Five a cappella groups took the stage at the Schaefer Center of the Performing Arts Saturday for Acapocalypse, the annual spring a cappella showcase. The showcase was the last a cappella performance of the semester.
The performing groups were VoiceMale, the Mountain Ayres, Ear Candy, One Acchord and Treble Attraction. The event’s theme was “From Script to Stage,” with song choices representing a variety of genres and artists related to movies and TV.
Some of the songs performed included “Copacabana (At the Copa)” by Barry Manilow, “Gemini Moon” by Reneé Rapp, “World Burn” from “Mean Girls the Musical,” “The Night We Met” by Lord Huron and “ceilings” by Lizzy McAlpine.
Becca Neill is a junior psychology major and the co-music director of the all-female and non-binary identifying a cappella group Mountain Ayres, alongside junior communication sciences and disorders major Catie Cannon.
“This is the first time since I’ve been music director where we had a specific theme for our sets, so we got to pick some really fun songs that we wouldn’t have gotten to pick otherwise,” Neill said. “All of the groups put so much time and effort into our performances, but honestly I know we all really love to do it and it’s a really fulfilling experience to get to perform and see all the other groups, so we’re just glad that we get an opportunity to do that.”
The groups performed to an almost sold-out crowd at the Schaefer Center, including sophomore special education major Clarice Bonillo and sophomore accounting major Lauren Gluck.
“I’ve been to a few performances,” Gluck said.
Gluck and Bonillo came to the show to support a friend performing in Treble Attraction, but complemented all of the groups on their consistently good performances.
“I wanna see if it’s like ‘Pitch Perfect,’” Bonillo said. “I’ve never done this before, and I just love music.”
“Pitch Perfect” is also what inspired Neill to begin her a cappella journey.
“My favorite movie is ‘Pitch Perfect,’ and has been probably since I was in middle school,” Neill said. “When I came to App State, I had a few friends in a cappella groups and just wanted to sing since I had done high school in choir and was missing it, and it ended up working out.”
This event was Neill’s last time performing at Acapocalypse before her graduation in December.
“I would love to encourage other people to get into something like a cappella if it’s something you’re interested in, even if it’s outside of your comfort zone,” Neill said. “It’s definitely my favorite thing that I’ve done in college, so I’d love to see other people get involved if it’s something that they’re interested in and audition for Mountain Ayres.”
