This year, SoJam welcomes two new leaders: Executive Producer, Dave Sroka, and Assistant Executive Producer, Brian Watts.

Dave Sroka, obsessed with music creation and performance since the age of 4, co-founded Raleigh, NC-based CAL group Cognitive Resonance, for which he currently serves as Creative Director, primary arranger, and performer. He first ventured into vocal performance in college at Virginia Tech singing with the university’s Concert Choir, small chamber choir Camerata, and Early Music Ensemble, but never stopped nerding out over the school’s contemporary a cappella groups. He also performs with Chapel Hill’s classical vocal ensemble Cantari and stays active in the local arts community via theater and musical productions, group coaching, and consultations. A web developer by trade, Dave founded and runs Robot Factorial, a mobile application and game development studio.

Brian Watts, a member of the SoJam team for the last few years, has been singing in various ensembles since age nine. Before graduating from NC State University, Brian sang with both the Concert Choir and Acappology. He was the music director of Acappology for three years and helped to release the group’s first album in 10 years. While attending graduate school at Duke University, Brian sang with Rhythm and Blue for two years, during which time the group won the SoJam 2010 Collegiate Competition. You might remember his performance. If not, here’s a reminder.

And, of course, we’ve been working with your festival headliners. Or, rather, THE headliners. Yes, it should definitely be preceded with a definitive article and some capital letters and perhaps even be shouted from the rooftops. And it will be. Expect that announcement to come one month from today.

So when can YOU get a bright and shiny piece of this excitement? Sooner than ever. Tickets go on sale July 1, 2013.

…my mind was blown at SoJam!!!!! Thanks so much to the people that make that event happen! My kids in Forte said it was the single best weekend of their lives and that they’ve been changed forever!!!! Thanks so much for making a difference!!

Ben Spalding is the head Choral Director at Centerville High School in Dayton, Ohio. At Centerville, Ben directs all of the choirs and the a cappella group Forte. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Kentucky. Ben’s a cappella roots go back to college, when he was a member of the University of Kentucky AcoUstiKats and a semi-professional group called 5 by Tuesday. His love for music goes as far back as elementary school and music has and always will be a major driving force in his life. @HSacappella

COLLEGIATE COMPETITION – FRIDAY, NOV. 2, 2012

• 1st place: Northeastern University Nor’easters
• 2nd place: University of Colorado Denver Mix

SPECIAL AWARDS

• Best Arrangement: Shams Ahmed, Northeastern University Nor’easters
• Best VP: Beejul Khatri, Northeastern University Nor’easters
• Best Staging: Northeastern University Nor’easters for their entire set
• Most Original: University of Colorado Denver Mix
• Best Soloist: Meredith Crowley for “Never Let Me Go” of Georgia Tech Nothin’ but Treble

We want to send a big thank you to all of the groups who performed – it was a stellar show. We hope to see you next year!

Mobile Schedule

While all the registration materials will be included in the program you receive when you arrive, there are inevitably some minor changes to the schedule for the weekend. Our mobile version of the schedule will be kept up to date as changes occur: m.sojam.net

This schedule also includes some useful information for the weekend, such as:

   •    The AcaBomb schedule
   •    Information about the free circulator bus in downtown Raleigh (the R-Line)
   •    Afterparty location information

Text Notifications

You can also subscribe to text notifications of any last minute changes by texting “subscribe” to (919) 648-4471.

SATURDAY:
8:00am Serious Business with Mark Hines (mark@thevocalcompany.com)
10:30am Advanced VP with Rachel Chalhoub (richalhoub@gmail.com)
1:00pm Intermediate VP with Corey Slutsky (cbslutsky@gmail.com)
2:30pm Advanced VP with Scott Cobban (scobban@gmail.com)
4:00pm Hit Songwriting with Tat Tong [this workshop is open enrollment, but a limited number of attendees are invited to send mp3s of arrangements ahead of time for in-class feedback] (t2productions.sg@gmail.com)

SUNDAY:
10:00am Troubleshooting Arranging with Rob Dietz (rdietz55@gmail.com)

See you all soon!

I’m a nerd.

An aca-nerd at that.

There, I’ve said it. I say it pretty proudly.

Years ago I didn’t trumpet it so far and wide. Oh of course it was known—whom was I trying to kid. I was the Associate Editor of an international newsmagazine devoted to a cappella music and coached groups on how to perform in competitions. That is when I wasn’t being a theatregeek and RENThead,

So instead of letting aca-nerd be a mark of shame, I learned long ago to embrace my love of all things “bah,” “doh”, “dot”, “dit”, “ah”, “oh”, “la”, “loo”, “oo”, “no”, “na” and “ding” — a set of silly syllables that truly can get you through any dull moment you experience.

But what I soon realized was that I hadn’t totally let my freak flag fly. I hadn’t yet experienced that fantastic joy of being surrounded by hundreds of likeminded individuals gathered together to make some harmony, a little bit of dissonance and spit a couple of “tsks” and “pbts” during a jam packed weekend of debauchery. I had yet to learn to revel in my induction into a not so secret fraternity of friends and acquaintances from around the world known as a summit weekend.

For me, that induction wouldn’t come until a sweltering June 24, 1999 at the East Coast A Cappella Summit held at Tufts University in Boston (or Medford for all of you sticklers out there). Thanks to the interwebs there is even some photographic evidence.

Mind blown. Face melted. That’s pretty much all I remember from that weekend.

There I was sitting on a panel discussing the state of a cappella and what trends are bringing about the next evolution with RICHARD “Bob” GREENE and PAUL COOPER of The Nylons. What the wha? I was just a little black boy from the middle of North Carolina trying to find my way amongst people who’d been singing to me for almost 20 years. I got to stage manage a concert featuring new friends Ball in the House I’d just met when they performed at the 1999 NCCA Southeastern Showcase I’d just produced. And I got to start friendships with and sing with members of Toxic Audio in a big circle outside. What kind of nerd heaven had I stepped into?

Why, the wonderful and magical world of the CASA weekend.

And now it’s your turn to claim your aca-nerdiness. That’s what SoJam is all about! SoJam is a weekend of opportunity. Not only do you get to listen to, but also interact with, drink with and — if you are lucky — sing with the people whose music you’ve been salivating over for the past however many years.

It’s encouraged, no commanded that you do something so a cappella crazy that your children will be embarrassed to know you.

THINGS TO DO AT SOJAM TO GET YOUR NERD RAGE ON:

• Take home the handouts from the workshops and, you know… read them.
• Join or start a drumming circle somewhere on campus.
• Think about and discuss what it will take to get your group to the “next level” that DOESN’T depend on winning the ICCA or getting on the next BOCA/Sing as the end result.
• Make up a song to sing during one of the afterglow parties.
• Hold a competition with your bandmates to see who can meet the most folks on the ACA100 list.
• Come to the Global A cappella panel and tell the world about the next big thing to happen in this genre/art form/style of ours.

Yeah, because funny enough, once you get wrapped up in aca-nerdiness, it stays with you. Yep, I’m about to do it again 13 years later. See you at SoJam at the panel that I’m sitting on with OH MY GOD IT’S JONTE RAMSTEN, MIA HAFREN, BILL HARE AND FLORIAN STADLER.

I just had an aca-gasm.

Looks like it’s that time of year again. The leaves are starting to turn, and let me tell you – they’re absolutely beautiful in this part of the country. The nights have just started to get chilly, and it’s time to pull the jackets out of the closet. All of which must mean one thing: it’s almost time for my annual pilgrimage to North Carolina for the SoJam Festival. I’ve been to every single one, and it’s seriously difficult for me to comprehend that this festival is in its Tenth year. I remember all of the various places it’s been held (that Megachurch was something else) and the camaraderie of hanging out with the other wonderfully talented and endearingly weird people who have devoted themselves to this unusual art form. I remember too the amazing pro group performances (Deke’s vocal trumpet and my first time seeing Fork are probably my personal favorites). The masterclasses have really come along as well, becoming more insightful and effective with every passing year. After ten years of excellent music, friends, and getting to enjoy the hell out of myself each time, SoJam has become a fantastic fall tradition for me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The a cappella world at large, on the other hand, seems to go through major changes with each passing year. When I first attended SoJam, it was while competing with my college group. I thought we were pretty good at the time, but I can’t imagine we would even have been accepted to compete this year. We had no concept of using a live octavizer on the bass, or even using individual microphones for the background parts. The top college groups now have learned from the pros, and especially in the past few years those college groups put on a show that’s often able to rival the professionals – great musicality, great stage presence, effective choreo, and even a bit of swagger – and I find that incredibly impressive. You owe it to yourself to check out the college competition and appreciate how far the collegiate art form has progressed.

The non-aca world is taking notice, too. By now you probably know about (and maybe have already seen) the movie Pitch Perfect, which is about life in a college a cappella group. I just saw it, and it’s basically an exaggerated version of exactly what my college experience was like. (I really wish my group could have riffed like that, but alas, we weren’t quite that good). The movie seems to have hit on something people find captivating, as it’s doing pretty well at the box office. The Sing-Off has exposed millions of people to a cappella; NBC needs to get with the program and bring it back for Season 4. USA Today just named the Top 5 A Cappella groups in the country – previously I wasn’t aware that anyone at USA Today knew what a cappella was.

The a cappella world could very well be on the verge of an explosion in popularity – the TV, news, and movie exposure will bring a whole new crowd of people who are interested in the art form and want to learn about it and eventually take it to the next level. What will that next level look like? I doubt anyone can say for sure. But let’s start by exposing new fans to the best we have to offer, and refining our own art in the process. Let’s start at the once little festival that’s become the flagship for the state-of-the-art: SoJam X.

After reviewing a long list of submissions, we are proud to announce this year’s competitors for the SoJam X Collegiate Competition. Thank you to all the groups who submitted to compete.

The SoJam X Competitors are, in no particular order:

• University of Colorado Denver Mix
• University of South Carolina Cocktails
• North Carolina State University Acappology
• Georgia Institute of Technology Nothin’ but Treble
• Northeastern University Nor’easters
• Vanderbilt University Melodores

Congratulations to this year’s selected competitors.

Have you ever been to New York City? Or San Francisco? Or really, any metropolis that has its own culture? What amazes me about those experiences is how they have this way of overwhelming your senses. Take NYC. Just a few of the sounds that hit you: Cars passing by, the newest construction site, the multi-lingual chatter, the steam coming from the manholes. As for the sights: All the historical architecture, lights of the city, the melting pot of nationalities, and, of course, “taxicab” yellow everywhere. And all the different food aromas to take in! I could go on and on… But you get the idea. It’s all about culture. And, while it might seem foolish to compare our tiny event in North Carolina to any of the top-ten cities in the country, when you think about the synergy that’s created and the overall atmosphere leading up to and following the event, is it truly that far-fetched? Considering how the festival has grown and matured over the years, is it really a surprise to think that SoJam has its own culture?

Hi. My name is Nick Lyons. If you’ve been around for awhile, you probably know who I am, but if you haven’t, I’m one of the veterans of SoJam. I’ve been there since the beginning, in one capacity or another. I’ve performed on Saturday night, taught classes on arranging, directing, performing, do-it-yourself-recording, as well as tons of masterclasses. I served as President of the Alliance for A Cappella Initiatives before SoJam became a CASA event, and just about single-handedly convinced Dave Sperandio, the festival’s founder, that it needed to continue after the initial event in 2003. You see, though the event was a commercial success, it was a financial failure in it’s first year. Believe it or not, SoJam hasn’t always been one of the main arteries of a cappella. Like so many things, it just needed time to find its place in the a cappella multiverse.

So when, exactly, did this transformation take place? SoJam started as an event where we had to convince groups to attend. We had to extend collegiate submission deadlines to get groups to submit (back before YouTube existed groups had to mail audio CD’s. CAN YOU IMAGINE?!), and even then, sometimes the 6 groups that competed were the 6 that submitted. And the performers, while no less talented than those of today, were all close personal friends, and because this was pre-Facebook / Twitter / Life, it was all extremely grassroots. It was a handful of people stopping by rehearsals to encourage people to attend. It was phone calls and emails to collegiate and professional groups alike, hunting for attendees, competitors, and headliners. For the first few years, SoJam was fueled almost completely by favors. The original had (then) up-and-coming Blue Jupiter, who now, even 10 years later, still had some of the best arrangements I’ve ever heard. DaVinci’s Notebook, who was a cross between a cappella and George Carlin (I specifically remember them dropping the f-bomb in the introduction after their first song), No Joe, because Dave was friends with Jon McLemore (yes, the same Jon McLemore that currently sings in Street Corner Symphony), and let’s not forget Andrew Chaikin… Before Kid Beyond was even a twinkle in his eye. It was the perfect conglomeration of talent, guaranteed to impress everyone. And impress it did.

So, in mid-2004, when I hadn’t heard anything about SoJam from Dave, I called up a few friends to discuss stepping up to help make “SoJam 2” a reality. After gaining some support, I called Dave and basically said “what’s going on with SoJam?”. We spoke at length about Dave’s large financial investment, the successes and failures of the event and, most importantly, how it needed to continue. “A cappella needs this event on a regular recurring basis. We need to set the standard that SoJam is an annual event.” With a true SoJam team on-board, we knew the biggest hurdle was going to be landing talent. Talent was going to be what sold tickets. And we aimed as high as we could think of at the time… Which meant The House Jacks. After asking Deke Sharon how much it would cost to bring in The House Jacks, his response was “More than you can afford. But that doesn’t mean we’re not coming.”. He came, dropped some trumpet, minds were blown, history. Kidding aside, most of SoJam functioned that same way. Again, the event was fueled largely by favors. Dave Sperandio had close friend Dave Baumgartner teach vocal percussion classes and perform in the Saturday night show that year as well… And then again for the next 2 years, all pro bono. That was the year I performed with my group, Warehouse. It was a bit of a mutual favor, Dave wanting to encourage new-and-upcoming groups, as well as a favor for SoJam, since finding talent on such short notice (we put the event together in about 3 months) proved too much to accomplish. Moving through the years (because discussing 9 SoJam events in as much detail as the above still won’t do any of the events the justice they deserve), remember that time Duwende sang French rap? Yeah, that happened. And The House Jacks bear mentioning again… Between Deke’s trumpet and the “we-make-this-s#!t-up-as-we-go” section of their show (something the group is known for doing at most shows), it’s just stupid. Firedrill! came in and proved that it’s still cool to just be good. REALLY good. Then there’s the Finns in latex. Yep, latex. They came on recommendation from Kurt Walker. I remember thinking “Ummm, these guys are taking this a bit TOO seriously,” when in reality, none of us were taking them seriously enough. Pieces of the ceiling were falling. True story. Needless to say, they don’t suck. And who can forget Naturally 7? I mean, these guys open for Michael Bublé. For most people, their favorite “moment” ends up being “the part where they came out on stage and sang for 75 minutes”. They just repeatedly blow your mind. And this year we’ve got Pentatonix, who remind us that you’re never too young to find that perfect medium between ridiculous talent and unlandscaped ingenuity.

Now? Entering its tenth season, SoJam is the largest and most badassest a cappella festival in the United States, and on a short list of must-attend a cappella festivals in the world.  But when did SoJam find its place? And what about the culture? And at what point did the event start to self-sustain, and stop being a series of favors? What blows my mind is that SoJam reinvents itself every year. And that’s all because of you. Each year, more and more of you come out, and you have your “OMFG” moment, and for you, that’s when SoJam becomes the badass festival everyone else is talking about. So, while you may have come as a “favor”, or because you were badgered into it, after SoJam grabs your equilibrium and shakes the hell out of it, you’re hooked. And, at that moment, like, EXACTLY when it happens, you become part of SoJam’s history. I normally hate to humanize inanimate objects, but SoJam has got some crazy voodoo.

I was fortunate enough to sit and have dinner with Ben Stevens a few months ago… And it’s amazing how someone who I have probably spent less than 200 hours with seems like family (and, as testament to Professor Stevens: He has been mentioned in just about every SoJam blog, for one reason or another. If you haven’t spent time with him yet, find the time. This year. Can I get a witness on this? ). He’s “our people”. And then there’s Dave Sperandio. We were obviously pretty close back in ‘03. We sang together in the original incarnation of transit (and put out a pretty baller album #nbd), and occasionally worked together on a few projects, but then had a pretty severe falling out in 2008. Fast forward to 2010, when I lost my a cappella production company. Dave was the first person to send work my way, to help make ends meet. SoJam created that relationship. Powerful s#!t. Crazy voodoo.

So, as you can tell, the last 9.87 years of SoJam has had a pretty profound effect on me. BTW, for me, it was Chaikin. My equilibrium was rocked at the original SoJam in ‘03. That’s when I became part of SoJam’s history. I’ve never seen one man paint an entire stage with a microphone and drum sounds. I went on to not only co-produce SoJam for the next few years, then function as the non-profit’s President, I founded a semi-pro group that performed at SoJam in 2004, recorded a CARA-winning EP with another group 2 years later, and then toured full-time with a third group for a year. I’ve also owned two a cappella production companies, and currently make my living recording and producing a cappella. THAT. That is the culture I’m talking about. That’s what SoJam did for me. At what point did you become part of SoJam’s history? What event in your SoJam history transformed the event from fulfilling a favor to securing its place as part of your life? Let’s hear it!