Members of Bruin Harmony, UCLA’s only all-male a cappella group, have been rehearsing two-and-a-half hours a day, three times a week, for the last few months to perfect the marriage of their song and choreography in preparation for Spring Sing 2014.
Following the group’s Spring Sing victory last year as best a cappella entry and best overall entry for its performance of “Ignition (Remix),” Bruin Harmony is returning to Spring Sing with the intention of bringing the same high energy this year. The a cappella group will open the event with the night’s first performance.
Alex Vergel, a fourth-year theater student and the president of Bruin Harmony, said that after coming off of a huge year, it was interesting to discuss the group’s goals for Spring Sing. Mainly, Bruin Harmony wants to start the show off with a bang.
“The best outcome would be if we won, but we just want to prove that we are a consistently enjoyable group, to prove that we deserved past wins,” Vergel said. “We want to show that it isn’t a fluke when we pull off something cool, and our group is dedicated to producing quality.”
Bruin Harmony is bringing a new flavor to Spring Sing that it has not brought before, said Adam Cropper, third-year theater student and Bruin Harmony’s next president.
“Last year, we performed ‘Ignition (Remix),’ which was great because it catered to a current hit, but this year we are focusing on channeling a new era,” Cropper said.
While the group cannot reveal its Spring Sing 2014 song, Vergel said Bruin Harmony chose a song that would be most beneficial for Spring Sing and would have a greater accessibility for people of all different ages.
Because of a misunderstanding, Bruin Harmony originally auditioned for Spring Sing with the song “Hey Ya!” by OutKast, which the group later learned was on a list of songs performed in recent years that it could not perform. Jackson McNeill, a graduate law student and Bruin Harmony’s business manager, said Bruin Harmony made arrangements with the Spring Sing committee to change the song it would perform, which created a challenge by shortening the time the group had to practice before the show.
To counter this, Vergel said the group expanded its rehearsal schedule to ensure Bruin Harmony is fully prepared.
“The process has been more difficult than in the past years, but we refuse to let anyone think for a moment that we aren’t as prepared as we would like to be,” Vergel said. “We have the kind of group that can produce something of equal quality or better than the other performances, even with limited time.”
Cropper said that despite the shortage of time, Bruin Harmony has thrown a top-notch performance together without compromising the vocals or choreography. The members have been picking up the moves and tying them together with the vocals quickly.
“Our goal is to meet the energy of the crowd and their excitement about Spring Sing with our own sense of height and energy,” Cropper said.
McNeill said Bruin Harmony wants to connect with the entire audience, especially underclassmen who have never had the Spring Sing experience and may have not seen Bruin Harmony’s past Spring Sing performances.
“We are confident in our song and our choreography,” McNeill said. “We put in extra effort at the end of the year, and it’ll come out great.”