{"id":703,"date":"2015-02-09T17:49:22","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T01:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=703"},"modified":"2015-02-09T17:50:08","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T01:50:08","slug":"international-championship-of-collegiate-a-capella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/international-championship-of-collegiate-a-capella\/","title":{"rendered":"International Championship of Collegiate A Capella"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Western\u2019s<\/a>
Western\u2019s all female group competes in their first ICCA quarterfinal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"15<\/a>
15 Miles West reference to their University of Oregon competitors On the Rocks during their performance. The group placed third in the ICCA quarterfinals. PHOTOS BY NEIL GRAVATT | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
By STEPHANIE BLAIR\r\n Staff Writer<\/pre>\n
An array of pink, purple and blue streams of light are splashed across the stage and overhead the house lights bathe the audience in a soft yellow as they wait for the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) Quarterfinals to begin.<\/p>\n
It is Jan. 31, 2015 at the Rolling Hills Community Church in Tualatin, Ore., and this is the first and last competition of the season for Western\u2019s two a cappella
\ngroups: the powerhouse, all-male group, 15 Miles West and the freshfaced, all-female group, Suspended.<\/p>\n
Across the room, friends, family and a cappella fanatics alike, have come from all over the state to watch as tonight\u2019s performers compete for the top two spots, which will continue on the semi-finals in March. This means that for eight of the ten groups here their competitive season ends tonight.<\/p>\n
The lights go down and Courtney Jensen, Brigham Young University alumna and vocal percussionist of the Backbeats (the Sing Off season two competitors), climbs the stage and begins the night, announcing herself as the MC for the evening. The first group to perform is Suspended.<\/p>\n
They take the stage in Western\u2019s school colors, wearing a mixture of black, red and white — each in their personal style — and form a triangle, with junior Meghann Thilberg standing at the front. The women start us off with the \u201890s classic \u201cZombie\u201d by the Cranberries, which bleeds into their rendition of \u201cWhere is the Love?\u201d by the Black Eyed Peas, in which first year Jennifer Lindley dominates the piece with her fluid ability to rap.<\/p>\n
The piece comes to an end and the audience is treated to two arrangements:
\nFlorence and the Machine\u2019s \u201cShake It Out\u201d and Fall Out Boy\u2019s \u201cCenturies\u201d– the hit single off of their new album \u201cAmerican Beauty\/American Psycho.\u201d<\/p>\n
This final number was the biggest crowd-pleaser of the set, with lead vocals
\nsung by first year Lauren Hebing, whose older brother, senior Max Hebing, would sing the first number of 15 Miles West\u2019s set.<\/p>\n
In contrast to Suspended\u2019s organized and ordered walk to the stage, 15 Miles West runs and yells, climbing the stage to the sounds of Western fans shouting out their names in anticipation of the performance to come.<\/p>\n
The entirety of the set was composed of mashups, arranged by senior Jake
\nYoakum, including songs by Beyonc\u00e9, George Michael, and an original section
\ncalling out the all-male groups from University of Oregon (On the Rocks) and Oregon State University (Outspoken), which riled up the crowd even further.<\/p>\n
\u201c15 Miles West, to me, had the most fun on stage,\u201d said 15 Miles West choreographer Michael Johnston. \u201cThe audience was having fun watching them
\nperform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the whole night, 15 was definitely the biggest crowd pleaser, receiving the most laughs and engaged applause during their performance.<\/p>\n
The choreography in particular, courtesy of Johnston, stirred the audience up instantly. The surprise of men twerking, swaying their hips, and doing hair flips to Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cCrazy in Love\u201d was overwhelming for the audience.<\/p>\n
\u201c15 Miles West blew the house down,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen boys move like that — in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, despite incredible performances from both Western groups, neither will be advancing to the semi-finals at Paloma College in March. 15 Miles West placed third, behind University of Oregon\u2019s two a cappella groups, Mind the Gap and On the Rocks, who took first and second, respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou obviously always want to finish first, but sometimes things don\u2019t go your way,\u201d said senior Grant Harris. \u201cWe learned a lot from the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just wanted to show people how much fun we have singing and performing,\u201d member David Takano said. \u201cAnd if you were there, you could tell that the crowd really enjoyed our set.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suspended, on the other hand, did not place but were pleased to compete in their first ICCAs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was more for the experience and to meet people from other groups,\u201d said first year Brianna Williford. Sydney Culpepper said, \u201cThe experience of competing and meeting other a cappella groups was great, and we\u2019re already looking forward to next year.\u201d The season is over, but these vocalists are not finished yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now we are working with Digital Production Services and Dr. Dirk Freymuth on campus to produce Western\u2019s first official music video,\u201d Harris said. \u201cIt will be all a cappella and made to promote [15 Miles West] as well as the school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris also hinted at spring auditions being held for the men\u2019s group in the next few months, as 15 will continue to perform at events around campus for the remainder of the year.<\/p>\n
Auditions for both groups will be held again in the fall. For more information,
\neach group can be contacted through email at 15mileswest@gmail.com and suspended.acapella@gmail.com.<\/p>\n
For more information regarding the ICCAs, visit varsityvocals.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By STEPHANIE BLAIR Staff Writer An array of pink, purple and blue streams of light are splashed across the stage and overhead the house lights bathe the audience in a soft yellow as they wait for the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) Quarterfinals to begin. It is Jan. 31, 2015 at the Rolling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}