For six years, the Siena Heights University Acapelicans, consisting of nineteen members and directed by Michael Yuen, have been lifting spirits and inspiring people to be themselves. Many people on campus are still unaware of our existence, and there is an easy way to remedy that. The Acapelicans are for hire! We perform at gigs and we have a song, Hall of Fame, on iTunes. We’re trying to make a CD, so we are trying to perform at as many gigs and get as many people as possible to buy our song.

 The Acapelicans give off a vibe that is impossible to miss: acceptance and family. That’s exactly what the Acapelicans are—they’re an accepting family. Being a part of the Acapelican family has challenged me to become a better person and performer.

Being a part of this group can test a lot of your personality traits and challenges you to strengthen some. You have to be able to communicate, talk things out, listen – to someone speaking as well as singing, and get along with people. The easy thing to do when disagreeing with someone is to immediately get angry and argue, but we’ve learned to put aside differences and treat everyone with respect. Respect is one of the key values we hold as a group.

Another key value is dedication. Dedication means more than just singing your heart out. Dedication means putting time and effort into the group. We look for gigs, we strive to be everywhere on time, and we never miss a rehearsal unless there is an important reason. As well as going to rehearsals and gigs, we practice our songs at home. We hardly ever learn a song during rehearsal times. We expect everyone to come to rehearsal with their parts learned and ready to go.

We have systematic part checks for every song, where one person from each part, be him or her a soprano, alto, tenor, or bass, has to step forward and sing the song together. It is an easy way to figure out which section of the song is the hardest to learn and who needs some extra help. Our director makes rehearsal tracks for us to listen to online, and many of the members play piano.

The majority of the members of the choir are theatre or musical theatre majors, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t be in the group if you aren’t a theatre major! The reason there are so many theatre and musical theatre majors in the group is that not many people know about the group because practices are always in the PAC, where all the theatre majors roam. We would love to diversify the group, and it’s always more fun to have people with different backgrounds and majors in it.

We love to give everyone in the group a chance to stand out, and we love coming together as a whole. Every song we sing has a chance for a soloist, and we like to make it fair. After everyone who wants the solo tries out for it, we have them leave the room, and we vote on who we think should get it. Our director, Michael, has the last say on it, but he almost always goes with the decision we’ve made.

Not only do we like to give our own members a chance in the spotlight, but we like to see what everyone else has to offer. We have auditions for the group twice a year, in the fall and in the spring. I was pretty terrified going into auditions, but once I got in the room, I became less and less nervous. They all, right from the start, showed me that they were accepting, and they didn’t judge. Their faces and voices were warm and open, and I knew I had chosen the right group on campus to be a part of.

The auditions for Acapelicans are coming up pretty soon, so if you are interested in auditioning, make sure to check around campus, especially in the PAC, for flyers! If you wish to hire us for a gig or just have more questions about the Acapelicans, feel free to email our event coordinator at [email protected] or our secretary Elise Hardcastle at [email protected] !