Do it, Rockapella! This Saturday, the well-known vocal group is in Provo for two shows
DAILY HERALD
Krystin Anderson
The last several years have turned into quite a geography lesson for the members of a cappella quintet Rockapella, whose popular vocal stylings have taken them all over the planet. Lucky for them, the group spent much of the '90s on the set of the PBS geography show "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" and have its global knowledge down pat.
Lucky for us, their global tour is landing at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo on Saturday for a one-night, two-performance a cappella spree, marking more than 15 years of performing in Utah.
"Utah has a special place in my heart, because when Rockapella first started out ... we got this offer from Orem, Utah, to come play there," said Scott Leonard, high tenor and senior member of the group. "We get there and there's like 5,000 people screaming, 'Do it a cappella!' "
Despite its devoted fan base, a cappella music, said Leonard, is still an underground genre in America, although the movement has grown significantly since Rockapella's early '90s days.
"It's like since Rockapella started, there's so many [a cappella] college groups and high-school groups now," Leonard said. "Most colleges have several groups now, so it's a much larger cult than it was back then."
This is evident in the lineup for Saturday's performances, which includes a cappella performances by BYU's Vocal Point, and 4Real, a quartet of teenage girls from Utah.
Rockapella performs 80 to 100 times a year, Leonard said, and continues to evolve to meet audience needs, including adapting music for international audiences, changing members and expanding styles.
Leonard said the group's style shifted a bit with the addition of newest member, second tenor John Brown.
"When (he) joined it was kind of a new direction for Rockapella -- a little more R&B, a little more stage show, a lot more choreography and slickness and the music got a little funkier than it used to be," Leonard said.
What hasn't changed, however, is Rockapella's ability to put on a show Leonard called "a musical bonanza of originality."
"I don't really look at it in the big-picture sense," Leonard said. "You just make music and connect with the audience. ... It's mostly about the moments and the love between the audience and us ... but you do have to put your passion into it, and I think everybody's still doing that."
Current Rockapella members are Leonard, tenor Kevin Wright, Brown, bass George Baldi III and vocal percussionist Jeff Thatcher. Ifyougo
Rockapella
When: Saturday, 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Where: Covey Center for the Arts, 425 W. Center St., Provo
Tickets: $24, $19 students w/ID and seniors
Info: 852-7007, www.coveycenter.org; www.rockapella.com
