history

The acclaimed British beatboxer Shlomo founded The Vocal Orchestra in 2007.

Shlomo started out as a solo beatboxer, touring the world with hip hop outfit Foreign Beggars. He went on to record with Bjork, appear on ‘Later.. with Jools Holland’, and to play at Glastonbury as a solo act.

Somewhere along the way, Shlomo had the idea of working with a large group of beatboxers. Together with Southbank Centre, he set out to create the world’s first beatbox choir. Shlomo had 6 weeks to put together the initial performance, which headlined at the International Beatbox Convention in March 2007.

The original line-up featured some of the UK’s foremost vocal talent, including legendary A Cappella outfit The Swingle Singers, alongside MC Zani, Bellatrix, Spitf’ya and jestar*.

That first performance at Southbank was a sell-out, and the choir went on to headline at the Big Chill festival in front of 10,000 people.

This history is documented in "The Beatbox Choir, A Documentary", a DVD on sale in our shop.