COURTESY PHOTO /BENJAMIN HUNTON
Vocal Order Maintains Order with New Members
Emily Holleran
For The Clock
Few people consider how important their interests are to the future of whatever student groups grab their attention. For these groups, potential members means the opportunity to preserve what they love doing, even if just for another semester. The Plymouth State’s all-male a cappella group, Vocal Order, was one such group that eagerly awaited to meet some new possible members at the Student Activities Fair on Sept. 9.
Coming into the new school year, Vocal Order was left with only 7 members from the 12 they initially had the year before. This was due to the fact that three seniors graduated, and two other members had left to pursue other interests. The sudden loss in about half of their members was drastic, but the change also brought up the fun challenge of seeking out new members to join the group.
Christian Burns, one of the newest additions to the group, was always curious about a cappella, but never actually tried it. When he found out that PSU had all-male a cappella group, he decided to give it a shot. “I was very nervous,” said Burns as he recalled his emotions during and after his audition. “And, while it may have affected my performance slightly, it was lessened by the very calm and welcoming atmosphere created by the people in the room. When I was brought back for callbacks, I wasn't really nervous at all, honestly. Again, the environment was just very calming and welcoming.”
The calming and welcoming environment may be in part due to brothers, Ben and Alex Hunton, who are Vocal Order’s Business Manager and Music Director respectively. “I was thrilled just to see how many people from majors outside of the Music/Theatre department came to audition,” said Ben. “One thing Vocal Order has wanted to do for a long time is attract more attention out– side the major and really get people involved. We saw some awesome talent coming from people whose only experience was ‘shower singing’. Everyone brought something different to the table that we really liked. We would have loved to just let them all in, but there were only so many spots available…I'm really excited to see how this new group blends together in the coming year.”
Alex Hunton also shares the excitement for the kinds of music Vocal Order will be performing this year, despite this sadly being his last semester in the group. “This year we have a pretty fun lineup,” said Alex. “We are going to be performing all sorts of genres and styles. We’ve been doing more modern music lately, and that trend is continuing with songs like “Honey I’m Good” and “Shut Up and Dance”. But we are also doing some nice ballads, classic rock songs, holiday favorites, and maybe even a popular cartoon song (fingers crossed) that I won’t give away!”
With new members also comes the challenge of incorporating each of their individual voices into the already established group. “There is always a period in which we are all getting used to the new sound,” said Alex. “We lost a lot of voices that we have loved having for years, but we are super confident that the new guys will bring a lot of great energy and tons of great sound to the group. We put a lot of responsibility on them to learn the music right away and be at all the rehearsals, but we have a lot of faith in them. This year we let in 6 new members out of like 30 auditions, and I can’t wait to get started singing and performing with them.”
With the new members in their arsenal, Vocal Order will continue to perform one show per semester with the all-female a cappella group Mixed Emotions, as well as put on several smaller performances on and off campus. Look for the next edition to hear from Mixed Emotions, and learn about their upcoming semester of music.