THE INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP OF COLLEGIATE

A CAPPELLA

DEAR FRIENDS,

Welcome to Varsity Vocals’ 26th season! Our enthusiasm for the art of a cappella is greater than ever after more than a quarter century of presenting the best student groups on stage and in the studio.

Our tournaments have grown from a handful of events to the massive showcase they are today, this year featuring more than 578 groups and 8,772 singers at 77 events across North America and the United Kingdom.

Our original tournament inspired the hit movie "Pitch Perfect", based on the nonfiction book documenting the true story of rival groups competing against each other in our very own ICCA. The "Pitch Perfect" franchise remains the highest-grossing musical series of all time.

Despite the incredible growth and mainstream popularity we’ve enjoyed, our focus remains sharply on the promotion and development of the talent that crosses our stage. We believe competition fosters growth, as groups work together toward a specific goal and cultivate lifelong skills and relationships.

We provide insightful feedback from our highly qualified judges – but more importantly, our singers get to connect with a larger audience from across the country, learning from their peers and finding inspiration in other groups.

Two years ago, our 2020 tournament was sidelined mid-season by the pandemic, and we were unable to crown champions for the first time. In 2021, as a cappella groups were unable to gather to rehearse or perform, we adapted our program by challenging groups to create 4-minute music videos, recorded and edited remotely. The astonishing artistry and skill in these videos is a testament to the adaptability, ingenuity, and determination of our competitors, and we couldn’t be prouder.

This season, we are again challenged by the pandemic, as we attempt to present live events across thousands of miles in an ever-changing COVID landscape. Although some of our events have been postponed or converted to virtual, we are determined to see the season through. Many groups haven’t been able to compete live since 2019 – some students for their entire high school or college career. We are humbled more than ever by the importance of our role in setting the stage for the creation of so much magic.

We have seen a cappella make great strides from where it began on our stage 26 years ago, and we can’t wait to see how our 2022 competitors push the envelope. Committed to promoting our singers and energized by the incredible music they create, we look forward to another memorable season. Thank you for joining us!

Sincerely,

Amanda Newman
Executive Director

ICCA SOUTH QUARTERFINAL

East Tennessee State University
Saturday, February 12, 2022

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ABOUT VARSITY VOCALS

Since 1996, we have encouraged students worldwide to sing a cappella throughout their lives. Our programs include the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), the International Championship of High School A Cappella (ICHSA), and the International Championship of A Cappella Open (The Open). We also annually produce The Best of College A Cappella (BOCA) and The Best of High School A Cappella (BOHSA) compilation albums.

Our a cappella competitions give top-notch a cappella groups the opportunity to showcase their talents for an international audience and to take home valuable feedback from our qualified judges. This year, competing groups will appear in venues all around the world, offering their energetic musical performances for your enjoyment.

The college tournament takes place from January through April in nine regions across the country and around the world. Each region holds anywhere from four to five Quarterfinals, and the top groups from each Quarterfinal advance to the Semifinal. The winning group at each Semifinal is named Regional Champion and advances to the ICCA Finals at The Town Hall in New York City on Saturday, April 23rd.

The high school tournament is now in its 17th year. The winners of each of seven Semifinal rounds will advance to the ICHSA Finals at The Town Hall in New York City on Saturday, April 22nd.

The Open Tournament celebrated its third year in summer 2019 and featured six Semifinals that lead to the Open Finals featuring those six Regional Champions, two Wild Card Champions, and our 2019 ICHSA and ICCA Champions. Those 10 groups competed in October 2019 at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

 For a full tournament schedule, visit us at www.varsityvocals.com/events

ABOUT TONIGHT'S SHOW

The performance order was determined by random draw this afternoon and will be announced from stage.        

Tonight’s performers will be evaluated on elements of their vocal and visual performance, which carry numerical weight. The highest and lowest score from the individual judges will be dropped for each group. Our judges may recognize exceptional performances with special awards as they see fit.

There will be a 15-minute intermission. After the final group has performed, a guest performer will entertain you while the scores are tabulated.

Because each group only has ten minutes to perform, we ask you to keep your applause to an enthusiastic minimum between songs. Please feel welcome to applaud as much as you want after each group has finished its set.

Videotaping and non-flash photography for personal use is permitted during the concert, so long as you do not disrupt our performers or other patrons. Due to licensing regulations, we do not provide a video or audio recording of this performance.

TONIGHT'S COMPETITORS

Ascension is a high-energy group that loves to perform music from all different genres and across all different decades! They love having a great time and laughing as much as they can! 

Greyscale was formed at East Tennessee State University in the fall of 2013. They try to avoid categorization in any vocal style and strive to create arrangements that twist the original version  in unique ways. Greyscale works to build partnerships in the community, especially with high school a cappella groups to encourage them to continue singing in college and as adults. Greyscale has recorded four albums that are available on streaming services and plans to record another later this year. They are a proud part of the ETSU music family. Go Bucs!

Harmonic Notion is Vanderbilt University's competitive co-ed a cappella group, formed in January 2013. In 2018, they placed 3rd at their ICCA South Quarterfinal and won the following year, advancing to Semifinals and taking home Outstanding Arrangement! Most recently, in 2021 they placed 2nd at Quarterfinals and went on to win Outstanding Choreography at Semifinals. They were also recognized on the 2020 BOCA. They have also released two EPs, Magic Technique and Unplugged, which are available on all streaming platforms! 

The Intonations is an all-female a cappella group from Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. Founded in 2019, their goal is to provide a community for young women of all majors to continue their music careers in college. Although they mainly perform R&B and soul, they do occasionally mix up genres with pop hits. Their inspirations include The Weekend, Eryn Allen Kane, Demi Lovato, and Billie Eilish. They are a true sisterhood as well as a singing group, sharing not only a love for music, but also Mexican food, sleepovers, haunted houses, and picnics. 

Pitchmen is the premier student-run men’s a cappella group from Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. Selected through an audition process that takes place each semester, the group members range in majors from commercial voice to audio engineering to music business and more. All music performed by Pitchmen is selected and arranged by members of the group and comes from a wide range of musical genres. Pitchmen strives to provide its audiences with a fun, yet classy, a cappella experience and to develop musical men of the highest quality.

Prismatics, made with love in 2015, is an all-gender a cappella group from Belmont University committed to making meaningful music. Prismatics made waves at the 2021 ICCA, scoring a spot at Finals and winning Outstanding Video, as well as Outstanding Vocal Mix and Outstanding Arrangement in earlier rounds. This year, The Prismatics are ready to rock the boat once more and share their passion and energy with a live audience on the ICCA stage. 

Spectrum A Cappella was created in January 2001 with a mission to produce a cappella that incorporates music from various cultures with Western influence. This co-ed group of well-rounded college students continues to try and expand its horizons by performing as often and in the most entertaining light possible. The group has competed in esteemed competitions within the A3 circuit, as well as the ICCA. 

TONIGHT'S JUDGES

Paige Betts is the orchestra director at Mountain View High School in Lawrenceville, Ga. This is her sixth year as a music educator, having taught string orchestra, chorus, and musical theatre, and has been a runner-up for Teacher of the Year. She has given clinics with various orchestras, chorus, and a cappella ensembles across the Southeast, and has taught private voice and viola lessons. Paige is a 2009 graduate of the University of Georgia with a B.M. in music education. There, she was a member and musical director of UGA's all-female a cappella group, Noteworthy. Paige lives in Buford, Ga. with her husband Andrew and their rescue dog, Jake. 

Anna Corbett attended the University of Oregon and was part of the founding generation of Divisi, the school’s all-female a cappella group. Since graduating, she has continued her involvement in a cappella as a team member of the Women’s A Cappella Association (WACA), helping to put on their annual festival, SheSings, as well as participating in various bands and vocal music projects in the Portland, Ore. area. While she is in the book “Pitch Perfect,” none of the characters in the subsequent movies are specifically based on her. She is currently pursuing her J.D. at Chicago-Kent College of Law and is thrilled to have the opportunity to serve as a judge for Varsity Vocals. 

McKinley Merritt, a UTK theatre alumni and Nashville native, began studying music and theatre throughout high school, performing often and interning in Nashville. Starting college in 2011, she auditioned for choirs and followed a friend to auditions for UTK's all-female a cappella group, ReVOLution. This was the start of her a cappella journey. After years of performing and learning to arrange and lead, she began to notice a need for a co-ed group on UTK's campus. She founded and created VOLT in 2015, leading with full creative control and an emphasis on storytelling in every performance. Her arrangements and direction led the group to multiple successful invitationals and tournament seasons, notably winning Outstanding Choreography at ICCA and personally winning the solo performance award at Boston Sings (BOSS). She continues to arrange, perform in local theatre, and leads East Tennessee's favorite ‘90s cover band, Teen Spirit. 

Caleb Moore is a singer/songwriter from Dallas. He graduated from University of Texas-Arlington with a B.A. in music industry studies with an emphasis on music media. Caleb has successfully led two groups to ICCA Finals, as well as the Open Finals at Carnegie Hall. In addition to receiving numerous Outstanding Arrangement awards, his groups have recorded on Patti Labelle’s Christmas album, sang on a national Cheerios commercial, and his music has been nominated for a Contemporary A Cappella Award (CARA) for Best Original Song. He currently arranges for high school and collegiate a cappella programs across the country, serves as a clinician at festivals, and continues to write and perform original music. 

Jared Sanchez is a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a bachelor's degree in theater. At UTK, he found his love of a cappella as a five-year member of the group VOLT. During his time in the group, he took on many roles including arranging, music-directing, and choreography. Jared has also enhanced his study of a cappella by attending many festivals and camps such as Camp A Cappella, SoJam, BOSS, ICCA, and Next Level Arrange. Currently, Jared resides in Knoxville where he works many jobs including radio host for a show called "Out Loud" every Thursday at 7 p.m. on WUTK 90.3 The Rock. You can also find him as the Saturday night DJ at Core Knoxville. Jared looks forward to hearing all the groups compete tonight and wishes them the best of luck, as well as a very Happy Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day weekend. 

SPECIAL THANKS

Varsity Vocals would like to recognize and thank the staff and students of ETSU for graciously hosting us in a challenging year; our judges, hosts, competitors, volunteers, partners, and producers; and you, the audience, for supporting Varsity Vocals programming.

Amanda Newman
 Executive Director

Dave Rabizadeh
 ICCA Director

Elise Hackl-Blumstein
ICHSA Director
ICHSA Great Lakes Producer
PA/MA Program Coordinator

Andrea Poole
 ICHSA Co-Director

Lucy Jacobs
The Open Director
 ICCA West Producer

Andrew Poole
 Director of Digital Media

Erica Tackett
 Director of Marketing & Social Strategy

Emily Flanders
Director of Adjudication
 ICCA Great Lakes Producer

Emily Sucher
 Director of Publications

Patty Floyd
 Accountant

Virginia DeMoss
 Album Production Coordinator

Sara Yood
Senior Producer

Holli Kitching
ICCA Mid-Atlantic Producer

Lindsay Howerton-Hastings
 ICCA South Producer

Leah Alrutz
 ICCA Midwest Producer

Bronwyn Jensen
 ICCA Southwest Producer

Gemma Davies
 ICCA United Kingdom Producer

Christopher Witham
 ICCA United Kingdom Producer

Emily Benjamin
 ICCA Northeast Producer

Arvin Zabalerio
ICCA Central Producer

Jillian Kimberlin
 ICHSA Mid-Atlantic Producer

Danielle Sutherland
 ICHSA Midwest Producer

Jake McVey
 ICHSA Northeast Producer

Donald Paradis
 ICHSA South Producer

Cameron Clemens
 ICHSA West Producer

Courtney Jenson
 Associate Producer
Emcee

Ben Garza
 ICHSA Southwest Producer

Katherine Mosher
 ICHSA South Day-Of Producer

Bri Decerio
 ICHSA West Day-Of Producer

Jake Yoakum
 ICHSA West Day-Of Producer

OUR TEAM

We have an amazing team of people who work tirelessly to make our programs so valuable for our singers and audiences alike — and they all do it while holding down full-time day jobs, too! 

The top two finishing groups will advance to the 2022 ICCA South Semifinal.

BRING THE HARMONY HOME

Find your favorite groups on The Best of College A Cappella (BOCA) and The Best of High School A Cappella (BOHSA), available for purchase on Apple Music and Amazon Music!

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