Ho, ho harmony: New a cappella group Vocal Fusion at Palace

CANTON − Vocal Fusion will bring together an eclectic group of singers when it performs inaugural Christmas shows this Friday and Saturday at the Canton Palace Theatre.

Engineer, electrician, house cleaner, insurance broker, school teachers and college students are among the talented vocalists.

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Brian Kieffer, Vocal Fusion's musical and artistic director, said what unifies the mix of backgrounds is a passion and love for artistic performance and spreading joy through song.

"It's almost like they share the same music DNA," he said. "So when you bring them together, it's really something remarkable because they seem to connect so well."

"All I Want For Christmas" will be Vocal Fusion's first concert event; its introductory performance was at the recent Light Up Downtown event in Canton.

The new Stark County-based a cappella group will be singing classic Christmas carols and holiday pop songs, including "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," "All I Want For Christmas is You," "Silent Night" and "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm."

Tickets, $25 and $30, are available at https://www.vocalfusion.org/ and https://cantonpalacetheatre.org/ or by calling the Palace Theatre at 330-454-8172. Box office hours at the Palace, 605 Market Ave. N, are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Performances are at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

"We just want to celebrate joy and celebrate the season," Kieffer said. "And it's a time of hope and a time of love, and we just want to celebrate it with music together."

New vocal group has strong GlenOak connection

Kieffer leads the ensemble, which is a GlenOak High School reunion of sorts.

Kieffer is the longtime lead choral music director at GlenOak. Credits also include previously serving as musical and artistic director of Vox Audio, an a cappella offshoot of Sing Stark!, a Canton-based organization that includes multiple singing groups.

Most of the 17 members of Vocal Fusion are GlenOak graduates who received music instruction from Kieffer.

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Graduates range from the class of 2004 to 2023.

"Even if they didn't go to school together, there's still that common musical bond that they share," Kieffer said.

"They energize me like they did as high school students, but now as adults they definitely inspire me and energize each other," he said.

Christmas show features arrangement from Ben Bram of Pentatonix

Several local music educators are also in Vocal Fusion, including Isaac Temelkoff, director of the Plain Local Youth Choir; Conner Busby, director of choirs at Northwest Local Schools; and Miranda Derbyshire, choir teacher at Oakwood Middle School.

Another member, Madison Kieffer, is an early childhood educator for Plain Local Schools.

Other members of Vocal Fusion are Joshua Boerner, Cory Boosz, Mandy Dennis, Chloe Dotson, Josie Herttna, Justin Hurst, Christian Kellamis, Jackie Lucas, John Mihai, Lauren Semelsberger, Raena Temelkoff, Tyson Upshaw, Alex VonBurg and Roman Wells.

Boerner and Boosz are co-executive directors of Vocal Fusion. Mark Vandegrift is board president of the group.

Vocal Fusion will put its own stamp on classic Christmas carols and songs.

Seventeen songs will be featured in the roughly 90-minute performance.

Two vocal jazz ensembles from GlenOak, the Drifters and Notables, will make appearances and perform with Vocal Fusion during the Christmas shows.

Ben Bram, a Grammy award-winning arranger, music director and producer, has written a commissioned arrangement of "The Christmas Song," which Vocal Fusion will debut at the Palace Theatre performances.

"We're really excited to have connected with him," Kieffer said of Bram, who has served as arranging collaborator, producer and engineer for Pentatonix, a world-renowned singing group that won season three of the NBC television show, "The Sing-Off."

A few of Kieffer's past students have worked with Bram in Los Angeles.

"So I used this connection and openness on his part to reach out to see if he would arrange something just for us ... and he was thrilled to do so," Kieffer said. "We have a solid professional relationship, and I am looking forward to working with him again in this regard."

Performed without words will be "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Vocalists will create the sounds of guitars and other instruments.

Song arrangements will be 'innovative and fresh'

A cappella is a timeless form of singing dating back centuries, Kieffer said.

Beatboxing is a vocal technique used to create the sounds of percussion and other instrumentation, he noted. Rich harmonies are a hallmark of a cappella.

"You are your own instrument, and it becomes very personal when you're singing," Kieffer said. "It's not like you can put your voice into a case and close it up when you're done; it's part of you."

Movies like "Pitch Perfect" have broadened the appeal of pop a cappella singing, as well as the popular vocal groups Pentatonix and Straight No Chaser, he said.

"Younger folks love it and the older folks love it because the arrangements we do our timeless," Kieffer said. "We present it in a really fresh way with these innovative and fresh arrangements we do."

Spring concert will showcase movie music

Vocal Fusion will perform both Christmas and spring shows annually, featuring a wide variety of musical genres, including new releases and special cover arrangements. Those shows also will raise funds for the group's educational initiative and youth programming.

"The idea is to make youth aware of this particular type of performing art and the nuances of a cappella performance and related techniques such as beatboxing," Vandegrift said.

Themed performances will be part of the group's repertoire, including a concert in spring 2024, "Lights, Camera, A Cappella," which will showcase songs from movies.

Goals include performing outside Stark County and possibly touring.

"We just think the possibilities for this particular group are endless for us," Kieffer said. "It's not only the joy of us singing, but it's also the joy for people becoming part of what we do."

Reach Ed at ebalint@gannett.com. On X (formerly Twitter) @ebalintREP and Instagram at ed_balint

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Ho, ho harmony: New a cappella group Vocal Fusion at Palace