A CAPPELLA AFFAIRS
THE FESTIVAL OF A'CAPPELLA ENSEMBLES
Founded in 2014 in Helsinki
Organizers: Creastudio Marktree ry
Art director: Victoria Sergeenko
Feat. bands: Halsbandet,
Hairahdus, Chickadee, Kiva-Do-Up Studio bands,
Creastudio Marktree bands, Kvartet Plus, soloists.
The history of Vocal Affair games started in 2014 when a small bunch of down-and-out music fans met in the jungles of Helsinki, Finland, to spend there evenings making music with sounds of own voices. Some of us did have some previous music experience and some not, but everyone were inspired to sing together and share music fun with others. Four people gathered and created Tosi Kiva quartet. They had rented a room and attracted more people for united sessions and there they decided to practice to achieve some mastership. Soon there were already many singers and amateur musicians.... local citizens with Finnish, Russian, Estonian and even Spanish origins. They made up a team, created a few different groups and united in the association “Kiva-Do-Up”, dreaming about a great future on the stages of New York and Paris.
At the same time the group of six strangers with even stranger Finnish name ”Hairahdus” made an own music nest in the fields of Vantaa region. They sang ”a'cappella” and tried to sound like “rock” without help of instruments. They were jamming together weekly just for their own fun without big dreams of fame in the future.
At the same time local Swedish speaking music lovers did not sleep. Rhythm music and ensemble singing had flourished for many years with the legendary song ensemble "Halsbandet" who used to perform in lots of places either by themselves or together with a variety of jazz musicians and bands. ”Halsbandet” organized a concert "In The Style Of Rock” and invited the afforementioned other bands. This was a remarkable moment when all of the above met.
Later they met again and united performances have become a nice tradition. Regular performances were named “Summer Vocal Affairs” festivity, although they happened not only in summer time. All bands showed their own art in a relaxed atmosphere, having fun, exchanged ideas, invited new-born interesting musicians: accompanists and soloists. During these years more new groups appeared on the stage of Vocal Affairs; “Kiva Creschendo”, ”Chickadee”, ”Raindrops” and others with rhythmical music of different times and genres. We are growing new generations for us in depths of our creative educational studio ”CREASTUDIO MARKTREE” in Helsinki. Our concerts went on stages of Kanneltalo, Vernissa, Art School ”Familylandia”. And here we go again in the Hall of Opinmäki campus.