Article by Jasmin Justo
“Voco Novo” means “new voices” in Italian and describes the emerging acapella group mission to create new sounds and collaborate with different art forms. From Taiwan, the five members came together with different musical backgrounds in 2009 and together have traveled to Korea, Hong Kong, China, Austria, Sweden and Germany. They have won various awards in international competitions including “Best Solo” Award at the 2010 Seoul International Acapella Competition and “Best Arrangement” in 2012 International Acapella Competition, Graz, Austria.
This year the group is on their first USA tour and performed live at NYU Skirball Center hosted by the Taipei Cultural Center. They sang their original award winning hits including the sweet “Missing You” and the upbeat jazzy “Going to Paris”. At the performance they sang their newest original song “Across the Milky Way”. Their song “Across the Milky Way” is based on the Taiwanese love folktale about two lovers who are live in different galaxies and can only meet once a year which is on Taiwan’s Valentine’s day. The song is sung in Mandarin and has a sweet melody that reflects the sorrow and love that the two couples feel for one another. “Across the Milky Way” won the 2013 CARA “Best Folk/World Song”.
Voco Novo gave a lively performance at the NYU Skirball hosted by the Taipei Cultural Center in NYC. With a interactive audience sing along and a short beat boxing lesson, Voco Novo is a lively energetic musical group as exciting as their songs. Their flexibility in song genre ranges from jazz, folk song, to a combination of beat boxing with chorus, has created original songs such as “I Wanna be with You”, “Under the Tsung Blossom Tree”, “Lantern Night” and “Voices”. Voco Novo is an inspirational band that will continue to the evolving boundaries of traditional acapella music.
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