On Friday Jan 30 and Saturday Jan 31, Marlborough High School’s contemporary a cappella group, Voices ReChoired, attended the annual New England Voices Festival in Wilmington, Massachusetts. N.E. Voices brings together the state’s high school a cappella community for a weekend of competitions, concerts and workshops with the hope of inspiring young musicians to continue singing. Marlborough has been attending N.E. Voices for years, but this year, after months of hard work and preparation, the group walked away as one of the top three high school a cappella groups in the state.
Work really began for the group’s sixteen members in April of 2014 when they auditioned for a spot in the MHS A Cappella program. A Cappella was a class that met during the school day. The coed group had a dual function as the elite choral ensemble in the MHS Music department and as a “moonlight” contemporary group. But the makeup of the 2014 audition pool and an increased interest in contemporary a cappella music among the auditionees led director Shannon McNulty to take the group in a new direction for the 2014-2015 school year. McNulty decided to make MHS A Cappella twofold: a treble (primarily female) choir would meet during the school day and focus on classical repertoire, while a co-ed, contemporary group would meet after school. The after school group, under the name Voices ReChoired, met many logistical challenges in trying to implement this new rehearsal schedule, and lost a few members at the beginning of the year because of its demand on afterschool time. But the group remained optimistic, learned a wide variety of contemporary pieces and sent in an audition tape for N.E. Voices. Groups who made it through the audition process had to prepare a three-song set for competition. Voices ReChoired chose to perform “The Walker” by Fitz and the Tantrums, “Islands” by Sarah Bareillis and “Yellow Flicker Beat” by Lorde. “Yellow Flicker Beat” was specially arranged for the group by Jon Smith, a well-known arranger within the a cappella community. The group worked with Smith and Beejul Khatri, a member of the Nor’easters, Northeastern University’s a cappella group who mentors VRC, to perfect their set. Khatri and Smith encouraged the group to engage with their songs’ lyrics and make a personal connection to the songs. The week of NE Voices, the blizzard Juno hit Massachusetts, dumping over three feet of snow on the region and jeopardizing the N.E. Voices festival. Luckily the road were clear enough by the 30th for the festival to occur. The group arrived at Wilmington Middle School ready to compete against seven other semi-finalists from towns such as Chelmsford and Plymouth. At the end of the performances, the judges gave out superlatives and announced the top three scoring groups. Voices ReChoired received a superlative for “Best Choreography” and placed among the top three! Their prize was a chance to open for a professional male a cappella group, The Edge Effect, at N.E. Voices’ Saturday night concert. The group’s student leader, Lauren Fay, said about the experience “I think we’ve come really far since our first rehearsal.” In addition to having a great sound, the group is also very modest about their achievements. Voices ReChoired plans to showcase their hard work at their annual Spring Sing concert on March 6. VRC will be joined by The Thursdays and Northern Lights, two high school a cappella groups who also competed at NE Voices, as well as the Nor’easters from Northeastern University. This event, supported in part by the Marlborough Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, is open to the public. For more information on ticket sales and to learn more about Voices ReChoired, like them on Facebook at MHS Voices ReChoired and follow them on Twitter at @VoicesReChoired. By: Jennie O’Leary -Staff Writer Comments are closed.
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June 2019
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