South Jersey High School A Cappella Group Competes In Melody For Title
CHERRY HILL, N.J. (CBS) -- UPDATE: Stay Tuned has advanced to the semi-finals, which will be held on March 19 in Allendale, New Jersey.
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Cherry Hill High School East will host the quarter-finals of the International Championship of High School A Cappella Saturday night. Their own A cappella group is featured on a reality show. Now, the singers may battle the same team they are competing against in the show.
Sixteen high school singers make up the melodic squad Stay Tuned. High school senior Jack is one of thee voices.
"We connect the most to the audience," he says. "I feel like we really take the audience into account in our performances."
Together, they are featured on the reality show Pitch Slapped. They hope to win the competition, so they can face off against their reality show competitor, the Highlands Voices.
Fellow singer and senior, Sam knows they have done the work.
"The hardest part of A cappella is not musical intonation," she says. "It's not choreography, it's not expression, it's combining all those things together in a balanced way to make sure every single check mark on the list is being hit."
Choral Director Heather Lockart says they are doing all they can to be the best.
"A cappella is really hard," she says, "because there are so many elements in A cappella that are not in other styles of music.
If the squad wins, or places in the top three, they will move on to face their the Highlands Voices.
But, Heather says, her students are unique.
"They are the ones that if they are not successful in a competition one week," she says, "they will make sure they will learn from the ones that beat them."
And she has full confidence that they will meet their match in the semi-finals.
"It's unusual to get a bunch of high schoolers to all emit such emotion," Lockart says, "but they just all naturally do it."
Will that emotion translate into a win? Stay tuned.
Click here for more information on how to attend the performance or to learn more about the group: