The International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella held the fifth Great Lakes region quarterfinals at Shannon Hall Saturday. The top two teams from the competition were set to move on to the Great Lakes Semifinal, but a very rare, incredible tie occurred for second place, resulting in three collegiate teams moving on to the semifinals in Chicago.
One of University of Wisconsin’s own a cappella groups, Pitches and Notes, tied for second place and will be competing March 16 to move on to the ICCA finals in New York City. Pitches and Notes is an all-female a cappella group that works to provide entertainment and empowerment to UW and the surrounding community, event emcees said.
At the fifth Great Lakes Quarterfinal, Pitches and Notes performed three songs in their 12-minute slot. They started off with “Make it Holy” by the Staves, then moved on to “S.L.U.T.” by Bea Miller and finished with “God is a Woman” by Ariana Grande.
Matt Maeson crafts intimate performance at Orpheum Sunday night
The auditorium was full of Pitches and Notes fans before they even started performing. Many people sported Pitches and Notes t-shirts to support the popular campus group. The group’s set was received very well — with a gigantic round of applause.
Pitches and Notes came in second place with 311 points, accompanied by Basses Wild Men’s A Cappella, a group from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Basses Wild opened their set with “Start a Fire” by John Legend from the “La La Land” soundtrack. They then moved on to perform “Garden” by Dua Lipa. Finally, they performed “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls.
Not only did Basses Wild receive a second-place score, but they also had a group member receive two special awards. The judges can give awards in four categories — outstanding soloist, outstanding vocal percussion, outstanding arrangement and outstanding choreography. In another rare turn of events, the judges gave out five awards, awarding two groups awards for outstanding choreography as another reminder of how stiff the competition was Saturday. Drew Baker of Basses Wild received two of the four, outstanding arrangement for “Garden” and outstanding choreography for the entire set, exciting him and his entire group.
From 7Days A Cappella, Callie Marino received the outstanding soloist award for her rendition of “The End of Love.” From the same group, Ethan Gormony received the award for outstanding vocal percussion for the entire set. From The Enchantments, Theoni Kolas received the award for outstanding choreography for the entire set. The volunteer judges were in charge of awarding the honors as well as points to each team.
The points were tabulated based on elements of vocal and visual performance from each of the groups. The judges for the ICCA quarterfinal all had strong musical backgrounds.
The Enchantments from the University of Minnesota were awarded first place, earning 353 points, more than 40 points ahead of the second place score. The Enchantments are an all femme-identifying group that makes it their goal to empower women and encourage them to stand out, emcees said.
The Enchantments wowed the crowd during their twelve-minute slot with “God is a Woman” by Ariana Grande, “Fall In Line” by Christina Aguilera ft. Demi Lovato, “The Other Side” by Ruelle and closing the set with an incredible rendition of “Cringe” by Matt Maeson.
The top four teams were joined by Nova from Alverno College, Perfectly Authentic from Carthage College, The Carthachords from Carthage College, The Treblemakers from Northwestern University, Under A-Rest A Cappella from UW and Vocal U A Cappella from the University of Minnesota. All of the teams performed very well, keeping the audience’s energy high.
The competition was hosted by another of UW’s a cappella groups, Fundamentally Sound, who had already moved on to the ICCA Great Lakes Semifinals in Chicago. During the tabulation of scores, Fundamentally Sound performed their own set to keep the audience from getting restless.
The competition ended on a high note, with another one of UW’s own teams moving on to the next level of competition. Keep an eye out for the results from the Great Lakes Semifinals March 16.
