By ZACHARY OLSAVICKY
News Editor
and CAROLINE MURRAY
Advertising Manager
The Girls Next Door advanced to the International Competition of Collegiate A Capella semifinals on Saturday. The group placed second in the ICCA quarterfinal event, finishing behind the Brown Derbies of host school Brown University. The event also saw an award go to Girls Next Door member Elizabeth Corey, who was honored for Outstanding Vocal Percussion.
The group’s three-song set featured “Fire” by Ingrid Michaelson, “Keep on Bringing Me Down” by Forever the Sickest Kids, and “I Won’t Let Go” by Rascal Flatts.
The event, which was held in the DeCiccio Family Auditorium at Brown University, featured seven groups from schools in the northeast, including local group Serendipity from SUNY Albany.
Girl Next Door Amelia Bach described herself as “shocked” when she heard that the Girls Next Door would advance.
“I listened to a few of the groups after we performed and they were pretty good, so the fact that we won second place was amazing.”
The outcome represented a turnaround from how Bach felt immediately following the performance. She described herself as “flustered” resulting from audio issues during their performance. For the first two songs of the performance, the microphone used by soloists Joleen Loliscio and Mackenzie Cohn was not powered on, and Bach thought the judges would penalize the group “big time.”
The audio problems began during the group’s sound check, which Girl Next Door Valerie Cusa described as “stressful.” While past sound checks at the ICCAs included feedback from sound engineers, Cusa said the workers at Brown University simply told the group what equipment they had and what purpose it served. Because the Girls Next Door rarely uses sound equipment, the experience was “a bit overwhelming,” according to Cusa. She credited the group’s “amazing thinkers” and two music industry majors with allowing the group to come up with an appropriate plan.
It wasn’t the first time the group encountered difficulty at the sound check. The group’s sound check at last year’s ICCA quaterfinal also did not go well. Still, the group finished first at that performance, and Cusa said the issues didn’t faze the group this year. This didn’t mean group members were without butterflies, however. Girl Next Door Cynthia Crudale had “a little (case) of butterflies” leading up to the event, but she described herself as “much more relaxed” than the prior year. Cusa described herself as “a little stressed, but a little excited” in the hours before the event.’
For Corey, her award for vocal percussion was “icing on the top” of the semifinal win. She has only performed “perc,” as hosts call the beatboxing and vocal percussion, with the Girls Next Door since September.
“It blew my mind in the best way possible,” said Corey, when she found out that she won the award.
With quarterfinals complete, the group will begin preparations for the ICCA semifinals at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on March 23rd. The event will feature the top two groups from each of the five quarterfinal competitions in the ICCA northeast region.
Corey was impressed with the group’s performance, complimenting the choreography and performances from each of the soloists. She expects that preparations will consist mostly of “fine tuning” based on a mix of comments from judges and in-group discussion. But in the meantime, Corey sounded very satisfied with the group’s performance.
“Getting the judge’s nod that our group should advance puts me—and all of the girls—right on cloud nine.”
While the Girls Next Door finished second at their competition, the Golden Notes also placed top five in their contest.
Last Friday, The Golden Notes, drove three hours up to Boston, Mass. to compete in Northeastern’s International Championship of Collegiate A Capella quarter finals.
After sending in a video submission to the ICCA headquarters last fall, the 16 person singing group was chosen to battle their voice and dance moves against six other finalists from the North East.
The performance order was chosen by a drawing numbers out of a hat and The Golden Notes grabbed the last spot. Despite the long wait, Saint Rose’s a capella group shined as they walked onto the stage.
Their energy and confident attitude was enough to excite the crowd,who applauded several times during their act.
Opening with “The Circle of Life,” a Disney classic and closing with a Broadway mash up “I Dreamed a Dream/Sunshine,” their performances were a fresh sound compared to the other teams more “pop” tunes. However, the judges seemed to be in favor of popular radio hits that night, because North Eastern’s a capella group, Distilled Harmony, who sang songs by Lady Gaga and Christina Perry, won the competition. The Golden Notes Finished in fourth place.
“It was awesome to see the other groups and their performance level,” said Tess Leavay, alto vocalist for the Golden Notes and Senior music education major at the college. “watching the other groups skills amped us up to want to do our best, it was a great experience.”
