For the first time in Elizabethtown College history, all three a cappella groups, Vocalign, Phalanx and Melica, are headed to the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCAs). The ICCAs is the largest a cappella tournament in the world. It is owned and operated by Varsity Vocals and consists of three rounds, the quarterfinals, the semifinals and finals.
At 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 15, 10 vocal groups will compete at Penn State University at University Park in the ICCAs quarterfinals round. Besides the three groups from Etown, present at the conference will be three groups representing Penn State, two from Binghamton University, one representing Rochester Institute of Technology and one from Stony Brook University. If any of the Etown groups are ranked one of the top two of the night, they will proceed to the semifinals at Rutgers University on March 29.
If a group gets third, they are considered a wild card and have a chance of being selected to continue in the competition.
Katie Owens, senior president of Vocalign, is more than excited for Saturday. The 16 members — eight more than last year — and advisor Mark Clapper have been hard at work. “We have been rehearsing a lot,” Owens said. “We are putting a great deal of effort into sounding amazing. The whole group has been so focused and amazing, especially after some really tiring rehearsals. They handle the long rehearsals so well.”
Senior Shannon O’Leary, the music director for Melica, said, “When we were accepted to compete in the ICCAs, Melica was thrilled. The news went viral on Facebook and Twitter. A lot of Melica pride and excitement proceeded for the next week. We met several times to discuss outfits, song choices, choreography and other details as the possibility of ICCAs became a reality for us. It is something we had been looking forward to for a while.” O’Leary said the girls wanted a fierce set list and chose to perform Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse,” Little Big Town’s “Boondocks,” and Selena Gomez’s “Slow Down” for the competition.
“We have been preparing for this competition since last semester when we selected what songs we will be doing,” Vice President of Phalanx and senior Owen Howson said. “From there, we purchased arrangements of the songs and immediately started practicing them.” Vocalign isn’t the only group that has been hard at it. Howson and president and Etownian Opinion Editor Matt Walters lead practice every Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
“Then, once we have our music memorized and we are confident, we put in choreography and then practice that to make sure we get it correct and make sure we do not sacrifice our sound for dance,” Howson said. “Once we have that, we drill the whole set over and over again to solidify it, fine-tune it and make sure it is under 12 minutes for the competition.”
If the group doesn’t take first or second place in the competition, the team will continue preparing songs for their spring show.
“I think the group is simply excited to show off all of our hard work,” Owens said. “We really love the songs we’re singing, and we love to perform and have fun together onstage. No matter what happens, we’re just ecstatic to be going!”
This year the College is providing a shuttle to University Park for students to catch the show. The doors open at 7:30 p.m., though Howson recommends getting there earlier than that as the venue will fill up quickly. “Having fans in the audience cheering for you really makes a huge difference for us performing and we can’t thank them enough,” Howson said.
