2018 Participating Groups
 | | Feedback
New York City's Jazz R&B group, Feedback is a group of professional musicians who have been seen and heard by millions around the world -both live and via broadcast. Turning artists like Usher and Jazmine Sullivan on their head, the group pushes the boundaries of both jazz and R&B. Feedback boasts a spellbinding variety of talents: Doug and Garrett make jingles and songs for major corporations; TEDx Beatboxer, Ben Mirin brings the beats, and can also perfectly imitate 50 bird calls; Mike takes helm at a recording studio; Alec arranges choral works, with some seeing performances at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall; Sam is a studio singer and professional whistler (which he insists is "actually a thing"). This will be Feedback's 2nd appearance at Harmony Sweeps, and they're pumped about it!
Members: Mike Gullo, Sam Nulton, Doug Larsen
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Mezzo
Established in 2015, Mezzo is a all-female a cappella group that has been performing all over the tri-state area. They pride themselves on cool arrangements of contemporary tunes, as well as reinventions of classic hits. To learn more about Mezzo, check out their website at www.mezzonyc.com or follow them on social media @mezzonyc!
Members: Erin Mazuera, Amanda Lim, Liz Chapman, Reynetta Sampson, Angie Kim, Jen Kipley
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Satellite Lane
Satellite Lane is a Long Island-based a cappella group that currently belongs to the Contemporary A cappella League. Made up of seven teachers, Satellite Lane specializes in spreading a cappella education to music programs and performing spontaneous original compositions. In March 2013, Satellite Lane competed in the New York Regional Harmony Sweepstakes, where they won "Audience Favorite," "Best Arrangement," and a special "Honorable Mention" for originality. Currently, they are working on their first studio album and several original music videos.
Members: Christine Benedetti, Melanie Malusa, Andrew Duca, Andrew Fallu, Marc Silverberg, Christopher Hoffman, Deanna Albro
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 | | Repeat Offenders
Repeat Offenders is made up of four women who love to laugh, perform, and sing four-part harmony, mostly, in the barbershop style. We got together while singing with the deeply fabulous Sirens of Gotham, and are proud to represent both them and the Harmony Celebration Chorus.
Our repeat offenses range from parodying anything and everything, creative lyric delivery, very loud singing, and constant use of phrases like “your mom” and “totes”. While we specialize in the barbershop style (experience ranging from a few years, to more than 10 years, to since birth) we love to sing anything we can find in four parts – and sometimes things we can’t too!
Members: Laura Packer, Sabrina Doolittle, Kiara Contreras, Alexis DePersia-Norelli
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Saffron
Saffron formed in January 2015 and burst onto the Region 1 Sweet Adelines scene a few months later. In both 2016 and 2017, they won the third place medal in Sweet Adelines International Region 1 Quartet Competition. Their repertoire covers an eclectic variety of charts ranging from folk ballads, to toe-tapping jazzy standards, to southern rock melodies, all arranged in classic and tight barbershop chording that is sure to put a tear in your eye and a smile in your heart!
Members: Susan Berry, Amanda Fowski, Penny Schroeder, Christine Bulgini
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 | | Ten and Change
Ten and Change began performing in 2001 and has since performed all over NYC, from humble beginnings on the top floor of a member's apartment (with the not-so-humble NYC skyline in the background) to such well-known venues as CBGB, the Knitting Factory, Upright Citizen Brigade Theater, Arlene's Grocery and Crash Mansion. The group has performed the National Anthem at Shea Stadium and Harbor Yard (home of the Bridgeport Bluefish) and frequently entertains in large venues such as Central Park (for NYC Parks & Recreation). See our calendar for a complete listing. Ten and Change also regularly does volunteer concert work at various locales in New York City. Since the beginning, Ten and Change has entertained its audiences with tight harmonies, side-splitting humor and its hallmark trait -- complete unorganized chaos.
Members: Sam Houston, Nicholas Curcio, Michael Whitehouse, Tom Anthony, Brian Wollman, Patrick Dillon, Cheiku Camara
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Your Emcee for the Evening
Diana Preisler
Diana Preisler’s career in a cappella began as the female lead singer, and band manager of Broadway Records recording artist, Blue Jupiter. She is a featured soloists on Blue Jupiter's newest album, Twisted Broadway Vol. 1. Blue Jupiter has performed at performing arts centers, colleges, festivals, and corporate events around the world. Blue Jupiter won the Oreo “Milk’s Favorite Jingle” contest, hosted by famed American Idol Judge Randy Jackson, and has performed with iconic performers like The Roots, Livingston Taylor, and The Persuasions. Companies like: Disney, ABC Family, the Food Network, Honda, NOKIA, Nickelodeon, and Hermes have featured Blue Jupiter at their corporate events. You may have seen Blue Jupiter on Oprah, the Huff Post, headlining at theatres around the globe, cruise ships and casinos, including over 200 shows at the Sands Casino in Macau, China.
Diana’s work as an a cappella performance coach and mentor caught the attention of Lifetime TV in 2014. Soon after, Diana helped create and star in the Lifetime original a cappella series, "Pitch Slapped.” This competition docu-series featured Diana working with high school students through 10 weeks of competition. “Pitch Slapped" continues to air on Lifetime in countries across the world.
Before Diana began her career as an a cappella singer, she graced the theatrical stage on multiple national Broadway tours such as “Fiddler on the Roof” and “A Christams Carol.” Regional roles across the US include Eva Peron in "Evita", Ado Annie in "Oklahoma", Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz”, Linda in “Blood Brothers” and Shelley in "Bat Boy, The Musical.” As a Nationally televised voice-over artist, you’ve heard Diana as the voice of MTV, Nickelodeon, Behr Paint, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Herbal Essences, Priceline, Planter’s (with Robert Downy Jr), Fisher Price, HGTV, VH1, or Bank of America (to name just a few.) |
2018 Judges
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Louise Robinson
Louise Robinson, a native New Yorker, studied concert bass for six years and attended the High School of Music and Art. A graduate of Howard University with a BFA, her professional career began at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. Louise accepted Robert Hooks’ invitation to become a member of the new, D.C. Black Repertory Company Acting Ensemble. It was out of this theatre company that Louise, along with Carol Maillard. Bernice Johnson Reagon, and Mie, formed the a cappella quartet, Sweet Honey In The Rock.
Louise’s colorful career has taken her up many paths, including performances, both on and off-Broadway, and in film and studio recording. She has also worn the producer’s hat as she, along with Maillard and Smokey Ronald Stevens, produced A Sho Nuff Variety Revue, a series of performances showcasing some of New York’s finest talent, including Adolph Casear, Sandra Reeves Phillips, and legendary tap dancers Gregory Hines, Avon Long, and Joe Attles.
Louise was the founding director of the Bay Area a cappella quintet, Street Sounds, taking their music around the country and the world for 14 years. Louise returned to Sweet Honey In The Rock in 2004, and combines her experience in theatre and music to offer a workshop that explores the creative freedom in us all. |
Mark Paul
Mark Paul is an accomplished a cappella performer, music director, vocal coach, and lifelong musician. A 39-year member of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS), he is the former bass singer of a top-20 International-level a cappella barbershop quartet, Reveille, that for nine years regularly entertained audiences across the United States and internationally. Reveille holds a quartet championship in the BHS six-state Mid-Atlantic District. He served for seventeen years in top musical leadership positions for gold and silver internationally competitive BHS choruses and was the front-line Musical Director of a BHS District level chorus. He has performed in a documentary film about barbershop singing and on two music albums. An a cappella vocal coach for 34 years, Mark works with individuals, quartets, and choruses, and has served as faculty on several a cappella music education programs, both domestically and abroad. Mark is a Reiki Master, certified to use healing energy to help remove blockages and assist in correcting imbalances, and he also works as an Executive Leadership Development Coach. He integrates his leadership development and Reiki work into his vocal coaching, guiding people on an energetic level to reach higher degrees of musical awareness and achievement. Mark’s favorite downtime activities are surf fishing and camping. |
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Carol Maillard
Carol Lynn Maillard is an actress, singer and composer. Her passion for the stage brought her to the D.C. Black Repertory Company and the beginnings of the vocal ensemble that was to become Sweet Honey In The Rock. Carol is an accomplished actress and has performed in film, television and on stage. Her theater credits encompass a wide range of styles from musical comedy and revues to drama and experimental. She has performed on and off Broadway (Eubie, Don’t Get God Started, Comin’ Uptown, Home, It’s So Nice To Be Civilized, Beehive, Forever My Darling); with the Negro Ensemble Company (Home, Zooman and the Sign, Colored Peoples Time, The Great Mac Daddy); and the New York Shakespeare Festival (Spunk, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Under Fire, A Photograph…); also at the Actors Studio (Hunter). She can be seen in the feature films Beloved and Thirty Years to Life. On television, Carol has appeared in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide and Halleluiah! ( PBS) ; Law and Order: SVU and Law and Order. Carol is a founding member of SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK. Her powerful rendition of Motherless Child arranged for Sweet Honey, is featured in the motion picture, THE VISIT and the Dorothy Height documentary, WE ARE NOT VANISHING. Carol was Conceptual Producer for the documentary film on PBS’ American Masters 2005 – SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK: RAISE YOUR VOICE! Produced and directed by Stanley Nelson (Firelightmedia Films), the film chronicled Sweet Honey’s 30th Anniversary year (2003). As a vocalist, she has had the privilege to record with Horace Silver, Betty Buckley, and the SYDA Foundations inspirational recording Sounds of Light. In 2003, her poem H2O Flow was featured as the opening selection of Marjorie Reyersons photo/poetry book WATER MUSIC. And in 1998, she penned the HERSTORY for Sweet Honey’s first songbook, CONTINUUM. |
 
Complete list of 2018 participants
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Interested
in
Performing?
We are always seeking groups who would like to participate
in our events.
Groups of any style are welcome, but you must have between
3 and 12 members. We have a rule book which explains many of the
details of the event, which you can see by clicking here. All groups must audition in
order to compete. Generally this is done by sending a current tape
and photo, although live auditions are sometimes arranged. The
purpose of the audition is to make sure the group is appropriate for
the Festival and to help the Director determine the performance
order. If a group has competed previously, the audition process may
be waived.
How to enter
Please send music and photos to the
regional director :
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Colette Thompson (New York)
Colette Thompson has directed or performed in over eleven vocal ensembles, with her group, Stay Tuned, placing 3rd in the 1998 New York Regional of the Harmony Sweepstakes; Colette has performed/recorded with Lukas Foss, Leonard Bernstein, Jesse Norman, Peter, Paul & Mary, and James Levine A billboard-ranked singer/songwriter, she has also managed several events, including, Christmas at NYU, Complex at the Duplex, and An Evening with The Real Group at NYC's Symphony Space. With performances televised via major news programs including Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN, and NY1, she is a promoter, producer, adjudicator and an ambassador of vocal music worldwide.
128 Fort Greene Place, Suite 1B, Brooklyn, NY 11217
917-442-2011
colette.thompson (at) mac.com
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