Truman State University’s True Men acappella group will head to Bloomington, Indiana, March 25 to compete in the semifinals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella.
The announcement that True Men will advance to the semifinals came after a surprising announcement that the all-male a capella group had tied for first place with the Amateurs from Washington University in St. Louis during the ICCA Midwest Quarterfinals.
True Men have been a staple of the University’s culture since 1997, and they have only advanced this far in the competition one other time.
When the quarterfinal results were announced, True Men originally ranked at fourth place, but after noticing a mathematical error in the total points, the scores were re-tallied and the judges announced that True Men had actually tied for first with the Amateurs. The Amateurs and True Men will advance to the semi-finals along with Bare Naked Statues from Saint Louis University, who placed second.
True Men Director Alan Smith says he attributes the group’s success at the quarterfinals competition to the time spent perfecting the a capella group’s performance.
“I think that we have had more time than in the past to sort of polish our set to perfection rather than past years in which we’ve sort of been rushing to do preparation at the last second,” Smith says. “We’ve definitely had more time to prepare.”
Sophomore David Stowers, social chair for True Men, says he’s happy the group’s time and energy was recognized at such a high level.
“For me, personally, it’s really rewarding because we work very hard for this,” Stowers says. “We put in a lot of time and a lot of hours. It’s cool to see that I am capable of this and that we as a group are capable of coming together and putting on a show together.”
Stowers says because ICCA is an international competition, True Men will be representing not only their own organization’s skill, but the University as a whole, in places and before audiences that might have never heard of Truman State before.
If True Men place at the semi-final competition, they will advance to the finals and compete on Broadway in New York City against some of the best a capella groups in the nation.
ICCA is divided into nine different competing regions — Central, Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Northeast, Northwest, South, Southwest and United Kingdom. The Great Lakes region was the first to host its semi-finals competition, which took place March 4 in Chicago. The Voices in Your Head a capella group from Chicago University took first with 401 points, closely followed by Amazin’ Blue from University of Michigan and Fundamentally Sound from University of Wisconsin.
Next in the lineup is the Southwest Semifinal at University of California in Los Angeles. For a full schedule of upcoming events and to purchase tickets, visit varsityvocals.com.