The M-PACT Vocal Festival is returning to Kansas City Kansas Community College next month.
The MPACT Vocal Festival is Dec. 5 and 6 at the KCKCC Performing Arts Center. A non-competitive festival, vocal jazz ensembles, contemporary a cappella groups and other small choral ensembles will have the opportunity to perform and work hands-on with M-Pact, the award-winning American pop/jazz vocal group. The festival will also be livestreamed on KCKCC’s YouTube as well as on the festival’s website.
M-PACT will provide an evening performance at 8 p.m. Dec. 5 at the Blue Room in the American Jazz Museum. KCKCC’s Fusion Vocal Jazz Ensemble will open the show.
Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “one of the best pop-jazz vocal groups in the world,” m-pact is known for its sophisticated sound that has won the group Vocal Group of the Year at the L.A. Music Awards and an Indie nomination from the Independent Grammys.
The group has been named Grand National Champs of the Harmony Sweepstakes competition and has performed with artists such as Boyz II Men, Sheryl Crow, the Woody Herman Orchestra, the Maynard Ferguson Big Band and Natalie Cole, among many others. Their “signature sound” can also be heard in television theme songs as well as Disney feature films and on radio stations throughout the world.
Started in 1995, m-pact has made five full-length albums, three EP’s and several single releases and continues to receive rave reviews and multiple awards. Billboard Magazine named them the “Best Unsigned Band” and in 2014, the group joined with New York a cappella powerhouse Duwende to produce “I Wish for All Time,” an a cappella tribute to Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.
For more information on the m-pact Vocal Festival, contact John Stafford II, professor of music at KCKCC and director of choral activities at 913-288-7137 or by email at jstafford@kckcc.edu.