College would be a mistake if it weren’t for its irresistible a cappella groups. Ohio University is no mistake, as it is home to several sixteen-ish-member groups who flow together in endless song — all of whom perform student-arranged versions of favorite pop songs, while making quite the appearance on campus. Last school year, our campus was home to only five groups: two boy band-like groups, two girl-power squads and just one co-ed group. And this year, senior music therapy major Mattie D’Erneville gave birth to one more co-ed a cappella group on the bricks, The Picardy Thirds.
D’Erneville mentions, “I wanted to create another co-ed a cappella group, I talked to a lot of people who were interested in starting a group that wanted to sing and hang out.”
The new eighteen-member SATB group (a fancy choir term for groups containing soprano, alto, tenor and bass singers) plans to focus on being quirky. Expect creatively-arranged mash-ups performed center stage and unique music-nerd twists to each tune. Recently, these singers managed to pull off a mash-up of two songs that wouldn’t normally go together: Ke$ha’s “Timber” and OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars.”
November 3, 2015, was the group’s first major performance on Glidden Hall’s (the music building by Jeff Hill) main stage. Here they performed their nifty mash-up of the two songs, which got the full house audience thrilled. If the crowd reaction had any effect on the members of the group, one of its main arrangement creators Rhys Ivan, a sophomore music therapy major, said, “We had a really good time!”
As the year progresses, members of this new group want to focus on making more appearances on campus. An end of the year goal for them is to perform at The Singing Men of Ohio’s headlining A Cappella Invitational event. Ivan also mentions his excitement about the group’s acceptance to sing at MACappella, a performance annually done by a cappella groups at schools in the MAC sports conference.
Overall, the new song crew is thrilled to be another group further spreading the love for a cappella activities at Ohio University!