Music for a Metropolis
A new school of music entertains as much as it educates.
“One stone for two birds” may be a very traditional Chinese aphorism, but four Americans newly landed in Hong Kong and collectively known as the vocal group Metro understand what it means. From 1998, the group has been travelling the high seas performing on the liners of Celebrity Cruises – when it hasn’t been wowing crowds at the Tokyo and Hong Kong Disney Resorts. The a cappella quartet recently gave up their wandering ways, settled in Asia’s World City and started up the American Vocal Studio (AVS) specializing in performing and educating the public about a cappella music. Which could seem either brave or foolhardy in the face of the current harsh economic environment. But as bass and percussionist Cody Jorgensen says, ‘As a performer, everything we do is a risk.’ And baritone Eric Monson is ever confident.

‘A couple of things are recession proof – entertainment is one for sure, because people want to be entertained, they want to find things that make them happy. That is definitely one thing Metro does when we are performing,’ says Monson. ‘Second is education. The combination of these two is what makes AVS. First teaching students, then performing as Metro.’ That they decided to stay in Hong Kong is, jokes tenor Sean Oliver, Eric’s fault – he has a girlfriend in the SAR. Yet all in the quartet agree that the city offers them opportunities unavailable elsewhere in the world. ‘Apart from America, [this] is one of the places we feel that we can be safe… In fact it’s safer than America,’ says Eric. ‘The entertainment scene is still developing and finding its own identity – there is no other group like us in Hong Kong but in the US we are probably competing with thousands of other groups.’

Eric is a fourth-generation professional musician who, with his first quartet, Water Street Junction, won the inaugural International Collegiate Barbershop Quartet competition in 1992. Cody met him while taking lessons from Eric’s father, a renowned choral conductor, and now holds a degree in music performance. Sean – a film buff with the weird ability to name the Oscar winners of any given year off the top of his head – started his performing career at the age of nine with a boy choir and has performed in musicals, TV and films as well as appearing as a guest on Late Night with David Letterman. And voice teacher Kevin Thornton is a Kentucky tenor and trumpet player with a degree in music education.

Together, the four make up a formidable musical force and it can hardly come as a surprise that they would consider starting a venture such as AVS, performing and educating in a city like Hong Kong which has nothing of an a cappella tradition. But the studio isn’t focused only on vocalizing without a musical backing. Kevin, for instance, says that basic vocal techniques are the same for all types of performance skills and AVS grooms singers for musical theatre, pop/rock, jazz and classical whether as individuals or in groups. The four Americans are particularly interested in demystifying the classical music many Hong Kongers – particularly parents – consider is something for the elite and rich. Sean grimaces at the idea. ‘I don’t like that concept,’ he says. ‘That is what scares people away. Classical music is good for everyone to learn – no matter what age and class they are. It is good for both the mind and health and can train a person to dedicate themselves to any kind of project.’

And so by day, the four are busy teaching, developing further plans for the studio and arranging, recording and rehearsing for a debut record due out towards the end of the month, while at night they take to the stage as Metro. The two roles are complementary. ‘Metro can get people interested in music,’ explains Kevin. ‘People may think, “These guys seem to be having fun on stage, and maybe I want to learn that as well.”’ And Cody, with a dig at one of Hong Kong’s favourite pastimes, says only half jokingly, ‘I much prefer people to come see a Metro show and then go to karaoke.’

Metro is often compared to the multi-national operatic quartet Il Divo, but the American singers see a big difference between the two – Metro being an a cappella group is, of course, a major point of distinction. ‘They are four individuals – they don’t really care what the others are singing but we need to know exactly what’s going on with the rest of the guys so that we can blend in,’ says Eric. And Cody chips in, ‘I don’t think [the comparison] is necessarily a bad thing. Many people don’t know much about this type of music and we are here to educate people about it – the kind of music that we grew up with. So any time we get a positive comparison, I think it is a good thing.’ Outgoing, comedic and fun-loving, the group’s performances differ from similar vocal groups through the singers’ belief that entertainment is what they are actually offering to listeners. ‘On stage we make the show fun for the eye, so it won’t be boring for the audience,’ smiles Kevin. ‘Or for us.’