Three UNC a cappella groups prepare for ICCA competition

The 29th season of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, is starting this month. Three UNC groups — the UNC Walk-Ons, the Tar Heel Voices and the Tarpeggios — will be competing. On January 25, the Walk-Ons and Tar Heel Voices will compete in the first round at the Carolina Theater in Durham. 

The championship invites all collegiate a cappella groups around the world, with nine regions competing in this year’s tournament. The UNC groups are competing in the South region quarterfinals. 

To apply, groups must submit live performance videos of two to three songs. The performances are then judged by the ICCA and Varsity Vocals directors, after which Varsity Vocals announces groups that have passed to join the quarterfinals. The deadline for ICCA’s 2025 application was on Oct. 15. 

The competing groups are mixed voice a cappella groups, which all have a history of competing for the ICCAs. 

Tar Heel Voices is UNC's oldest all-gender a cappella group, performing music with their voices around campus and Chapel Hill in two concerts every year. 

Walk-Ons also have semesterly concerts, focusing on pop music as their primary genre. They all wear a distinctive clothing item in most of their performances — matching Carolina Blue Converse. 

The final UNC a cappella group heading to the ICCAs, the Tarpeggios, is a mixed-voice group that has "developed their own unique music style and become a distinct part of the Carolina a cappella community," according to their website. The Tarpeggios did not respond to a request for comment. 

The a cappella groups start as early as the summer to prepare for the ICCAs.

Jules Greenway, the Tar Heel Voices ICCA coordinator, said their music arranging team had spent the summer preparing for their song arrangement to learn the music before winter break. Tar Heel Voices won best music arrangement for last year’s ICCA quarterfinal competition. 

“I think it's definitely our favorite part of the year," Greenway said. "It's really fun. It gives us a really fun common goal to work towards all together, and it's always super inspiring to see all the sets from all the other groups we compete against and the cool ideas they come up with."

Walk-On’s music team also arranged songs over the summer to put together their set. 

“I want my group to have something great to work with at the end of the day that's intuitive to learn and fun to sing,” Miasol Yara, former music director and member of the music team for the Walk-Ons, said. “Every arrangement I make, I treat it as if, ‘Okay, if I was soloing this song, how would I want the background to sound like, and how would I want to be imitating the instrumentals? If it was something that was just passionate for myself, what would I put into it?’”

Groups are required to perform a 10 minute set. Both the Walk-Ons and Tar Heel Voices have arranged a mash-up of three to four songs which all follow a common theme for each a cappella group. To decide on these songs, all group members contributed by suggesting music pieces and voting, making it a group effort. 

“A lot of times we're trying to emulate the original song that we picked because we're doing it more for fun and for our personal taste,” Yara said.

Although choreography is not strictly required in ICCA performances, it is a part of the judging criteria, so many groups, including Tar Heel Voices and Walk-Ons, also have choreography teams that guide members through various routines. 

The process of arranging music, developing choreography and putting together a performance as a group requires dedication and time.

“We have weeks where we're together all the time," Mason Roth, president of the Walk-Ons, said. "It's just fun. It's a lot of hard work, but we all have fun together."

Walk-Ons generally meet two times a week, but leading up to the competition they've rehearsed as many as five days in one week, and for four hours a day.

“We're not throughout the year going to different competitions, but this is the one chance that we have to go out and show what we've worked on to other people, and hopefully we want to get some good feedback for it and even place if we can,” Roth said. 

After quarterfinals, competitions will continue to the semifinals at the start of March. The entire South Region of collegiate a cappella groups will gather in the Carolina Theater on March 8 to perform their sets for the semifinal. 

All ICCA tickets for quarterfinals, semifinals and finals are available on the Varsity Vocal website.

@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com

EDITORS NOTE: Assistant Lifestyle Editor, Morgan Brenner, is a member of the Walk-Ons.