Melodores District Champions!
This past weekend, the Melodores traveled to the University of Georgia to compete at the International Championship of Collegiate Acapella Quarterfinals. The results: 1st Place!
Where to start? We had so much fun driving down together, getting to know everyone on a personal level. It’s always great to let loose and socialize with the guys, as we rarely have time to just hang out due to our busy academic schedules and rigid practice time. The social aspect was definitely a big part of what made this weekend such fun, but it was the way we interacted that made it all the more memorable.
We had a great time meeting the 8 other groups from schools like: Emory, University of North Texas, U of Central Florida, UNC-Chapel Hill, U-Miami, UGA, and Tulane. Amidst all the animosity in our world today, it was really a faith restoring weekend in that we were all able to come together to share music as college students regardless of race, gender, geographical position and political affiliation. We forget how similar we all really are..
I digress, but to give a little history on the group, the Melodores group was formed at the beginning of 2009 with a vision of doing big things – Moving from stage to stage, singing for audience after audience with the goal that our group will soon contend with some of the biggest acappella groups in the world for the limelight. Fame is not our goal, growth is our goal. The way to gauge this growth is by venturing out and recording CDs, submitting them to awards organizations, competing in acappella competitions, and strive to achieve bigger and better each year. Why do we strive? The Melodores have a passion for music and a duty to promote benevolent messages through song.
We strive to entertain, inspire, and heighten awareness about issues in the world around us. The irony is that in that process, we end up entertaining, inspiring and educating ourselves! I absolutely cannot put a value on the collaborative process that we go through as a group when we discuss matters of group philosophy and our commitment to serving the community. I have developed a deep respect for each and every member in my group; as different as we all are, different shapes, sizes, colors – what unites us is our passion and dedication we have to each other. That is what matters to the Melodores.
To bring this post back into relevance, this past weekend was about more than a win – it was about the fact that the results confirmed that what we were doing was working; furthermore, looking back and seeing how far we have made it from starting as a nobody made our win all the more poignant.
The Melodores have a vision to achieve great things. We are determined to ride this ICCA train until the very end. Next stop, Southern Regional Semifinals at Booker T. Washington Auditorium at the University of South Carolina on March 19th! Come see us perform if you are in the area! The concert is open to the public.