The Buzz

By EVA HANEGRAAFF

North Reading ⏤ If you have been to the Apple Festival, Town Day, or any of the high school concerts, you have heard NOTEorious perform.  While all can agree that they are extremely talented, few truly understand what they do outside of these local performances.  From April 19 through 21, 2024, North Reading’s competitive high school a capella group competed in the Boston Sings a capella competition.  Although this is a collegiate competition, they allow anyone to apply.  Not only did they get in, but they also received two out of the four awards given out; one for choreography and the other for their arrangement, competing against nine college level groups.  Their key to success, the group’s director, Allison Kane, cites, “They give it their all when they’re on stage.”

In addition to the competition itself, the group also attended training classes led by individuals involved in college level a capella.  “I learned a bit more about how they score the actual performances,”  Vinny Constantino, NOTEorious’ co-music director recounts.  Vinny is a senior and a four-year member of NOTEorious.  He sings tenor and is also a vocal percussionist for the group.  The group performed two sets at this competition.  The first one included the songs “Runaway Baby” with soloist Dylan Mills, “Precious Things” with soloist Alivia Rowe, and “The Night We Met” with Constantino as soloist.  The second set was the song “Conjunction Junction” from Schoolhouse Rock with soloist Eulalia Agganis.  “I feel so honored to have been able to solo that song,” Agganis said.  She is the group’s external affairs manager.  “Basically, I am in charge of all the social media and I run connections with other groups,” she explains.  Agganis is also a four-year member, singing mezzo soprano and sometimes alto.  

This group was not always as successful as it is today.  Kane remembers, “It was more of a ‘glee’ type group way back when.”  She continued in  saying, “Maybe 10 years in, we started to try to go to the competitive circuit.  We never made it out of that prelim round for years and then all of a sudden, one year we started to click.”

Though the group’s focus now is being successful in competitions, the students in this group report a much greater benefit.  “I think it has really improved my ability to make friends, form close connections, and also put myself out there and just be comfortable and confident in everything that I do and in myself,” Agganis explains.  Cecelia Thomson, a junior and a soprano in her first year as part of NOTEorious, shared this experience in saying, “I have such a good community of people backing me up now and it’s nice.”

Even though the group experiences differences and changes every year, the members of the group claim that the connection between the members is only growing.  “Every year that I’ve been in NOTEorious, I’ve seen us connect more and more and more,” Agganis asserts.  Kane continues this idea in proposing, “I’d like to think NOTEorious is very family-like.”

In general their practices last around two to two and a half hours and occur about three times per week.  The music directors, Constantino and Mikey Manupelli, lead the warm-ups and run through the songs.  They do a combination of stretches and vocal warm ups because “as much as you think of singing as only your voice, it’s really a physical thing as well,” Constantino explains.  When describing her role in rehearsals, Kane says, “My job is to guide them, teach them what to do, and then I also come in in rehearsals and I’m the fine-tune person, I’m the one who, kind of, brings it all together after they’ve laid the groundwork.”

It is no secret NOTEorious is a highly competitive group with very high standards for its members.  “You can’t second guess yourself. You have to be confident both in your vocal ability and stage presence,”  Kane states.  Thomson, upon speculation on her unsuccessful past auditions for the group concludes that “I think I always had the skill to do it but I lacked confidence and the spark that she’s looking for,” referring to Kane.

 Kane provides insight into the various attributes she looks for during auditions, explaining, “they have to stay on pitch while they sing.  I’m looking for a way that they’re singing that’s unique, not just to them, but also to the song, stage presence and a willingness to work and learn very quickly.”  On being accepted into the group, Thomson declares, “It’s honestly the biggest accomplishment of, I think, my life, so far.”

Kane also describes how she needs to take into consideration the members who graduate each year.  She describes her method for filling their place not as filling gaps but more so creating a “balanced group.”  She goes on to explain, “The group will always be slightly different each year because voice parts and tone of voice sounds different so it depends on who you have auditioning and who matches vocal tone.”

The dedication and drive of the members is made clear by the number of performances they have and their success at competitions.  “The ones who make the group really seem to take that badge of honor and work really hard to make sure that they’re kind people, that they’re working hard, that they’re learning their craft, and that to me, as an educator is really the best of all the worlds,” Kane observes.  Not only is their talent unmatched, but their character is demonstrated in the team environment the group fosters.  Thomson, in describing her introduction into the group, excitedly states, “Oh my gosh, it’s the most welcoming group in the world!”

All the members have different reasons for trying out.  “I really liked singing and music and it helped me find an outlet for that,” Constantino reveals.  Agganis asserts the group’s purpose for her in claiming, “I don’t think I could imagine my life without singing all the time.”  She says she wants to one day go into music production “like Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift.”

Asked about her favorite song or set,  Kane had two that she described.  The first one was during the Covid year.  The first song in this set was “Crazy” by Seal and the last song was “Kiss the Sky” by Jason Derulo.  Another of her favorite sets was “Conjunction Junction” performed at the BOSS competition.  Agganis and Constantino also identified this set as their favorite to perform.  Constantino 

also added “The Night We Met” as another of his favorites.  For Thomson, her favorite songs are two that they are doing this year.  They are titled “The Middle” and “Don’t Lose Sight”.  “Don’t Lose Sight is incredible,” she says.

NOTEorious had a performance last Sunday, September 15, at Town Day.  If you want to see them live, their next performance is at the Apple Festival Saturday, September 21.