A Cappella Festival coming to New Egypt High School

PLUMSTED - The Plumsted Township Council for the Arts will host an A Cappella Festival on Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. at New Egypt High School, Evergreen Road. The concert will feature five groups representing the wide range of a cappella music, including the tight harmonies of barbershop music, the cool and pop sounds of contemporary a cappella music, and the nostalgic tunes of doo wop music.

Tickets to the concert are $8 for adults; $5 for students and children. The musical lineup will include:

Liberty Oak Chorus is an award-winning women's barbershop chorus and a Freehold-based chapter of Sweet Adelines International. The chorus has a long list of awards earned at their regional competition over the years. The Liberty Oak Chorus (60-plus members) helps to preserve barbershop style music, an original American art form. Their repertoire consists of songs that span generations, all arranged with the unique chord structure that exemplifies the barbershop genre and all performed "the new fashioned way."

Street Corner Five is a doo wop group which was formed in 1983 as an outgrowth of a reunion of former members of a young local Philadelphia group, The Hollanders. Original Hollanders Dee Jaskel and Bob Giordano are still with the group today. The group has appeared in countless venues in the Philadelphia area.

Escape is a women's barbershop quartet which are the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Greater New York Regional Quartet Champions. Escape has performed in a variety of settings, including private parties, Morristown Music Men Barbershop Show, Bridgewater Seniors Group, Harmony Network radio station, six years with Westfield's Home for the Holidays Performance series, and outdoor community concerts. Escape performs a repertoire of popular, contemporary songs, show tunes and ballads.

Family Affair is a men's barbershop quartet that has about 100 years of collective barbershop experience from all its members, but has only been singing together since January 2006. Since their start, Family Affair has had a very successful competition run. Family Affair is most noted for its slow jazz music, but can perform almost anything from traditional favorites to show tunes with a lot of laughs thrown in to keep things interesting.

Key of She is a contemporary a cappella quintet that performs original arrangements of everything from Gershwin to Sting, Leon Russell to Kelly Clarkson, the ridiculous to the sublime. The group started in 2001 and a year later won the Audience Favorite and runner-up titles at the New York Harmony Sweepstakes.

In May 2002 they opened for Ray Charles at the Union County Arts Center in Rahway. In December 2004 they appeared on the nationally syndicated Jane Pauley Show. Their latest album, "In the Key of She," was one of 10 nominated for Best A Cappella Album, Best Cover Song and Best Female Artist from more than 25,000 entries.

For updated information about this or any other Council for the Arts event, call (609) 758-2241, ext. 144 or visit www.PlumstedArtsCouncil. org for details.