About Me
"If it has to be a boy band, then it had better be like this one."
(Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung)
"Audience favourites", "award winners", "vocal artists", "entertainer" or just plain old "singers"? Somehow all of these are fitting! But how best to describe vocaldente ?
The press is unanimous: Their singing technique is "professional", their drive "phenomenal", they are "bursting with ideas". Apart from their "high level of singing", their "entertaining presentations" and their "imaginative lively choreography" what has been acknowledged above all is their "professionalism", which is "perfect and harmonic", "sparkly and refreshing", "charming and professional", which is to say "musical, funny, good" and all this is presented with "refreshing genuineness".
vocaldente has managed to immediately win over jury members such as John Potter ( The Hilliard Ensemble ), Ward Swingle ( The Swingle Singers ), Anders Jalkéus ( The Real Group ) from all areas of vocal and a cappella music, from classical music to voice pop: In 2007 the quintet won numerous first and second prizes, as well as the coveted audience awards at the most important national (jugend kulturell Förderpreis) and international European vocal and a cappella competitions ( Tampereen Sävel in Tampere/Finland and vokal.total in Graz/Austria).
Only recently, vocaldente became National Champions at the 24th Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival 2008 in San Francisco. The ensemble competed against seven top American vocal groups before a packed audience of 2000 at the Marin Veteran's Auditorium , taking the jury’s 1st prize and also winning the Audience’s Favorite Award, making them the first ever non-English-speaking group as well as the second non-American one to claim this title.
They care for a an art which is nearly lost: a cappella without microphones, the vocal experience without technical implements, unplugged, straight and direct, pure and authentic. If event, meeting or concert require to use microphones, vocaldente has the ability of the amplified performance as well.
So who are these five young men who, using their own ingenious arrangements and without microphones, present us with the charm of the 1920s, the drive of the 1960s and the sound-world of contemporary radio?
Their love for singing was roused at the Hanover Boys’ Choir and at the Hanover University of Music and Drama. They sang in choirs, ensembles, performed in bands and orchestras, and in 2004 came together as vocaldente . Then everything happened really fast: In 2005 they gave their first full-length concerts and attended master classes and workshops with The King's Singers , The Real Group and Naturally 7 . In 2006 they brought out their first CD Let’s Misbehave , followed by their first tour. In 2007 they already performed 79 times, both in Germany and abroad – from Austria and Switzerland all the way to Finland and Hungary. In November they gave concerts in three European capitals within the space of one week: Vienna, Budapest and Berlin.
vocaldente appeared at the most well known national and international festivals such as Vokal Total München (Germany), Voicemania Wien (Austria), the zürcher acapella night (Switzerland), the A Cappella Festival Pfäffikon SZ (Switzerland), the Ilmenauer TonART-Festival (Germany) and many more. In all of these places it did not take them long to win the hearts of all their audiences.
Five voices in perfect harmony, from the counter tenor to the bass, vocal imitations of instruments embedded in their own lush arrangements, the whole thing broken up by self-mocking texts, amusing interludes and exciting dancing …
This is vocaldente – this is the art of a cappella singing, this is a cappella art .
"... a real lust for their singing and performing that is infectious for the listener ... "
(Stephen Connolly, The King's Singers )
