The first ever MoCo Vocals event was hosted on May 13 in the auditorium by this school’s a capella group, the Acatonics.
Joined originally by other a capella groups from Churchill, Walter Johnson, Richard Montgomery and Whitman, this event is meant to showcase the talent of these groups for students, staff, family and friends. “A lot of what a capella does during competition season, if you don’t come to the competitions then you don’t get to see it, so our hope was to do something here so that family and friends, who can’t attend competitions, can see it. And it was also a way to celebrate and bring together all the different a capella groups from Montgomery County,” music teacher Keith Schwartz said.
The Acatonics are the only a capella group in Montgomery County that compete on a national level, so this event gave other schools the opportunity to highlight all of their hard work and efforts. But the date of this event brought trouble, being in the middle of AP exams and so close to the end of the school year forced Churchill and Whitman to drop out of the event. “I know that it’s a hard time of year, so I think that’s something for us to think about in the future, maybe moving the date to not be in the middle of AP season. It may have also been that when you are student-run, the groups are usually smaller so if a couple people drop out then it may leave them unable to perform,” Schwartz said.
Schools that were able to attend, Richard Montgomery and Walter Johnson, were welcomed and assigned members of the Acatonics to help them set up backstage. Junior Joy Nadda was one of the members helping the other groups, “I was working with the all male group from Walter Johnson. They were really nice and talkative. They were very keen on getting to know me and Victoria, the other helper, and were super friendly. We had to instruct them on how to set up and help with mics. It was easy to instruct them because they understood what needed to be done,” Nadda said.
In addition to the showcase of talent, this was one of the last events the seniors in a capella would have to perform with their music family, “It was a little bittersweet because that’s was the last time we’re performing our competition set but I think we finished it out well and it was a good experience for sure. I hope a capella has the opportunity to host this again in the future. We’re happy we got the chance to grow a capella as a whole through Montgomery County and have a strong close with our group for the year,” senior John Yi said.
With their competition set only being heard in competition, the night presented a chance for Acatonic supporters to hear this elusive group. The event, overall, was a success and set high expectations for next year as the auditorium was packed with friends and families from all three schools. “I thought it was awesome. I’m glad that for the first one, it showed us that there is interest, that there are people that want to come watch and that there are people that want to perform in it as well. So I hope that this is a yearly thing that we can do,” Schwartz said.
