My Senior year of college, I became part of a collegiate, competitive a cappella group at Minnesota State University Mankato named Maverick Vocal Precision (MVP). It is one of the two a cappella groups on campus, which you must audition for to be considered. Our group consisted of nine members, most of us majoring in music. Being part of this group required a big time commitment from us as we rehearsed three times a week for one hour during our usual class time and outside of class for an extra three-hour rehearsal. Throughout the year, we performed in several places on campus such as the Recital Hall for the Contemporary Vocal Ensembles concerts, the Arts & Humanities Sesquicentennial Celebration, and in the CSU Hearth Lounge as part of the CSU Music Series. We also traveled off-campus to the Southwest Minnesota A Cappella Festival as guest artists, the Sing Strong A Cappella Festival as competitors, and the Fairmont Opera House as opening performers for Voice Play. 

 

Being part of this group allowed me to meet Levels 1 & 2 of the Teams section in the Leadership competency. One of the biggest challenges that we faced as a group towards the beginning of our time together was working as a team. Since half of our rehearsals were held outside of class and our music directors were not around to make timely decisions, we became the decision makers. Yet, this became chaotic, because we all had strong opinions about everything we discussed and wanted to be equally heard, which made us speak over each other and lose a lot of time coming to agreements. Eventually, we sat down as a group to talk about this issue and agreed to delegate tasks between our members based on our strengths and interests. This allowed us to become more focused and effective with our rehearsal time. For example, while I spent time leading warm-ups from the piano, our vocal percussionist set up the microphones and balanced our live sound. We also agreed to create a rotating schedule in which each of our members had the opportunity to lead our rehearsals. This helped us create a peaceful, collaborative environment where everyone was heard and valued. It also allowed us to use our time wisely, which was essential as we neared performances, especially when competing in New York and being on a time crunch.

 

I will use this knowledge of working with a team of musicians in my future role as a music educator when leading other music ensembles or being part of one. I hope to continue learning how to create different roles for the members in my team, even when there is a leader established. 

 

Below is the closing song of our winning performance from the 2019 Sing Strong A Cappella Festival in Adelphi, New York.