Cadence puts on dreamy a cappella fall showcase

In the Student Union's auditorium on Saturday, 16 singers took the stage, each dressed in long black pants and tops in various shades of purple. As they took their places, the crowd roared with applause. 

With a snap, the singers dove straight into their one-hour a cappella performance, starting with a cover of Cher Lloyd's “Want U Back.”

These singers are part of Cadence: UNC's a capella group for femme-presenting and nonbinary students. Their performance on Saturday, titled “Dreaming of Cadence,” served as their annual fall concert.

As implied by the performance's name, the theme of the concert was “slumber party.” Photos of the Cadence singers dressed in pajamas, wrestling over a pillow and playing card games can be seen on the program for the concert.

Kate Dyson, Cadence's business manager, said the group voted on the theme and they found it easier to act out and publicize compared to some of the previous themes. 

Cadence began planning the theme and other concert logistics within the last two months. This included deciding which charity to donate part of their ticket proceeds to — something that Cadence does for each of their concerts.

The group decided to donate half the ticket proceeds to the Community Empowerment Fund, a local nonprofit helping individuals transition out of homelessness and poverty. 

To prepare for the concert, the singers met in the Union twice a week to rehearse. As the day of the performance drew closer, they were practicing for three hours each night. 

Aarya Nagrani, Dyson's roommate who attended the concert on Saturday, said the effort the group has put in has been evident, especially in the week leading up to the show. 

“I think it's so cool how they all really come together and put their absolute all into it to be able to present such an amazing show tonight,” she said.

During their concert, Cadence performed 12 a cappella covers spanning from '90s pop hits like Shania Twain's “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” to recent R&B songs like “Circus” by Summer Walker. The group also performed an a cappella medley featuring popular girl group songs such as “Worth It” by Fifth Harmony and “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls. 

Dyson said each singer had the chance to suggest three songs that they thought would be fun to sing, and they decided on what songs to perform from there. 

“Sometimes it depends on genres, but we really just choose music that we all love and enjoy,” she said.

Some of the arrangements like “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” were performed in previous semesters. Others were introduced to the stage for the first time during the concert. 

One new arrangement was the rendition of “erase me” by Lizzy McAlpine, which was passionately performed by UNC first-year Kendall Babb.

Babb was the only first-year to sing the melody of a song completely solo in the concert. 

Babb said the past week required a lot of personal effort from Cadence members, and she often returned home around 11:30 p.m. each day after rehearsals. 

“It was really cathartic to have worked this hard all semester and getting to perform in front of the people who I love like my family, my really close friends, other a cappella groups, other musicians, other parents —  people who just want us to succeed,” she said.

Babb said the members had faith in each other during the rehearsal process, and she's found an amazing community between the new members, older returning members and music directors of Cadence.

This sense of sisterhood is something Dyson hopes the audience can feel as they perform the songs.

“We are Cadence because we have so much support behind us, and especially supporting women and supporting each other,” she said.

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