Eastern’s Euphonics group to perform at ICCA this Saturday
January 31, 2017
Doudna’s Recital Hall was filled with singing voices Tuesday night as Eastern’s Euphonics group performed in preparation for the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella.
The ICCA Midwest quarterfinal will take place 7 p.m. Saturday at Washington University in St. Louis.
This will be the first time Eastern’s Euphonics will be competing in an a capella competition.
Eastern’s Euphonics will be performing the same songs at the competition as they did Tuesday night in Doudna.
They will be opening their performance with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and will perform a mash-up of “Home” by Phillip Phillips and “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
Followed by this mash-up, they will perform “To Build a Home” by the Cinematic Orchestra and “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit.
The top two placing groups at the competition will advance to the ICCA Midwest Semifinal, and the top two placing groups from that competition will go to the ICCA Finals in New York City.
Haley Fryer, a senior music major, was one of the founders of the organization.
“Eastern didn’t have an a capella group, and we were disappointed about it, so we decided to form the group in 2015,” Fryer said.
Brian Hartman, the president of the group and a senior journalism and geology major, said most of the people who started the group were originally in marching band together.
“We were riding around in the car one day and we were just singing along to the radio and we realized how cool it would be for Eastern to have an a capella group,” Hartman said.
Not long after that, Hartman and Fryer, along with some others, decided to take initiative and form Eastern’s first a capella group.
As a recently formed group, Eastern Euphonics spends most of their time practicing and performing for various events on campus and in the community.
“Our very first performance was at a wedding that actually took place here on campus,” Hartman said.
Eastern’s Euphonics has also performed at other events on campus like admitted student day and at the Pemberton talent show, which they won.
Hartman said they have been rehearsing three days a week to prepare for the ICCA on Saturday.
“It’s something about our love for music and a capella that brought us all together,” Hartman said.
Madelyn Wilson, a freshman psychology major, was looking for an organization to join when she got to Eastern.
Wilson said she first heard about Eastern’s Euphonics group at Pantherpalooza last semester.
“Originally I joined because I wanted to get involved on campus, but it didn’t take long to realize how much I loved being a part of this group and how much fun it is,” Wilson said.
Loren Dickson can be reached at 581-2812 or ladickson@eiu.edu.
