A Cappella Group Sings the Praises of Harmony, Friendship

Introduction: Shannon Knowski sat in on a rehearsal with The Naturals, Marquette University’s all-male a cappella group, as they prepared for their final performances of the year.

(Strawberry Swing song)

Knowski narration: The Marquette Naturals currently consists of 14 members, and Nathan Wood is their president.

Wood: The group was founded in 2003. I believe it was four or eight guys from the Marquette chorus split off because they wanted to do some barbershop stuff. So they split off and then obviously, it developed into what it is now.

(Strawberry Swing fades under)

Knowski: The selection process for their members has many steps.

Wood: We do a quick audition where someone will, you know, sing a verse and chorus of a pop song that they liked, that fits their voice really well. And then we do some sight reading, as well as a range test and some tonal memory. And then we kind of just talk to them a little bit, kind of get their vibe, talk about whether or not we think they’d be a good fit with the group. And then we send out callbacks to all the people that, you know, make it past that first audition process. And, you know, callbacks really aren’t much so to see if they’re a good singer, callbacks, there’s a lot more, would they fit in within the group? Do they fit in kind of with the identity that we have? And, you know, would they be like, Are they someone that would be fun to be around, and then for the last bit, it’s just we hang out play games and stuff like that, just to see, you know, how well do they interact with people? How well do they mesh with the guys that we have in the group? And then after that point, it’s a full group decision has to be entirely unanimous whether someone gets in. It’s always gotta be in agreement with the whole group and that is something that can be two to three hours.

Knowski: You can tell how much they value these friendships in their down time.

(joking around and singing “Last Christmas” and “Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time”)

Knowski: Benjamin Jennings is a senior in the group.

Jennings: The reason I do acapella is because I feel like it’s a very warm and welcoming art form for everybody like it doesn’t matter if you’re gay, straight, non-binary,black, white, man, woman, it doesn’t matter.

Wood: It’s like, yes, we’re in a singing group. But I think we’re all friends first. Before we are, you know, members of this group, and it’s like a really, really good, like family and like brotherhood that we have, and it’s really special.

Knowski: Arik Zintel is a junior, and the group’s Music Director. He says rehearsals get serious during competition season for ICCA, the International Competition of Collegiate Acapella.

(Aeroplane fade in)

Zintel: I try to start us out with the foundations. So what sort of motifs are repeated throughout so this year, we started with Aeroplane which is our song that is cut up between the other two songs.

(cross fade into ICCA set)

and then we have our retreat every year, which we do, which we we go off campus for a weekend. And we spend two days  having these all day long rehearsals, like six hours or so where we learn the entire piece of music, pretty well. You know, dynamics might not be there, all the articulations might not be there, but we know every single thought on the page, and after that it’s really all about polishing. And then putting what we know in with our choreo, which is one of the hardest parts is getting the body to act the same way that the voice wants to act.

Wood: We just have a good time. I think that’s something that we like, really, really try to stress with, how we coordinate ourselves within the group, really making sure that,we take time out of rehearsal to, hang out with the guys like inviting people over and saying, Oh, hey, anybody want to go? Anybody, anybody, anybody wants to swipe me at one of the dining halls,  little things like that, to just kind of build that sort of sense of togetherness that we have. And that way, you know, when we do get to rehearsal, we don’t feel like we’re just going to a rehearsal to rehearse, we’re going to rehearse, because we want to be there, we want to be with these guys. And we want to have fun.

Knowski: The brotherhood and fun continues to shine through all of their performances. For Media Milwaukee, I’m Shannon Knowski.

(Why am I The One fades out)