MOUNT VERNON — The Knox Memorial welcomes “Christmas with Rockapella” to the theater on Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 7:30 p.m. More information and tickets are available at www.knoxmemorial.org.
They’ve become one of the world’s most sophisticated, lasting, and imitated vocal groups around today. Since the early ’90s when they first achieved national television fame on PBS’s “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?,” they’ve toured the globe and provided a funky powerful soundtrack to several generations of vocal music fans, while keeping it all fresh along the way. With buckets of catchy original pop songs, and complete contemporary revisions of sparkling Motown, pop, and soul classics, this group has always been the one to watch. “Often imitated – never duplicated” applies here.
As one of the progenitors of the astonishing full-band sound of “contemporary” a cappella, Rockapella has shown every audience the raw power of pure vocal talent and originality. “There’s nothing between us and the audience – it’s very human music – with nothing missing,” said Rockapella’s human beatbox Jeff Thacher.
“We make it rock and make it interesting,” explains Scott Leonard, the group’s chief songwriter, arranger and an architect of their ever-evolving and imitated dynamic sound. USA Today summed up the lasting appeal like this: “The best musical instrument of all is the human voice – if you’ve seen Rockapella you know that’s the truth.”
“People have a hard time believing it’s just us making all of that music. It’s still those same elements that make modern band music: percussion, bass, melody and harmonies,” said Leonard. “Our success in the art of it – it’s not what you do, but how you do it!” added Thatcher. And Rockapella has indeed proven that forming original pop and soul magic onstage is what sets them apart.
Performance is one night only, Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 7:30 p.m., at the Knox Memorial at 112 E. High Street in Mount Vernon. Guest can enjoy a cash/credit bar starting at 6:30 in Veterans Hall. For tickets and information, visit www.knoxmemorial.org or call the Mount Vernon Arts Consortium at 740-462-4ART.
