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Pepperdine Presented Ascending Voice International A Cappella Music Festival  

Ascending Voice, the largest and most eclectic gathering ever devoted exclusively to a cappella music, recently took place at Pepperdine University from June 4 through June 7. The diverse international four-day music festival brought more than 400 attendees to the Malibu campus for unique lectures, presentations, and performances.  

The program showcased a variety of musical styles with lectures upon or performances of sacred harp music, Orthodox chants, Anglican choral music, Amish “slow singing,” Latin American choral music, African hymnody, and Taiwanese indigenous Christian music of the Bunun tribe.

Pepperdine provost and festival organizer Darryl Tippens reflected, "Though the Ascending Voice is now a memory, I believe that it will prove to be an historic, transformative event for the participants. For four full days, attendees from throughout the U.S. and several foreign countries enjoyed an extraordinary variety of sacred a cappella music, from medieval chant to newly composed hymns. We sang and heard music performed from Europe, America, the Middle East, South America, India, China, and Africa. As one young participant wrote us, 'My life has changed through attending this symposium, and I truly mean it.'"

Festival highlights included diverse evening performances by Grammy Award-winning a cappella group Anonymous 4, Colombian choir Arcadia Coro de Camara, award-winning six-member group The Concord Ensemble, and the hypnotizing all-male ensemble Cappella Romana.

For more information on Ascending Voice, please visit the Ascending Voice Web site.