Imagine hundreds of voices harmonizing together. Imagine spotlights shining as thousands of audience members listen to the beautiful acoustics inside Carnegie Hall.
Pitch Please, Northwood’s a cappella group, was invited along with 200 other vocalists from about 10 a cappella groups from around the country to perform at Carnegie Hall, a famous concert venue in New York City.
Members of the group are delighted by the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall.
“I’m excited and I’m nervous, just because so many great people have performed there,” said sophomore Andrew Bonomolo. “It’s incredible how many people have performed there. We’re so honored to have this opportunity.”
The concert will take place April 9, 2017, in the Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. The event will be held by Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY), one of the leading concert producers in New York. DCINY is also the organization that extended the invitation to Pitch Please.
“The word gets out about the top groups that compete around the country, and these kinds of groups are usually under the spotlight,” said Pitch Please advisor Matthew Hanson. “DCINY contacted me back in April and we had to send in an audition video of a few live songs, unmixed and unedited. Two weeks later, they got back to us and gave us the opportunity to perform.”
The performance is under the creative direction of Deke Sharon, who arranged music for the Pitch Perfect movies and NBC’s The Sing-Off. Sharon has written over 2,000 arrangements for a cappella, and he will conduct the concert in New York.
Hanson said any feedback from the experienced a cappella producer and arranger will help Pitch Please improve its vocal talents.
“To get insight from another musician and someone who’s pioneered this art form, from my perspective, is like a dream come true,” Hanson said. “Sometimes when you hear [feedback] from a different person, things click differently. It’s just going to be a totally different experience.”
Senior Jacob Buster looks forward to this opportunity, not only to perform at this prestigious concert, but also to represent Northwood.
“There couldn’t have been a better group that could represent the a cappella talent and the vocal talent of Northwood,” Buster said. “There’s a lot of amazing singers in Pitch Please, and if we get together and we really put our minds to it, we can make beautiful music.”
Pitch Please is a relatively young group, with this year marking its fifth anniversary. The founding members of Pitch Please are now freshmen in college, and although they received the invitation to Carnegie Hall last semester, they are unable to attend the performance with the current group.
Kaitlyn Jones, one of the original members of Pitch Please, is currently a freshman at Appalachian State University.
“I’m so happy that they get that opportunity,” Jones said. “I’m definitely wishing I could be up there with them, but I’m so proud of the group and what they’ve accomplished.”
Jacqueline Helgans is also a freshman at Appalachian State University. Helgans takes a look at the bigger picture, and what this performance means to the group.
“It’s about creating art, creating music and sharing it with people,” Helgans said. “The fact that they get to do that on such a large scale is amazing, and I wish I could be a part of it, but I’m really happy for whoever’s in the group this year.”
Sophomore Savannah Her is a brand new member of the group. Her feels that without the graduates, the group has more work to do in preparation for the performance.
“Every year, every member makes up a new family of Pitch Please,” Her said. “This year, the group took a lot of freshmen and sophomores and I think we’re still strong, but since there are a lot of new people, I don’t think we’re as strong as the ones who graduated. But we’ll keep working on it.”
Knowing that the graduates are proud of their accomplishments, the current members of Pitch Please will take the graduates’ hard work and influence with them to New York.
“Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are right now,” Bonomolo said. “They’re really the ones that got us there. It was my first year last year, and without the legacy of the seniors, it wouldn’t be anything.”
– Leah Kallam & Chantal Shine
