In the midst of fall’s busy nature between classes and fun events, the Rhody Rhapsodies, the University of Rhode Island’s a cappella ensemble, hosted their 2024 Fall Invitational on Sunday.
The event featured acts from across Rhode Island. The schools featured included Roger Williams University’s a cappella groups, Drastic Measures and Hawkward, along with Salve Regina’s all-female a cappella group, Pitches With Attitude.
“We’ve always done invitationals, it’s been a thing,” Rhody Rhapsodies president Louis Shriber, said. “This happens a lot with a cappella clubs in colleges. They’ll do their own individual performances when it’s just them but a lot of times they invite groups in to do a few sets.”
Each guest group performed about two or three songs, building up to the main performance from the Rhody Rhapsodies.
RWU’s first group, Drastic Measures, performed arrangements of two songs, “Mercy” by Shawn Mendes and “Mamma Mia” by ABBA
Salve Regina’s Pitches With Attitude took the stage next, performing arrangements of three songs: “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac, “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” by KT Tunstall and concluding with an audience-involved performance of “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield.
In between Pitches With Attitude and Hawkward’s performances, there was a beatbox interlude, where every group’s beatboxer came out and gave their own performance before inviting RWU’s second a cappella group, Hawkward, to the stage.
Hawkward performed arrangements of “Erase Me” by Lizzy McAlpine and “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims.
For every group there was one designated soloist for each song performed and everyone who wasn’t a soloist would add backing vocals, harmonies and sound effects that all equally contributed to the presentation of the songs.
“We’ve really grown to love the invitationals,” Shriber said
Setting up and creating an a cappella performance takes a lot of work, especially when there’s multiple people involved and different roles that need to be fulfilled to make the performance.
Shriber said the group had been rehearsing since the beginning of the semester. Auditions were held the first week of classes, and rehearsals began the week after.
When it comes to putting together the songs and various pieces of the performance together, the process takes time and oftentimes requires everything to be started from the very bottom and building it up to a whole performance.
“It doesn’t just happen immediately. It takes a little while to learn parts, and even after you learn the parts it takes awhile for the performance to gel together.” Shriber said
Shriber and other group members expressed that only in recent weeks did the performance truly gel together, showing how much of a process learning the act can be and how much time it takes for it to materialize.
“It’s a really great process, I think,” second-year Rhody Rhapsodies member Caitlin Ford said. “After our auditions, we get into our rehearsal rooms and it’s just kind of like bonding from day one.” Ford said.
Ford built onto her point saying how important it is to work in cohesion with everyone in the group and how the more time they spent together the easier it became to learn the musical numbers performed by Rhody Rhapsodies.
“We want to be as close as possible with one another,” Ford said. “We’re like family.”
As is the case with any live performance, there were complications and trials that came with the process of making the full performance. Regardless, the group appreciates the creative processes involved with preparing for performances.
“Learning the pitches and rhythms isn’t a whole lot of trial and error,” Shriber said. “You either got it or you don’t, but once you get into the more expressive side of the music, there’s like, a million things you can do, and none of them are wrong. Some of them might just be stronger than others.”
The Rhody Rhapsodies will be back on stage Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m. for their 10-year anniversary celebration, where they’ll feature alumni of the group.