Pitch Please, Northwood’s a cappella group, won second place in Mix 101.5’s Christmas Choir Competition presented by Lowes Foods Dec. 10, collecting a prize of $2,000. After winning semi-finals against two other high schools, the group progressed to the final round, where they lost to Harnett Central High School. The difference between Harnett Central’s and Northwood’s populations may have been a factor in the result according to sophomore Connor Lewis.
“It was a population issue rather than a spirit issue,” Lewis said. “I feel that our community was really proud of us and wanted us to win, however, we just didn’t have the resources that the other school did.”
The group called attention to the competition at Northwood both during the day and after school. Junior Olivia Somers participated in the advertisement.
“We just wanted to get a lot of people to vote for us, so we made posters and a banner,” Somers said. “We stood outside [with the banner] at the carpool line [in the afternoon]. [In between] second and third period, we stould [in the hallway] to publicize and say, ‘Hey! Come vote for us!’ We didn’t want [the voting] to only stay in North Carolina; we kind of wanted other people in other states [to vote].”
Somers contacted various news networks and talk shows to spread the word about Pitch Please’s participation in the competition.
“I called Fox News, Good Morning America and The Ellen [DeGeneres] show,” Somers said. “[They] picked up and gave me phone numbers and email addresses to contact. We had Kaitlyn Jones, the president [of Pitch Please], email the companies and be like, ‘My name is Kaitlyn Jones, and I go to Northwood High School in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Can you vote for us?’”
Last year, Pitch Please earned the most votes, winning the Christmas Competition and a $5,000 prize. Sophomore Brenda Ruto said the group’s song choice this year might have been a reason they did not win again, although she did enjoy preparing and learning the song.
“Last year’s [song] was a little more upbeat and [had a quicker] tempo, but I feel like this [year’s] was more musically challenging and more fun for us [to sing],” Ruto said. “‘Silent Night’ is a slower song, and I feel like that might’ve [been] a reason why we placed second, but it’s not like I would’ve done anything differently.”
Senior Lindsey Lucas said that last year’s song set the group apart and gave it attention because of the a cappella sounds, which the other school’s non-a cappella choirs didn’t have, but this year, the group may have sounded more like a choir, which could’ve resulted in less votes.
“Last year, Pitch Please was [obviously] an a cappella group compared to just a choir; there was beatboxing, there was a lot of action and it was a quicker song, whereas this year, we did sound like more of a choir,” Lucas said. “I think to people who don’t personally know students or don’t have a role at the school or in the community could’ve been not as interested in the song itself because of this. But I think as far as coming together as a community, we still came together the same way both years, regardless of the song choice.”
The song Pitch Please entered this year was a Pentatonix arrangement of “Silent Night”, which, according to Lewis, is “a spin on the old classic.” Many of the members were excited to be doing an arrangement by a modern and relevant a cappella group.
“Pentatonix has put a new face on a cappella,” Lucas said. “It’s kind of like they’re the pinnacle of what a cappella is. [Their arrangement of] “Silent Night” was one that wasn’t too hard for us to learn, and was one that sounded very pretty when we put it together.”
Unlike last year, there are questions about what Pitch Please’s director Matthew Hanson will decide to do with the winnings.
“Last year, we had a set idea of what we were going to buy with the money, [but] right now it’s just up in the air,” Lewis said. “We just have this money, and we don’t know what we’re [going to do] with it yet, so we’re just waiting. Last year, we got [microphones], an EP and risers for the choir, but now we’re just like, ‘What do we do with this money?’”
Jones, a senior, said that the money was supposed to go towards producing more recorded songs, but it now may help partially cover the group’s upcoming trip to Georgia for the ICHSA semi-finals.
“$2,000 is obviously still a lot of money, but we have to reconsider what we want to do with it,” Jones said. “We were hoping to [make another EP] with the $5,000, because there was more money to spend, [but now] Mr. Hanson [is talking] about maybe [helping to buy] his ensemble chorus class formal attire for concerts, or maybe make [Pitch Please] a single EP and have us fund-raise the rest of the money. Or, it may go towards us travelling to Atlanta with [things like] travel fees.”
According to Lewis, winning second place in the Christmas competition may have a positive effect on the group’s performance for ICHSA.
“I think it will bring us back down to earth a little bit,” Lewis said. “We sometimes think that we’re all high and mighty, and I think it’s good that we’re sometimes knocked down a peg. It makes us work harder and strive for more and makes us ready for ICHSA. I think it will end up benefitting us because we will think more of our performance abilities and how we can be better. Not everything is given to us. [We should] be more mindful of the competition.”
According to senior Lillian Parsons, if a group places and wins money two times, they cannot participate again, so Pitch Please will not be able to enter the competition next year.
Although they did not win first place and cannot try again next year, the members of Pitch Please are staying optimistic.
“I feel like we did everything we could,” Lewis said. “At the very end of the day, we made off with $2,000, a great recording and evidence that our community loves us.”
– By Jasmine Wilkie