Millersville is home to two a cappella groups: Chromatic and VilleHarmonics. A fairly new club, VilleHarmonics stemmed from Chromatic, the first a cappella group on campus.
“We started last year, September is when we formed,” said VilleHarmonics president Alayna Frank. “We did a lot of the same things as Chromatic, obviously, because that was what I knew, being in Chromatic before.”
Both groups auditioned for and look forward to hopefully competing in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) as well as hopefully participating in the Glorious Sounds of the Season concert here at Millersville. Both groups also look forward to their showcases coming up within the spring semester. Vox Rox, Chromatic’s showcase, will be on Jan. 27 and VilleHarmonic’s showcase is expected to take place in late March or early April.
“Similar to VilleHarmonics, we like to perform in and out of campus events,” says Collin Staub, president of Chromatic. “We love to perform at the ICCA competition and we just like to spread the genre of a cappella as far as possible.”
Millersville’s rule for creating new clubs states that each club has to be distinctly different from the rest. Despite the similarities between the groups, Frank explains that due to this, VilleHarmonics decided to take a more educational stance towards a cappella.
“In our constitution, we kind of wanted to take it more like the educational route where a lot of the people aren’t music majors and don’t really have that background,” Frank said. “So, we’re in the position where we’re teaching how this could be. This is a new experience for a lot of people, so that’s the route we took.”
A cappella certainly is not a new experience for Frank or Staub, however.
Staub, who was recruited by former Chromatic music director Noah Manno, said he was fascinated when he started looking into a cappella in 2021.
“I saw their single that came out, ‘Rise,’ and I thought ‘Wow, this is different,’” said Staub. “It wasn’t theater, which I usually was involved in in high school, and it wasn’t choir. This was something new and it was really interesting so I went with it. I auditioned and I ended up having some of the most fun I’ve had here at college through Chromatic.”
Frank has a little more of a history with a cappella, having started getting involved with it when she was in high school.
“It’s something I was really fascinated with,” she said. “I loved it; I loved the energy. I was never the kid who was ‘the musician’ first and foremost. I was always ‘the art student who did music on the side.’ So I feel like that kind of gave me an environment where I could do music and still have room for everything in my life.”
Wanting to share that environment with others was the driving factor towards starting VilleHarmonics.
“There were 50-plus auditioners. There’s so many people that would want to do this and it’s really unfortunate for the people who can’t and have to wait a whole other year to audition again for the chance to be one of 18. In the ICCAs, that is the maximum number you can have of microphones. You can have up to 24 in your group but only 18 microphones,” Frank shared.
Because of this, she believed that another group should be started to create more opportunities for those who could not get a spot in Chromatic.
The split came with challenges, however. Due to the decision being last-minute, some people in Chromatic were surprised by the new group.
“No matter what, I had always tried to make it clear that this was never a dig at anybody. We just wanted to create more opportunities for music. That was truly the whole point,” Frank says. “Obviously, feelings were hurt. There were emotions, we can’t deny that there were emotions on both sides. But, we really were trying hard to not make issues. We really didn’t want to do that. That wasn’t the purpose. I can’t stop people from feeling certain ways, but we just wanted to make a bigger community.”
Due to the group forming seemingly out of nowhere, rumors of tension between the groups circulated on campus last year. Staub, however, says that, though the new group was a surprise, Chromatic was “mellow” about the situation.
“I’m friends with almost everyone in the group. It’s not like it’s Chromatic versus Harmonics,” Staub said. “I think the misconception just came from ‘New a cappella group. Oh wow. I wonder if there’s any deep-rooted reason behind this.’ It just wasn’t. I think they wanted to make their own group and that’s completely fine. If anything, it’s opened more opportunities and now we have a sprouting a cappella scene at Millersville.”
Staub says that thanks to VilleHarmonics, the door could be open for Millersville to create something called an “a cappella society.”
“There are schools out there where there’s so many groups that they literally have a governing body for all of them to make sure they’re all in contact with each other and they’re all being friendly,” said Staub. “They’re all helping each other through auditions; they’re not trying to one-up each other. Auditions are around the same time. Showcases happen together. If something’s going on for a cappella, it involves all of them. And that gives so many people the chance to sing and perform.”
However, Frank says that due to Millersville’s rule about clubs having distinct differences, it can be hard to create new ensembles. To get around this, both Staub and Frank recommend starting a group focused on different voice parts.
“I would love to hear an all high-voice or low-voice group come out of this,” Frank said. “I fully support anyone making new groups on campus. I think it would be awesome for us.”
