CASA - The Contemporary A Capella Society

KeyStone is Philadelphia's professional contemporary a cappella group. When not on our day jobs, we perform pop rock songs, nothin' but mic. Booming bass, rockin' beat boxing, and soaring vocals covering popular music of the last 50 years. We are available for all kinds of events, from corporate to private, educational to recreational. Five of the six members of KeyStone sang together for one special performance in the summer of 2009. Those five members were all performing as part of the summer co-ed a cappella groups sponsored by The A Cappella Project – Philadelphia. At the beginning of the summer, the sudden death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, sent shockwaves across America,and some of the performers of Project-Philly (particularly those of us who grew up in the 80′s) felt the need to do some sort of recognition for this occasion at the annual Benefit Concert in August.

Amy Howe put together a six-person group selected from the summer membership to sing her special arrangement of the Jackson 5′s “I’ll Be There” between sets at the benefit concert. The members of this small group enjoyed singing together, particularly at the dress rehearsal when they sang in a room with a high ceiling. It was a “one and done” performance by an unnamed pick-up group,and although there was never any formal talk about continuing the group, it was definitely on the back of the minds of several of the singers.

The opportunity to sing together again came literally out of nowhere. In April of 2011, producers of the hit television show The Sing-Off announced open casting calls in several major U.S. cities. They were also accepting auditions by video. Amy contacted a few of the members of that original pick-up group and said, “Why not? What do we have to lose?” This led to a whirlwind of arranging, rehearsing, and planning through the month of May. Showing true professional caliber, the newly-formed group, still unnamed, learned six new arrangements in six rehearsals, choosing three of them to fill the contents of their video audition. Through some generous pro-bono work by Brent Hurlock of Editvision, KeyStone created a high quality audition video to send to the producers of The Sing-Off.

Ultimately, KeyStone was not cast for season three,but putting together the audition video was the catalyst the group needed to begin performing together on a regular basis. With the exception of the radical success of the R&B group Boyz II Men, the greater Philadelphia area has not had a long-lasting professional contemporary a cappella singing group. KeyStone hopes to fill that void with inventive covers of great music from the past 50 years of American culture, moving towards producing original music of their own.