BROOKE THAMES
A&C Editor
thamesbe@plu.edu
Since 2013, A Cappella singers The Filharmonic have jumped from the stage of The Sing Off to the set of Pitch Perfect 2 and onto the road for their own nation-wide collegiate tour. Last week, the renowned A Cappella group jumped onto the Late Knight stage to give Lutes a sample of their success.
Thursday Feb. 3, Mast Media’s Late Knight hosted The Filharmonic on its second live-streamed episode. The show featured four of the six members answering interview questions, competing against Lutes in “Poop the Potato” and performing a self-arranged rendition of John Legend’s “Used to Love U.”
“I’ve never actually seen anything like [Late Knight] at any other school,” vocalist Joseph Caigoy said. “I think it’s cool. It’s kind of SNL-like.”
Like hosts on SNL, The Filharmonic know how to entertain a crowd. As former contestants on NBC’s The Sing-Off – a televised competition for A Capella – the members of The Filharmonic seem to succeed at engaging audiences with their perfected harmonies and professional musical arrangements.
Their ability to gel so well, they say, comes from the fact that The Sing-Off “[threw] them into the fire” of being an A Cappella group. Their first performance as The Filharmonic occurred on the first episode of the season.
“It was a great learning experience for all of us because we were a group that had just started competing against groups that had been [performing] for ten, thirteen, fifteen years,” bass vocalist Jules Cruz said. “To be thrown into the fire like that, we learned so much.”
As they developed, The Filharmonic found an identity in 90’s pop and R&B. Finding a niche, Filharmonic says, helps set them apart in the broad world of A Cappella music.
“Now, because A Cappella has become this kind of cultural sensation, you have to be more than A Cappella. You have to have a style within that,” vocalist Trace Gaynor said.
Their style may have had a hand in their appearance on Pitch Perfect 2. According to the group, they received a call offering them a slot in the movie a week after the Sing-Off national tour ended.
They jumped at the opportunity and ended up as one of the featured global A Capella groups at the conclusion of the film.
“We didn’t know what to expect. We were just excited to be on camera, all camera ready for all ten seconds of our scene,” beatboxer Niko Del Rey said.
While on set the group enjoyed meeting and bonding with some of the film’s stars, including Elizabeth Banks, Hailee Sheffield and Anna Kendrick.
“We’re obviously all really big A Cappella nerds, so we were huge fans,” Gaynor said.
Since their days on set, The Filharmonic have launched their Get Up and Go tour and are currently performing at colleges across the country. The tour is named after the first original song the group arranged together.
Moving forward, The Filharmonic said they eventually want to follow in Pentatonix’s footsteps and release an album of their own original music.
As A Cappella grows and develops, original music is slowly finding its place within the art. Still, it’s something that The Filharmonic says is difficult to achieve.
“Another thing with A Capella is that original music is something you stay away from,” Caigoy said. “One of the challenges [is] coming up with music that people want to hear on the radio that isn’t something that’s already there.”
Despite the challenge, The Filharmonic strives to create their own original content. The group aims to push the boundaries of A Cappella and achieve even more with the potential they possess.
“We’re just pushing ourselves to do more,” Caigoy said. “Bigger things.”
Dates for The Filharmonic’s Get Up and Go tour can be found on their website, TheFilharmonic.com. Their album, titled Motown Filly, is available for purchase on iTunes. The Filharmonic can be reached through the following social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram.
