University of Illinois Unseen
In honor of the 2017 ICCA tournament, The A Cappella Blog pursued short interviews with competing groups to develop insights into why and how groups approach competition, and to get appropriately excited for the tremendous shows ahead of us.
What’s your group name and on what date is your group’s quarterfinal?
We are Unseen Christian A Cappella and our quarterfinal is February 11 at DeKalb High School.
How long has your group been around? Have you competed before?
Unseen was formed in October of 2015 and we have not competed in ICCA before.
Why are you competing this year? What does your group hope to accomplish or get out of the experience?
As a relatively newly-formed group, we are hoping to flex our metaphorical biceps and see how much growing we can do with the added pressure of competition. While our primary goal isn’t to win, we really want to showcase our workmanship and praise God as we do so. We also hope to put ourselves out there and gain some exposure in the a cappella community. Being the only Christian A cappella group at our quarterfinal we hope to bring a new genre of music to the stage for our audience, showing that contemporary Christian music is more similar than different to mainstream pop music, overcoming any stereotypes that our kind of music isn't good. ICCA will also be a great bonding experience for our young group. For us, there's nothing like being able to combine our different identities of music and faith through a cappella, and we're excited to share that with our audience.
How is your group preparing for competition?
Most of our pieces have been learned by now and it’s a matter of selecting soloists, perfecting our blend, and learning choreography. Each song comes already laden with meaning from its writer and original performer, and there’s something wonderful about digging deeply into that as we figure out what the piece means to each of us. We are rehearsing about 7 hours a week, and our group has been planning everything out over winter break so we can work as efficiently as possible when we return to school.
If you were to describe your group, or the set your group is planning for competition with just three words, what would they be?
Group: Sincere, inspired, resilient
Set: Awakened, liberating, love.
You can follow Unseen on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/UnseenACappella/