The doors to Shriver Hall opened at 6:15 p.m. on Feb. 20, and by 6:30 p.m., the entire auditorium was packed. Friends and families from all over the Mid-Atlantic trekked to Hopkins for the quarterfinal round of the International Championships of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), where ten talented groups performed in a real-life version of Pitch Perfect.
All ten groups qualified for the competition back in November. The two top groups will move on into the semi-final round, where they will compete against the top two groups from each of the other four quarterfinals currently being held across the country.
Each group only had 12 minutes for their performances, but they managed to pack a lot of talent into such a short amount of time. Johns Hopkins did well as a whole, getting three groups (Octopodes, All-Nighters, and Notes of Ranvier) into the prestigious competition. The Octopodes won Outstanding Vocal Percussion, Outstanding Arrangements and first place overall, and the All-Nighters won Outstanding Choreography and third place overall, behind only the Octopodes and University of Delaware’s Vocal Point.
After Mid-Atlantic ICCA producer Holli Kitching introduced the competition, the emcees Hopkins seniors Nick Uebele (Vocal Chords) and Jackie Choi (Mental Notes), took the stage and welcomed on the first group: Johns Hopkins’ vest-wearing All-Nighters.
The All-Nighters performed Brayton Bowman’s “Privacy”; a Justin Bieber medley including “Sorry,” “I’ll Show You,” and “The Feeling”; and Cee Lo Green’s “Cry Baby.” With a great stage presence and an amazing dance sequence, the male a cappella group started the competition off strong.
The second of three Johns Hopkins groups then went on — the community service group, Notes of Ranvier. They performed Estelle’s “American Boy,” a mashup of Young the Giant’s “My Body” and BORNS’ “Electric Love,” the Weeknd’s “The Hills” and Christina Perri’s “Human” with a beautifully emotional delivery.
Afterwards University of Maryland Baltimore County’s Cleftomaniacs took the stage. With snappy choreography and singing to match, the group certainly did just that with Lianne La Havas’ “Don’t Wake Me Up” and Nick Jonas’ “Levels.”
Hailing from the nearby Towson University, the Tiger Tones were up next. An all-girl group promoting feminism, the group sang Delta Rae’s “Bottom of the River,” Little Mix’s “Wings” and Tori Kelly’s “Nobody Love.” With well-rehearsed and coordinated dance moves as well as the lack of a soloist in favor of having the whole group sing equally for “Wings,” the Tiger Tones offered something a bit different but no less amazing.
The last of Johns Hopkins groups was the Octopodes, who completely blew the crowd away with their larger-than-life stage presence and confidence as well as perfectly-synchronized singing. Although the Octopodes recently came out with an original album, “The Kraken,” they performed covers of Brayton Bowman’s “Runaway,” MAX’s “Darling,” and an amazing mashup of MKTO’s “Bad Girls” and Ariana Grande’s “Focus.”
The judges then deliberated, grading both sound and aesthetics. There were five judges, Ricky Jabarin (conductor for Penn State a cappella), Stefanie Chase (serving on the Contemporary A Cappella Society Board of Directors), Frank Albinder (previously member and director of famous a cappella group Chanticleer and Grammy winner), Chris Little (president and performer for Vox Pop) and Garrett Carswell (arranger for University of Michigan’s a cappella group, the G-men).
During this time, the Johns Hopkins comedy a cappella group, the Mental Notes, performed for the crowd. Among the biggest crowd favorites were “I Boned a Freshman” and a ‘classic’ medley of “Pachelbel’s Canon,” “Für Elise” and “Do-Re-Mi” all sang to the words “your mom.”
The judges awarded several superlatives first. The Hopkins All-Nighters won Outstanding Choreography, while the Octopodes’ senior Gabriel Giraldo-Wingler took home Outstanding Vocal Percussion. The Octopodes also won Outstanding Arrangements, arranged by junior Katrina Estep and senior Joseph Paek. The Salisbury University’s Squawkappella’s Jessica Huber won for Outstanding Solo.
At last, the judges announced the final results of the competition. In third place were the All-Nighters. In second place, moving onto the semifinals, was University of Delaware’s Vocal Point. And lastly, in first place, were the Octopodes, also moving onto the next round in Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts on March 26.
