Photo courtesy of Breana Russell
Northwood a capella group Pitch Please won first place overall for the second year in a row at the annual NCASA High School A Capella Competition, Feb. 3 at Northwood High School. Sophomore Andrew Bonomolo won “Best Male Vocalist,” junior Christopher Keesor won “Best Vocal Percussion” and the group also won the “Best Choreography” prize.
Pitch Please performed “I Was Here” by Beyoncé, “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson and “Cathedrals” by Jump Little Children.
“We were all very happy to win,” senior Jacob Buster said. “I wouldn’t say that we’re surprised that we won, because we thought that we brought our A-game and thought that we did better than the other groups, and it ended up being reflected in our placement and also the judges’ scoring.”
According to senior Olivia Somers, the group dynamic played a large role in their success.
“I think one big difference [this year] is that we’re more connected as a group,” Somers said. “I know sport’s teams have connections between each other, and they’re like a family and stuff, and I feel like we have that same sort of connection between each other, which helps us better in rehearsals and getting to know each other.”
Junior Brenda Ruto agrees that the group works well together.
“It was really fun,” Ruto said. “It was really cool to hang out with the entire group because we spent most of the day together. Winning first place just kind of reaffirmed where we were because I know working together we kind of forget, we always focus on how to become better, but it was just kind of cool to be like, ‘Oh, okay you guys are still pretty cool.’”
According to Buster, the group overcame a setback in rehearsal to place first.
“There’s a soundcheck before our performances, and that’s where we’re supposed to get our mics and kind of test how we’re going to be singing,” Buster said. “We didn’t actually go through all of the songs we were supposed to sing, we only got through two of them and that has never happened before. So that was kind of crazy, and we were super nervous about that because we didn’t get to practice our last song…. It was just one of those instances where we just needed to learn from our mistakes and kind of overcome that.”
Somers hopes that the group placing first will attract new members so they can continue to grow.
“I think the more that we get recognition as an a capella group at Northwood, more and more people will want to try out each year, so that means better singers keep on wanting to audition each year, so I think we have a really good group of really good singers,” Somers said.
Bonomolo agrees with Somers and talks about the group’s next endeavor.
“So now we’re going to prepare for Carnegie Hall, which is in April,” Bonomolo said. “We’re going to go up to New York City and sing there, so we’re all working on the songs we’re going to sing there, and we’re so excited for that.”
– By Chloe Maynard
