Bringing the house down at semifinals, the Pitchmen are New York bound.
For five-straight-years, a Belmont A capella group advanced to the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella finals.
Now, the group is all set to perform for a final time at Town Hall Theatre in New York City on April 29.
“We are honored to continue this legacy for Belmont by advancing to finals and representing all the talent that’s here at this school,” said Pitchmen music director Sean Murphy.
At semifinals, the Pitchmen also took home the additional awards of outstanding soloist for Rob Mantano’s solo in "Cosmic Girl," outstanding choreography by Sean Dean and Mason Bates and Best Vocal Production was given to Eric Naleieha.
“I would say it was way better than our quarterfinals performance,” Murphy said. “The audience was super into it, and we got lots of screams while we were performing.”
The last time the Pitchmen made it to the ICCA finals was in 2020 and because of the start of the pandemic, they were unable to compete.
“In my freshman year we won semifinals, but the day we got back the finals were cancelled because of COVID,” Murphy said. “Since then, we’ve been trying to get back to finals and now in my senior year we finally did it. It’s kind of come full circle.”
By advancing to finals, the group will have the opportunity to perform with other winning groups from all around the country and the United Kingdom.
“We’re really happy that we’re going to be able to perform this set another time,” said Pitchmen assistant music director David Brackett. “We love performing this set for an audience and it’s super fulfilling to be able to get new eyes on it.”
Qualifying for finals also allows the Pitchmen to get more publicity in hopes of expanding the group next year.
“The exposure is always super great when it comes to preparing for next year, growing the group and getting people to audition,” Brackett said.
Between now and their performance at finals, the group plans to prepare by changing things they think need improving.
“We are continuing to polish and update the flash, the theatricality and just the performance value of this set,” Brackett said. “We are just trying our best at winning.”
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This article was written by Zoe Spangler
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