Four of Ball State’s a cappella groups competed in the International Championship of Colligate A Capella (ICCA) Midwest quarterfinals at Indiana University on Jan. 30 and won the top three spots.
The four groups that competed were Note to Self, Ladies’ Choice, Sedoctave and Unexpected Resolution.
Out of nine total groups, Note to Self won first place, Ladies’ Choice second, Sedoctave third and Unexpected Resolution placed fifth.
"Not only is this a first for Ball State, it's a first in the history of a competition that a single university has swept the top thtee in a competition; most universities only have one or two groups that make it to the quarterfinal round," said John Steele, Vice President of the Association of Collegiate a cappella at Ball State.
Edric Mitchell, the Ball State a cappella association's president and music director for Note to Self, said after three years of competing in the quarterfinals, taking home first place was a shock and major accomplishment for the group.
“All the guys were in a total shock when they called our name,” Mitchell said. “We went in with the goal to place at least into the top three and when we found out we won first we were like ‘What? Is this real?’ We were really excited and happy. This is one of our biggest accomplishments.”
Mitchell personally arranged two out of the three songs that the group performed. They performed "Recovery Stitched," "Smash your Apology" and "This Love."
“This year I put myself in the mindset that we needed to put our best foot forward and give all we had,” Mitchell said. “The songs I arranged were songs and styles that I thought would be a great representation of what Note to Self could do.”
Along with the top three wins, Ladies’ Choice won the Outstanding Choreography award.
Note to Self performers Walter Edwards and Mitchell also won the Best Soloist award.
Overall, Mitchell said the experience was great for all a cappella groups.
“Our community is really supportive of each other,” Mitchell said. “We were all really excited for each other and the fact we were able to get the top three spots and two caption awards. We represented Ball State and Ball State a capella really well to other schools who don’t know who we are.”
Note to Self and Ladies’ Choice will be moving on to the ICCA Midwest semifinals at Washington University in St. Louis on April 2.
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