Pitch Slapped: What Do Two New A Cappella Groups Mean for Newtones?

By Jaehun Lee

While Newtones has been the only Newton South a cappella organization for years, two new a capella groups have emerged since September.

First, South saw the creation of an a cappella club, which was started by sophomore Hannah Cole. A couple weeks later, seniors Michelle Sandler and David Tandetnik started their own after-school a cappella group, Euphonic.

Sandler explained that she had always been interested in a cappella and decided to form a group while she had the chance.

“I’ve been interested for awhile in mashups and arranging music, especially a cappella arrangements,” Sandler said. “I would kind of just hear a song and think of a small vocal part or arrangement, so after awhile I figured I might as well put that to use by starting an a capella group. I knew I would need a vice president because there was no way I could do it alone, so I messaged David, told him about my idea, and he was on board.”

Now that her troupe is established, Sandler describes them as “a bunch of people who love singing and want to have fun making music,” while performing songs they are passionate about.

Sandler adds that while she has considered entering a capella competitions, she wants to leave it up to the group on whether or not Euphonic will compete.

Newtones Vice President Andrea Lirio admitted that the group was upset when they found out about the other organizations.

“We understand that people made these groups because they loved singing,” Lirio said. “But because the majority of the people in these other groups auditioned and were rejected from our group, we feel that there might be some hatred for Newtones, and that’s why these new groups came about.”

In spite of this, Lirio applauded the groups for their risk-taking, saying that it was nice to see students creating opportunities for themselves.

Newtones assistant music director Ethan Koss-Smith agreed with Lirio.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Koss-Smith said. “Obviously I wish they could all come to Newtones, but I think all these new groups give people the chance to be in an a cappella group, which is probably what they wanted in the first place.”

Sandler hopes that Euphonic will have a friendly and collaborative relationship with Newtones.

“I’m not very familiar with the people in the a cappella club, but a lot of the Euphonic members, myself included, are already friendly with a lot of people in Newtones, so I wouldn’t want that to change,” Sandler said.

Newtones junior Noah Weisskopf added that it will be best for all three a cappella groups to get along with each other, looking at college a cappella as an example.

“We want some competition because a little competition never hurt anyone, but I think if you look at any college, there are so many a cappella groups, so it’s probably in everyone’s best interests to get along well with each other,” Weisskopf said.

Koss-Smith believes that it will be interesting to see what kind of relationship Newtones will have with Euphonic and the a cappella club, as the groups know little about each other.

Weisskopf hopes that all three groups will be able to coexist and cooperate with one another.

“In the end, we want to have a good relationship with the other groups,” Weisskopf said. “There’s a lot of talent in this school and unfortunately Newtones can’t take them all in, so it’s awesome that these people know that they’re talented so they make their own new groups.”

Members of the a cappella club declined an interview.