“When they called Mr. Hanson, we were all gathered around him; when they said that we won, we all started screaming,” sophomore Silas Waller said. “We passed the phone around and all got to say our names on the radio; it was all live, and it was really cool.”
Northwood’s a cappella group, Pitch Please, won the Division II Mix 101.5 Christmas Choir Competition Dec. 12. The group was presented with $5,000, an opportunity to perform at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh and radio airtime of the winning track throughout the holidays.
During the contest, Mix 101.5 picked nine finalists from school choirs across multiple counties and grade levels. During the week of Dec. 8, the nine entries were narrowed down to three and the winner was announced on Friday.
“[Winning the contest] came as a true shock,” choral director Matthew Hanson said. “I was truly humbled. I kind of assumed we would have a good amount of support from the arts department and people at our school, but everyone really seemed to jump on board with this.”
Over the course of the week, students were encouraged to vote for Pitch Please during the school day. Principal Justin Bartholomew made a phone call home to parents and students encouraging them to vote as well.
“We had huge support from Dr. B and the administration with voting,” Hanson said. “I was getting constant emails and phone calls from middle school teachers and elementary school teachers who were letting their students vote. Parents got involved and had their work buildings vote for us; it really was a whole Chatham County family initiative that helped push this group to win.”
Many students were worried that other high schools would surpass them in the number of votes.
“I was really happy that the people who had been voting for Cary didn’t get carried away, because I had been stressing out about that so much the day before,” Waller said. “Many Northwood students were voting for Cary, not sure why, so when we won I was like, ‘Yes!’”
Many questioned how the choral department would spend the $5,000.
“I’ve been asked [about the money] 11 million times,” Hanson said. “One thing we don’t have here is our own set of choral risers. I’ve also looked into updating some of our microphones that the a cappella group uses for some better sound and possibly new uniform stuff, a standard dress that all the vocals ladies wear or some certain type of tuxedo for the guys. All $5,000 will be spent, and spent pretty soon.”
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u9lHq80mNE]
– By Meredith Norman