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Eleventh Hour hosts its second annual A Cappella Festival

Contributed photo Fairmont’s Eleventh Hour is hosting the a capella festival.

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By Don Thrasher, Contributing Writer 4:46 PM Thursday, November 12, 2009

A cappella music was once the domain of gospel choirs and barbershop quartets, but that’s changed over the last decade. Like rock ’n’ roll and hip-hop, a cappella songs are now soundtrack staples on television shows and advertisements.

“It’s becoming mainstream,” Fairmont High School choral director Brody McDonald said. “They’ve had beat boxers and a cappella performers on ‘American Idol,’ ‘America’s Got Talent’ and other programs. Little pieces on the TV show ‘Glee’ have that flavor, and even the Prius commercials are little a cappella snippets.”

Fairmont, home to high energy a cappella group Eleventh Hour, is riding that wave of mainstream acceptance. Eleventh Hour, one of the leading high school vocal groups in the nation, is hosting its second A Cappella Festival on Saturday, Nov. 14. The daylong event includes workshops, performances, critiques for the 13 participating groups and a concert by Albany, N.Y.-based a cappella act, The Fault Line.

“We’re really pulling them in from all over,” McDonald said. “We have groups coming all the way from the Cleveland area, North Olmstead, Toledo, Columbus and Cincinnati. We’re actually the only purely high school a cappella group there, so getting together with other high school groups doesn’t happen often.”

This year’s festival attendance has more than doubled over last fall’s inaugural event.

“Last year we only had five groups at the festival and this year we have 13,” McDonald said. “Nine of those are either new this year or last year. A lot of it comes down to the fact we’ve been real advocates for leading this charge for a cappella music.”

The Fault Line, a semi-finalist on “America’s Got Talent,” will be on hand Saturday afternoon to work with students. That evening, the group will perform a 7:30 p.m. concert that’s open to the public. Eleventh Hour and Fusion, another Fairmont vocal group, will open the show.

“The Fault Line was here right after they got off ‘America’s Got Talent’ two years ago,” McDonald said. “These guys are different because they’re not even trying to market themselves as an a cappella group. They actually want to be a commercial rock band, but they want to process themselves vocally as instruments. They’re sound is really, really different. Their latest CD is ‘Junkin’ Them Up,’ and they take a lot of classic songs, and not only do them in an a cappella style, but also do them at different tempos, and with different flavors. It’s a really different sound.”

To find out more about a cappella music, visit www.casa.org.

CONTACT contributing arts and music writer Don Thrasher at donaldthrasher8@aol.com.

how to go

WHO: The Fault Line

WHERE: Kettering Fairmont High School Auditorium, 3301 Shroyer Road

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14

COST: $10

MORE INFO: (937) 499-1496 or www.trentarena.com

ARTIST INFO: www.rockthefaultline.com

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