 A year ago, we were seven perfect strangers drawn together by a common interest in a cappella via the magic of Craig’s List. In February 2006 we started rehearsing once a week in a member’s basement and started making appearances at BBQs and Open Mic nights. In early February of 2007, we were informed that we had been selected to participate in the Mid-Atlantic Harmony Sweepstakes. This spurred a reminder to check the CASA website to see what else was going on in the a cappella world. A few group emails later and we all had weekend passes for the ECS 2007.
Why bother to give the details on how we ended up on ECS 2007? Well, despite our almost accidental participation, it ended up becoming a pivotal experience for our developing group. From the inspiring performances and the insightful master classes to the down-to-earth personalities of the organizers and the camaraderie among the participants, it was an inspirational 48 hours.
Shortly after we signed up for the weekend, we were invited to sing in the Sunday Matinee show and offered a spot in one of the private workshops. Both of these offers made us even more excited about coming to ECS – we’d get to work with the pros AND we’d get the chance to perform on a real stage! (Did we mention we hadn’t done that yet?)
The weekend arrived and the majority of us showed up for the Friday night concert at South Lakes High School. Simply put, it was a great way to open up the Summit. How often do you have so many talented and respected musicians in one place? We were in awe.
Saturday was like a week of summer camp squeezed into one full day. Armed with the schedule of master classes, we tried to decide which ones to attend. With multiple sessions going on at once, it was like trying to decide between your two favorite TV shows before TiVo. We thought about cloning ourselves, but decided to split up and compare notes later. Like sponges we sought out to absorb every drop of knowledge available. Every minute was valuable and it always seemed like the hour passed by too quickly. Where else could you get bass lessons from Barry Carl one hour and VP lessons from Wes Carroll, Marty Gasper, Adam Matta & Yo-Yo Beats the next? The workshops that resonated the loudest with our stage-shy group were “Get Out of Your Own Way” and “Rockstar 101”. If there ever was a cure for boring stage presence, these workshops would be the magic pill. We left the room feeling empowered about our musical abilities and ready to conquer the world, one stage at a time.
Aside from the workshops, we were treated to two additional concerts on Saturday. During the matinee we watched the young and local talent which gave us high hopes for the future of a cappella in the area. Saturday evening’s concert was a real treat with appearances by Blue Jupiter, InPulse, Men in Black, Altavoz and the esteemed mouth drummers and beatboxers with Barry Carl. The jury is still out on whether it was more fun to watch the show or hang out with the performers at the afterglow!
Sunday was our big day….time to take on the stage. One hour before we were due at sound check, we had our private session with Diana Preisler and Jonathan Minkoff. To be honest, we were expecting to hear a lot of nos and stops and start overs, but to our surprise, Diana watched our first song and immediately identified our strengths – some of which we had been completely unaware of. Instead of calling us out on our weaknesses, she built on what we already had and transformed our set into a show. Together, they created an environment where we all felt willing to push the boundaries of our comfort zones and our confidence level skyrocketed. We joined the Sunday Matinee and displayed our newfound confidence. Who knew we’d be so spoiled as to have Marty Gasper as our first sound engineer? We performed a full set of 5 songs and we couldn’t have asked for a better, more supportive audience.
Our conclusions? The best way to get better is to work with and be around the best people possible at what it is that you do. And what better people could there be than the folks at the ECS? The whole environment made for an awesome weekend and it brought us closer together as a group. The success of the weekend reflects the amazing work of all of the volunteers from CASA and South Lakes High School, to whom we owe our deepest gratitude.
The whole ECS experience geared us up for our performance at the Mid-Atlantic Harmony Sweepstakes just 6 days later. Totally new to the game, we had initially hoped just to keep up with the other groups, but we ended up surprising the audience (and ourselves!) and took home 3rd place. New shows and opportunities are starting to pour in and we’ve been able set high goals for ourselves for the year ahead. We can’t wait to be involved with the 2008 Summit and hope that more groups and a cappella enthusiasts will join in the fun!
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