fresh. Side Note is a group of seven twentysomethings, from wildly different musical backgrounds, who draw draw their diversity to create an all-new sound. It's contemporary a cappella - pushed to the limits of pop, R&B, funk, rock, musical theater and jazz. Get ready for some buzzin' beats, rockin' riffs and hot harmonies as Side Note delivers a show unlike nearly anything else in vocal music!
Members: Katie Ponce, Reina Galhea, Priya Vijaykumar, Alex Briner, Juan Carlos Martinez, Roi Matalon, Ben Cachapero, Jefferson Lam, David Galhea, Richman Neumann
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 | | Vocal Music Workshop
Vocal Music workshop is a 12-member, co-ed a cappella group, exploring the music of all genres and time periods. Year-round they are called upon to entertain and inspire the community, performing at sports events and private special events. Over the years Vocal has been fortunate to share the stage with amazing performers such as Bobby McFerrin, Dick Van Dyke, The House Jacks, OC Times, Straight No Chaser, Rockapella, VoicePlay and The Filharmonic.
Members: Marin Hartless, Isabella Hurst, Noah Goldman, Juliette Moschetti, Liam Wallace Harper, Jenny Leighton, Micah Eisenberg, Keaton Flynn, Ben Stewart, Lucy Rocah, Atticus Fisher, Jasperina van Stuijvenberg, Matthew Corrigan
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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: Valentina Badano, Sybelle Bradley, Emyleigh Hayashi, Arianna Lohrer, Zoe Marinos, Ella Martin, Grace Martin, Elleanor Martin, Macayla Sedeno
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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. |
2022 Judges
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Bryan Matheson
Bryan Matheson is the owner of Skyline Studios in Oakland, celebrating its 30th anniversary this month! 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 at The Berlin Philharmonic.
A Cappella groups he's worked with include The Edlos, Solstice, Clockwork, Ro Sham Bo and The Bobs and countless others.
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 business.
Bryan received a Grammy last year for recording vocals on Esperanza Spalding’s “Songwrights Apothecary Lab” album, which won a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album. |
Barbara Vander Putten
Barbara Vander Putten, a Bay Area native, began her vocal music career in 1977 joining the West Valley Masterworks, with whom she sang a diverse repertoire including Mozart & Verdi's Requiem (with a performance at Carnegie Hall), Bach B minor Mass, Rutter's Gloria, etc, as well as a variety of folk music, madrigals, show tunes and spirituals. Since joining Sweet Adelines Intl (SAI) in 1995, she was the Assistant Director of the award-winning Mission Valley Chorus and its Interim Director in 2005. Barbara was named Director of the Harmony Fusion Chorus in April of 2007.
She is a Certified Director, a member of the SAI Region 12 coaching faculty and served three terms as the Regional Directors Coordinator. She is also a professor for the regional L.A.W. (Learn Arm Waving) School. More recently she was invited to serve as judge for the Western Writers of America/Western Song category.
In addition to singing and directing, Barbara used her speaking voice as one of the enthusiastic hosts of The Human Voice Show, featuring a cappella harmony, on People’s Radio KKUP – Cupertino.
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Juliet Green
Originally from Maui, Hawaii, Juliet Green is a singer, songwriter and educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. Juliet has performed in various vocal jazz ensembles, winning the SF Regional Harmony Sweepstakes competition in 1998 and 2000 (+4db), 2005 (Moodswing) and 2012 (Sing Theory). She currently sings alto in the award-winning jazz a cappella quartet Clockwork, who were selected to perform at the 2011 JEN Conference in New Orleans after the release of their acclaimed album Every Voice Counts. Juliet's other passion is working as an educator, clinician, and director. She has taught at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, Jazz Camp West, Stanford Jazz Workshop, and directs the Downbeat award-winning Panache vocal jazz ensembles at Corte Madera School in Portola Valley. |
Walter Zelnick
Vice-President of the legendary City Hall Records -- one of the last truly independent music distributors in the nation and distributor of the Primarily A Cappella imprint-- has been a pillar of the Bay Area music scene for the last thirty five years. During his tenure, Mr. Zelnick has overseen the distribution of a wide variety of talent across the musical spectrum, from Bay Area Rap legends, Too Short, MC Hammer and the late Mac Dre to such artists as Paula West, The Two Live Crew, NWA, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Salt-N-Pepa, Lavay Smith, Charo, Doris Day, The Jingle Cats and many more. He has witnessed the evolution of the music delivery system from LP to cassette to CD to digital to LP. One of his proudest achievements is his unsought credit as a background vocalist on the 1995 recording, "Christmas Unleashed" by the Jingle Dogs (actual dogs). |
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Daniella Caveney
Daniella Caveney is a lyric soprano, pianist and music educator who has performed in Europe and America as a concert soloist as well as having performed operatic roles with such companies as San Francisco Lyric Opera, Tyrolean Opera, Berkeley Opera and Florence Opera. She is the founder of HEAL (Harmony Emerging As Love), and directs the HEAL Choir, HEAL Chamber Singers and HEAL Glee Club. She also directs the Novato Music Association Chorus, and vocal department at San Francisco Waldorf High School. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Artists' Salon, which brings classical music concerts into the home. She leads masterclasses for high school and collegiate vocal ensembles and serves as the music director at UCC in Petaluma. |
 
Complete list of 2022 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 :
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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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