Accent held a workshop with Choate musicians.
With their impressive vocal talent and enchanting jazz arrangements, the a cappella group Accent held workshops for Choate’ musicians and performed in Colony Hall during their visit to the School on March 24. Accent is a musical group featuring six vocal artists from five countries. They have released multiple albums and performed on global tours across Europe, North America, and Asia.
During their visit to campus, Accent met with musicians, a cappella groups, and students in the Music Theory class. The performers taught complex jazz vocal warm-ups not traditionally sung by Choate choir students and rehearsed a concert piece with Chamber Choir that was performed during Revisit Week.
“We also worked on tone, balancing voice parts — just any advice that an a cappella group can give,” said Elsa Franks ’24, a member of Choate a cappella group Whims and Chamber Choir. “I thought it was really helpful, and both workshops were interspersed with performances from the group, which was really fun.”
Members of Accent also taught students about the influences of a cappella, its history, and the process behind how they arrange their music.
“I think it was really cool to see how theory could eventually be applied to make interesting or unexpected music,” said Shawn Yang ’24, a student in the masterclass led by Accent. “They arranged ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ in all the different styles of different groups and performed them for us to see that there’s so much you can do with a simple melody [that] everyone knows.”
Reflecting on the workshop experience, Choral Director Dr. Julie Hagen said her favorite part “was seeing the students engage in a different way and respond to something [she] can’t give them.”
The students who worked with Accent also gained insight into their work from their time spent with the group. “I have a lot of respect for how detailed their work was,” said Yang. “There’s so much versatility, even though it’s the human voice, that you can do within an a cappella group.”
Finishing off their visit with an evening performance, Accent entertained people from Choate and the local community. They closed the show by singing the American, British, French, Canadian, and Swedish national anthems to represent the nationalities of all the group members.
“Everything sounded incredible. It was so crisp and clean. Some of the stuff was really angelic and other stuff was really sharp, and it was just great,” said Marissa Jacobs ’24, a member of Whims.
Audiences enjoyed how the vocal group blended their different backgrounds into their original arrangements and utilized their diversity in a unique way. “I feel like because they’re from different places, you have different music, not just genre-wise, but also linguistically,” said Jacobs. “I don’t know of any other a cappella groups that do that.”
“I think it was nice to bring all of us together. It was inspirational, it was exciting, it was different. It kind of shook things up a bit,” said Dr. Hagen. “I’m just really grateful that we have the opportunity and the means to bring these people to campus.”
