Minor Disturbance one of two high school groups to perform at JMU “Sing Out”

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Courtesy of Rachel Rohrer

Minor Disturbance waits for their turn to perform.

Christa Cole, Photography Editor

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The seats at the JMU Forbes Center were all sold out as the annual Sing Out a capella concert occurred March 23 and 24. The groups showcased were many college sets as well as some high school groups, including one from HHS, Minor Disturbance. The selected crew of students directed by J.R. Snow contained newcomers sophomore Nicole Raab and senior Allison McGranahan, along with others.

The two songs sung by Minor Disturbance were “Let’s Get It Started” by the Black Eyed Peas and “Alone”, arranged by Snow. The third song, sung by high school and college students combined, was Ingrid Michaelson’s “Afterlife”. “Let’s Get It Started” opened with a solo by sophomore Greg Castillo and included rapping from senior Valerio Aleman. “Alone” began with a solo by senior Laura Ruple and burst with a duet by seniors Jaymie Inouye and Ellie Plass with additional harmony from senior Hollyn Slykhuis.

Raab enjoyed how both songs let the audience experience a variety of emotion.

“It messes with your emotions. “Let’s Get It Started” starts us off with high energy and thenAlone” ends with a mysterious feel,” Raab said.

The first night of performances was a rough one for the singers as they dealt with both tuning and technical difficulties.

“[We] definitely had a lot of issues tuning with “Alone” before so we warmed up a lot and made sure that we were listening to each other before so we could get on and be confident with it. That was probably our biggest challenge as a group,” McGranahan said.

Another challenge was faced during the rap portion of the performance.

“There were some technical issues with “Let’s Get It Started” in the first night where [Valerio’s], who did the rap, mic kept getting switched from way too loud to way too soft and back and forth until they finally found it and it definitely threw some of the audience off a little bit. I definitely saw some of the audience members react and be like ‘Oh, what is that? What’s going on?’” McGranahan said.

This was not the only technical issue of the night for HHS and other groups.

“Tech knew what the were doing more [on the second night],” Raab said. “The first night we had the thing with Valerio’s mic, but on another group they had a spotlight on a completely random person and also they were trying to do some weird lighting effects and at one point it was completely dark so we were just like ‘There are no lights!’. But the second night we all just had a better idea of what we were doing and how to tune to each other’s voices.”

McGranahan also believes the second night was better musically as well in terms of the soloist’s performances.

“I think [“Alone”] went fine, it just wasn’t up to par for our group. This is my first year, but I’ve heard them sing a lot of stuff and they’re always together and very on point. The second night, I think it was fine, it’s just that the first night was a little scary…It was better last night too because we were warmed up and we were ready and we were listening more than in the first night.”

Energy levels may also have been improved during the second night by the reactions of HHS mothers.

“Rachel and Laura’s moms were in the audience dancing and it kept me really happy and excited through the whole thing because the first night the whole audience was dead still and looking angry and this night Mrs. Ruple and Mrs. Rohrer were like ‘Woooh!’ It was uplifting,” McGranahan said.

The first night was also harder because the students had just very recently learned “Afterlife”, the song they sang with college groups.

“The preparation was really last minute we had one hour long rehearsal [to learn this song] and then the next time we met we were performing it so we were winging it. That’s what acapella is really, just winging it,” Raab said.

Due to the rush of the process, McGranahan believes the HHS acapella group wasn’t fully prepared for the performance of “Afterlife”.

“I think the college students knew it, but as a high school I don’t think we totally knew it,” McGranahan said. “It just didn’t feel as exciting. We weren’t getting into the music as much because it wasn’t our group. We work well together but we just walked in and you don’t know where your voice fits within [the intermixed] ensemble.”

Both McGranahan and Raab preferred “Alone” to both “Let’s Get It Started” and “Afterlife”.

“I like the style of it. It’s really slow in the beginning and quiet and the soloist gets into her lower range, then suddenly it just explodes [with] the duet and it’s really high and full of energy. Energy just fills the room,” Raab said.

McGranahan prefers “Alone” because of its strength and believes it comes from Snow as well as the vocalists.

“Snow’s writing [makes it powerful]. Partially the talent, the soloists are really talented and as an ensemble, we do well, but also Snow’s writing is powerful in itself, like any choir could make it work,” McGranahan said.