Northwestern a cappella groups came away with top awards from the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella midwest regional quarterfinals in Ryan Family Auditorium Saturday night.
Purple Haze and the Undertones, two of about 60 groups selected from a pool of hundreds to compete, took first and second place, respectively. The NU groups will advance to semifinals, in which 12 teams will compete at the University of Michigan March 20.
“We had high hopes from the beginning,” said Matt Edmonds, Undertones’ musical director. “We went in pretty confidently.”
NU singers also received individual recognition. Edmonds, a Communication senior, won best arrangement for Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” and Communication sophomore KC Schlossberg of Purple Haze won best solo for “I’m Outta Love.”
“It was so great that she won,” said Medill junior Kate Sheridan, Purple Haze general manager. “I wasn’t surprised at all.”
Edmonds said “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” is his favorite song he’s arranged for Undertones.
“It’s a fun one just because it’s probably most different from the original song,” he said. “I put in some hard hours on it.”
Undertones member Maggie Donnelly said Evelyn Jacoby’s solo for the song was one of the highlights of the evening.
“You could have heard a pin drop in Ryan Auditorium,” the Communication senior said. “It was sublime.”
The Undertones don’t participate in other competitions, Donnelly said.
“There’s some controversy within the group because a lot of us are in theater, so it’s hard for us all to get there,” she said. “We had everybody except for one for this competition, so that was good.”
Donnelly said competing is stressful, and not everyone in the group enjoys it. In addition to competitions, the Undertones perform in other settings, she said.
“As a group, we are really good at stepping up and knocking it out of the park when it matters,” she said. “It’s one of those things we do and we do well, but we have just as much fun going to Scotland and singing at the children’s hospital.”
Purple Haze has a similar mindset when it comes to competition. Group members decided not to compete in ICCA last year to take a break from competition, Sheridan said.
“We don’t take it seriously, but it’s fun to see how we measure up,” she said. Donnelly said a factor in the Undertones’ success is their tight bond.
“The fact that we have grown to become such a cohesive, strong group really showed us that we had a chance,” she said. “We’re like a family.”[email protected]
