On Saturday, Aug. 22, the 150 seats at Plant City Entertainment will be open for anyone who wishes to enjoy a capella by the Soaring Sounds Vocal Ensemble.
The entire ensemble is a mixture of around 30 paid singers, ranging from backpacked college kids to 50-year-old science teachers, all with a love for music and the community. This coming concert eight singers will be visiting the Plant City stage.
The performance is “And All That Jazz” and will feature jazzy, upbeat chords. All eight singers also will debut a solo accompanied by a pianist.
A capella is a type of Italian based music that is designed to be sung without instrumental company.
“I think they’ll love it,” Jenise Freeland, a member of the group, said. “It’s different from anything else.”
While many of the singers have a rich melodic background and a few music degrees, some were just pulled in by the community-dedicated feel of the group.
Lamar Galloway is a middle school biology teacher and a devoted member of the ensemble.
“I was there for the first concert,” Galloway said. “After I saw (Joe Mendolia’s) enthusiasm for the music, I told him I’d be in.”
27-year-old Joe Mendolia is the artistic director of the ensemble. He started the group with a musical colleague in Jan of 2014 after receiving a master in music at USF. With 12 singers, all of them friends, they set out to hold seasonal concerts wherever they were welcomed.
“A lot of people think of a capella as stuffy, but our group is actually very entertaining and low key,” Mendolia said.
Mendolia recounts one occasion in which he was performing, and he and the conductor exchanged a candid arrangement of puns in the middle of the professional concert.
“It was not planned, and the audience loved it,” he said.
The Soaring Sounds Vocal Ensemble performs six concerts a year, some of which around holidays, such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
“My favorite concert personally is the last year October concert,” Mendolia said. “It was Halloween based. It’s not something that people that people really do, and everyone enjoyed it.”
The group sang at the Plant City Entertainment Theater last June. The performance was “Hits from Stage and Screen.”
“We were really well received, that’s why Plant City invited us back,” Galloway said. “If someone loves music and doesn’t really know anything about a capella I would encourage them to come and listen.”
While the group regularly holds performances in Temple Terrace, a lot of of the members live in Plant City.
“At our last performance in Plant City, the majority of the people knew us from the community,” Jenise Freeland said. “It was a neat, homey feel.”
The group is constantly looking for places to perform, and while churches are ideal, they pose a problem for an aspiring group of musicians.
“Even though churches are amazing, people think you are affiliated with them after a while,” Mendolia said. “Being in a community theater gives us more freedom.”
The group holds auditions twice a year and is always looking for talented performers.
IF YOU GO:
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22
WHERE: 101 N. Thomas St.
PRICE: Adults, $10; kids, free; advance tickets can be bought online at SoaringSoundsTampa.org or $15 at the door.
