KwaZulu-Natal audiences are in for a musical treat when world-renowned professional Swedish a cappella outfit, The Real Group, hits home shores next week.

After recently receiving rave reviews in the UK, the group will perform with KZN’s own award-winning Kearsney College Choir at the City Hill Church in Hillcrest.

The Real Group has become famous for its jazzy vocal arrangements of well-known pop and folk songs.

According to their biography, they boast five of the best singers in the business, all with perfect pitch and able to sing practically anything, from a tuba imitation to a piccolo flute, and they are capable of “scatting” at an alarming pace to the most difficult of harmonies.

The organisers say the Durban programme will include a cappella arrangements of songs by Michael Jackson, the Count Basie Band, Mozart, Britney Spears and Bach.

The Kearsney College Choir will open the show to publicise and create awareness of their coming tour to the World Choir Games and the UN.

Tonight chatted with group member Morten Vinther about how The Real Group came about.

“In 1984, the three original male members decided to form an a cappella quintet and for that, they needed ‘a few women who could sing,’” he joked.

“We didn’t found the group with the purpose of working in this field or together with this group for the rest of our lives… we had a big passion for this genre. That it later on became our full-time job, and has been for about 25 years now, is a happy surprise every day.”

Vinther says in their early years, the ensemble’s main inspirational sources were groups like Manhattan Transfer, the Swedish sextet Gals & Pals and Bobby McFerrin’s rhythmic singing.

“I guess these musicians inspired us because what they did was comparable to what we were doing… It’s hard to define the inspiration you get from other artists, because the thing that triggers you is so different from time to time, and the music that inspires you might also change over the years,” he said.

Having only been to SA once before – on a tour that did not include Durban – Vinther says they are excited about visiting the city.

“We’re looking forward… to singing here for the first time and hope that a lot of fantastic people will find their way to the City Hill Church, it’s going to be a blast.”

Vinther says they will bring a good mix of covers and originals to the show.

“Working in this field, with a cappella music – for voices only – gives us the opportunity to play with and combine different styles of music in one concert, which we enjoy very much. So the audience will probably hear that we love both originals and covers, and that we’re diggin’ jazz, pop, Latin, classical and everything in between,” he said.

Bernard Kruger, Kearsney College choir director, explained how The Real Group’s local tour came about.

“I was approached by an Icelandic friend and colleague last year, who asked whether I would be interested in hosting The Real Group in Durban. I have been a devout follower of this group for many years and dreamt of seeing them live in my own city, but always feared the laid-back Durban public wouldn’t be interested. Now that this is happening, I can’t believe the overwhelming response and hope to see the auditorium filled to the max,” he said.

“In our very humble way, we hope to set the tone for a magnificent musical experience.”

The Kearsney College Choir will be touring to the US in July to represent the African continent at the Rhythms of One World Festival at the UN headquarters in New York.

“We will then proceed to Cincinnati to compete in the World Choir Games, where we are long-standing gold medallists. This concert will hopefully create some hype and garner some much-needed support from the greater Durban community. Our choir is very representative of South Africa and a large number of boys are on full scholarships, meaning we need to find sponsors to fund their tour costs. There might be someone in the audience who is inspired to assist in this regard,” Kruger said.

He says the audience can expect to hear an eclectic mix of music from the choir, in line with their preparations for their international tour.

“We are in the process of preparing our international concert programme, a varied and demanding mix of contemporary classical music, music of a spiritual nature, African folklore music, and pop/rock numbers. We are also in the process of finalising details for a planned recording in which the choir will collaborate with some heavyweights in the South African music industry. A grand bon voyage concert is planned for 20/21 June in our newly renovated Henderson Theatre on campus before we fly to the States,” he said.

“The Kearsney Choir has a large following in Durban and we hope that our introduction of The Real Group to Durban audiences will mean a greater support of this style of music throughout KZN. There are very jealous people in Cape Town who don’t have a chance to see the Swedes in action, some of whom are flying to Durban for this concert.

“I believe if this event is a success, we will get to see many other musical forces from other parts of the world on our own stages,” Kruger said.

• Concert takes place on February 9 at 7pm. Reserved seats are R130, unreserved R70. Students/pensioner discounts are available. Tickets for block bookings of groups of more than 30 are R50. Bookings at Computicket.

• WIN! WIN! WIN!

Ten pairs of tickets to see The Real Group live during their KZN tour are up for grabs. To stand a chance of winning two tickets SMS “REAL” and your name and contact information to 33963. SMSes cost R1.50

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