Seniors in A Capella Steal the Show
The Swinging Gates showcased their seniors in the first half of their fall performance alongside The Colgate 13.
The Colgate Thirteen and the Swinging ’Gates held their annual fall performance this past Friday, November 2 at 7 p.m. The showcase featured eight songs by the Swinging ’Gates and seven by the Colgate Thirteen, with a special induction intermission for new members of the Colgate Thirteen.
The Swinging ’Gates began the performance with songs that featured seven different senior soloists: Ashley Jones, Zoe Peltz, Tessa Weal, Brynn Johnson, Sally Ngoje, Hailey Park and Er- ika Birk, each respectively soloing in “Landslide,” “Octahate,” “Khalid Medley,” “I Know I’m Not the Only One,” “Killing Me Softly,” “Love on the Brain” and “Wide Open Spaces.”
The Swinging ’Gates have been working towards improving their sound as a whole ensemble, which was evident in their more complex pieces on Friday.
“This semester the ’Gates have been really focused on our sound as a group—mostly how our voices blend together to create the background music of our songs. We were excited to perform our newest arrangement, ‘Khalid Medley,’ which was arranged by one of our new members, Emily Cope. The audience seemed to love it, which really made all our hard work and hours of rehearsal worthwhile,” sophomore Alena Maiolo said.
The all-female a cappella group received their first stand- ing ovation in recent memory, bringing sincere gratitude to the group’s closing speaker and musical director, Hailey Park.
After the ’Gates exited, The Colgate Thirteen took the stage. The Colgate Thirteen featured senior soloists on each of their selected songs: Drew O’Hara, Brandon Biney, Will Holding III, Mark Sibold, Brian Regan Jr., Esteban Dardani and Jeremy Kos- soff on the songs “If I Ain’t Got You,” “In the Still of the Night,” “Colder Weather,” “Many Rivers to Cross,” “Fix You,” “Impossible Dream” and “Lay Me Down” (featuring Drew O’Hara).
Recent additions to the Colgate Thirteen’s repertoire also premiered this past Friday. The all-male a capella group added “Impossible Dream” and “Lay Me Down” this semester, the latter a piece arranged by Colgate Thirteen member, sophomore Francis Criscione.
Junior Sharrod Gorum expressed the group’s recent excitement when working with the new songs.
“We started off on the piano, working with the music, and once we really engaged with it and learned it and got to make it out own, it became something beautiful,” Gorum explained.
The Colgate Thirteen inducted three new members onstage as well, including sophomore Simon Lee and first-years Nate Freishtat and Ryan Ruhl. As part of the induction, O’hara and Kossoff presented the new members with the signature Colgate Thirteen maroon blazers for the first time on stage.
With the conclusion of the performance, the Colgate Thirteen also received a standing ovation.
“We love singing for you guys. It’s one of the things we hope to do more often, sing on campus. It’s great for us and we hope you guys enjoy what we do because music is our number one priority,” Gorum said.
Contact Kuba Alicki at [email protected].
