Acapella Sedona, with a lineup of special guest performers, will be singing a showcase of regional talent to benefit Manzanita Outreach, a Cottonwood-based nonprofit which helps connect people in Yavapai County with food assistance.
This first-of-its kind performance will begin at 7 p.m. at the Old Town Center for the Arts in Cottonwood on Saturday, Nov. 14.
“We’re not-for-profit, we don’t need to s make money, so we’re always trying to do something for the community when we can,” President of Acapella Sedona Wally Reule said. “We just have a tradition of giving back to the community.”
In addition to Acapella Sedona, other performers will include Shondra Jepperson, Patrick Ki, the Red Rockapella Quartet, Tommy “Rocks” Anderson and the Village Ukulele People.
“It’s the first time we’ve done this,” Reule said. “We’ve performed with other, smaller groups, and we brought in some of the best barbershop quartets over the years to Sedona. But it’s the first show where we’ve had this many guests.”
Ruele said that Acapella Sedona usually does one major concert a year, typically at the Church of the Red Rocks. But in recent years, things have started to change.
“We’ve been growing and we’ve got more people that just love to do it,” Ruele said. “We’ve decided to expand and do more of them rather than one show, and let’s do it differently and let’s expand a little bit out of Sedona.”
Acapella Sedona formed in 2001 as an all-male barbershop chorus called Harmony of the Rocks. But needing to find tenors, they expanded to include women singers a few years later, even if it meant they could no longer participate in competitions.
Eventually, more groups nationwide also began including women singers in their ranks.
“We were a pioneer there,” Reule said.
Although they had seen a decline over the last five years, Acapella Sedona has doubled their ranks to over 25 members after a rebrand Reule attributed to “changing tastes.”
“We still honor our barbershop heritage, but we sing a lot of other different arrangements,” Reule said, adding that they have performed hits by The Beatles, Billy Joel and Crosby, Stills & Nash, among others.
He promises that in addition to the barbershop songs that Acapella Sedona is known for, their repertoire will include a “variety of a cappella music, different genres and styles.”
“It’s going to be, I think, a lot of fun and it’s going to be an interesting variety kind of show,” he said.
Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door and $20 for priority seating in the first three rows. For more information, visit oldtowncenter.org or call 928-634-0940.
