High schoolers let their voices soar

Eleven women stand smiling in an arch, one in the middle — 12 voices, one song. They sing more to each other than to any audience.

Floating from their lips are the mellow tones of “Desperado”: “You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet …”

They’re some of East Chapel Hill High School’s finest voices, and they brought the words of the Eagles, Michael Jackson and James Taylor to life during rehearsal Thursday.

The Alley Cats, East’s all-female a cappella group, and the Chiefs of Staff, their male counterparts, were rehearsing for the North Carolina-Virginia-Tennessee State Championship for high school a cappella groups this weekend.

The competition will take place at 8 p.m. Saturday at Duke University’s Baldwin Auditorium.

“Vocally, this is your instrument,” choral director Desiree Davis-Omburo said, pointing at her heart. “In a band you put your instrument aside, and it’s far less personal.”

The performers use their voices not only to sing but also to lead. Both groups are independent, completely run by students.

If the groups place Saturday, they could qualify for the next round — but because they have a prior commitment to sing in San Francisco, they will be unable to attend.

The groups wish they could move beyond Saturday, but members said they won’t look at this weekend’s results in terms of wins and losses.

“It’s important to sing, and we want to sing, but we know the experience is the big thing,” said junior Anna Holdaway.

The Alley Cats practice twice a week during lunch and once every weekend at a member’s house.

“We goof off more in practice than anything else,” Holdaway said.

The group’s ideas for goofing off include kidnapping new members and throwing them a party, turning every member’s name into a song or carolling — anything to sing.

For the 12 Chiefs of Staff members, being together is about having a good time, cracking jokes, cutting a CD and talking about women.

“Chiefs is just as much about the music as it is about the ladies,” said senior Jorge Izquierdo. “That’s only half a joke.”

For both groups, Saturday’s competition will be their first chance to gauge themselves against other high school groups.

“If we thought that being crappy sounded good and we had no one to base ourselves on, we would go on being crappy,” said sophomore Stephen Greenslade.

Many of the singers said they will follow their predecessors to the university level, joining groups such as the Loreleis or the Clef Hangers.

For now, they are just 12 guys and 12 girls ready to sing.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.