Photo courtesy of Brenda Ruto
“It was the biggest theater I’ve ever been in,” sophomore Andrew Bonomolo said. “Everyone was a little shocked. There really aren’t words to describe it; it’s just such a good feeling.”
Northwood’s a cappella group, Pitch Please, performed in Carnegie Hall April 9. After winning multiple competitions last year, the group caught the attention of Deke Sharon, an a capella singer, arranger, composer, director and producer. The group had to submit a brief live recording as an audition video, and in the first week of June 2016, they were notified that they had been chosen to perform at Total Vocal, an a cappella celebration.
“They got in contact with groups all around the world really,” advisor Matthew Hanson said. “There were groups from Shanghai, a group from Germany, a group from Canada. It wasn’t all high school groups either; there were some young adult groups, some students as young as 12 as well.”
Junior Connor Lewis described his first time seeing the Carnegie stage.
“It looked like an apartment building from the outside, and so when I walked in I was not expecting it at all,” Lewis said. “I was walking behind Chris [Keesor], and I wanted to close my eyes before I actually got on the stage, so I [held] onto him like a blind man. We actually got on the stage and I opened my eyes and I was like, ‘Oh my god. It just keeps going. It just keeps going and going.’”
Hanson agrees that the moment the group first stepped onto the stage was one to remember and is proud of Pitch Please’s performance.
“To watch them come from backstage and step out on the stage and just kind of turn and look out into the audience and all that was pretty incredible—just to see those smiles on all of their faces because they had never stepped into that venue,” Hanson said. “That was really special. And then just watching them perform, it was very much a proud papa kind of moment. Seeing the work that this group’s been doing since I started it five years ago and seeing it all come together on that stage was really amazing.”
Bonomolo agrees that the performance went well.
“I was scared that I’d be overwhelmed by the space and forget things or lose notes and stuff like that, but it was actually a lot of fun and being in that space empowered me more than it scared me,” Bonomolo said.
Pitch Please president Brenda Ruto believes that the work necessary for the performance benefitted the group as a whole.
“We had a lot of music that we had to memorize in a short amount of time but in the end I feel like we pulled it all together, and it really brought us together because it showed us how much we can do if we’re actually all committed and we work together,” Ruto said. “You know, we were stuck in New York with each other for four whole days, so it was really fun to bond with people who I don’t normally talk to and just get to know everybody a little bit better.”
Hanson believes that the connections the group made in New York went beyond the music.
“It gave them a way to connect with people and musicians and singers that they wouldn’t normally see every day, obviously from around the world, so just new connections, new friendships and being able to connect with people all with a similar love for the same art, putting on the same type of performance, all for this big event,” Hanson said. “It was probably one of the more special things they took away.”
Lewis agrees that Pitch Please had the opportunity to form new bonds with other groups.
“At the end it really just felt like a family,” Lewis said. “There was a dinner afterwards and [Deke Sharon] was like, ‘Just so you know, all of us are family now. That means we watch each other’s backs and we support each other.’ It was really cool to have a new bond with a whole bunch of different groups from everywhere.”
According to Hanson, his students will be going back to the Big Apple next year. Because of Pitch Please’s performance at Carnegie Hall, Hanson received another invitation for a performance in New York. This time, however, this chamber singers choir will be performing at the Lincoln Center with composer Eric Whitacre.
– By Sara Heilman
