Students and local fans filled the sold out seats of the Administration Auditorium Oct. 23, anticipating the coming performance by the pop a cappella group, Pentatonix. As fans filled the last of the empty seats, familiar faces from campus appeared on stage when In aCHORDance, Pentatonix's opening group for the night composed entirely of Harding students, stepped up to begin the evening's concert. In aCHORDance won Harding's Sing-Off after competing Oct. 17 against Tuned In and Vocal Fusion, two other student musical groups. The three groups were talented, so the choice was a difficult one. Assistant Professor of Music and competition judge Chuck Hicks said his ratings for the groups "were so stinking close, it was ridiculous." When CAB scheduled Pentatonix to perform on campus, CAB members looked for a way to incorporate students' talent into the concert. Director of CAB Logan Light had the idea to host Harding's own version of The Sing-Off to determine who would open for Pentatonix. "[Logan Light] loves unique and genuine musical talents and the fact that a bunch of people can put on a jaw-dropping performance merely by using sounds from their mouth and their voices," CAB administrative assistant senior Stacy Hall said. "I think he took into consideration the amount of talented students we have here and wanted to give them the opportunity of a lifetime." The Sing-Off represented CAB's desire to begin creating events that were not only for students, but also necessitated student involvement. CAB members knew students had widethe sing-off of a lifetime ranging talents, and they wanted to encourage those talents by providing outlets for students to share them with the student body: The Sing-Off was a step in that direction. "I think CAB is trying to incorporate the students mor•e in our events," Hall said. "Granted, all of our events are for the students, but usually it's just like 'Hey, come see this concert. Hey, show up here and have fun,' but we are doing things like The Sing-Off and the Burksys, which really thrive on student participation." The addition of a student component to the concert incorporated the audience into the event more than ever before. Students came to see Pentatonix, but they had the added pleasure of seeing their friends perform. "I think The Sing-Off added to the Pentatonix show simply because it made the show more personal to our student body,'' junior Reid Belew said. "It's a neat thing to be able to look on stage and see your friends or people you go to school with on stage. It's an exciting moment for the performers as well as their friends in the crowd." By creating Harding's Sing-Off, CAB demonstrated that it was a student-oriented organization that wanted to include students in events and to help students to develop their own talents. All the performers, whether members of In aCHORDance or the other groups, were able to showcase their talent, giving them "the rare opportunity to perform their a cappella songs in front of an audience and improve their performance on a stage-ready level," according to CAB co-director sophomore Holly B;ohnett. Matt Ryan "It was such a blessing to be able to sing with those wonderful people," sophomore Savannah Morris said. "We had so much fun and the fact that we got to open for Pentatonix was incredible! God is so good, and we were very excited to be able to perform together." CABI 25
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