By Nicole Gibson, Nhung An and Beverly Wakiaga
What do the QU Acapella Legends and the Barden Bella’s from the movie “Pitch Perfect” have in common?
Turns out a lot, but let’s start with the Legends most recent appearance at the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella (ICCA). The same competition that the Barden Bella’s appeared in.
“It’s always been something we wanted to do but we were never sure if we were ready just yet,” explained Legends president Brenda Alderate. “We decided last semester, something felt so special about this group. We looked at each other and we said ‘I think we should submit an audition video’ and we did.”
According to Legends co-performance coordinator Gina Laganella, most groups that compete in the ICCA’s train for the competition all year. This was a different experience for Quinnipiac’s only A Capella group, they submitted their application at the beginning of the Fall semester, got a response in November, and only had two months of rehearsal time before they performed at the competition.
With only two months of rehearsal time, the Legends got help from A Capella arranger Jerry Merkel. They also stepped up the number of hours they spent rehearsing their set and their choreography.
“Other groups that had this year or more to perform and have their arrangement, we had a month,” Laganella recalled. ” Our month was crunch time. It definitely was double the work, we needed to add on like four and five-hour choreo[graphy] rehearsals and added several vocal rehearsals for two to three hours.”
There are over 450 groups that compete. The Legends faced 10 teams in the regional quarterfinals and finished in fourth place. However, due to competition rules, the group will not be able to move on to the next round.
Even though the group will not be going to the next round, they did grow closer as friends, and also much stronger as an A Cappella group.
“When I started the Legends, I like to say we were a little above mediocre,” said Legends music director Daniel Giordano, “we had a lot of fun arranging and singing our songs but we never made that step up to really get that A Capella sound that’s at the ICCA’s… we went from singing oohs and aah’s as a background to singing crazy harmonies and creating a whole new song.”
Which leaves us with the question on all our minds, are the ICCA’s anything like they are portrayed in the movie, Pitch Perfect?
According to Freshman and Legend member, Margaret Ross, they are.
“I definitely think it ’s a similar experience. Like absolutely,” Ross said.
