Members of Bellacanto gather after one of their biweekly meetings.
During last week’s school meeting, Bellacanto received the first standing ovation for an acapella group performance this year. This outstanding interpretation of the song “Grenade” by Bruno Mars was soloed by Shraya Poetti ’19.
She said, “I’ve known the song Grenade essentially by heart since when I was in 4th or 5th grade, so preparing for the solo in terms of learning the music was only a matter of muscle memory.” Poetti continued, “I was a lot more nervous than I had been when performing in front of only members of my acapella group or people roaming around the PMAC at any given time.”
Because Poetti’s performance appeared so effortless, many might not understand the effort she put into this solo: “From a strictly vocal perspective, performing this song became particularly challenging at times, just because of how high in my range it falls and the fact that the first bunch of times we rehearsed it, we ended up getting pretty sharp. We were able to fix the problem with a little cooperation and harder listening.”
It is to the curiosity of many how the song “Grenade” was chosen. Poetti explained the group’s process, stating, “Bellacanto always does this thing where either after, or sometimes in the middle of, rehearsal, we’ll randomly burst out into song and automatically begin to harmonize with each other, essentially spontaneously forming an arrangement that probably sounded cool at the time. “Grenade” was one of those songs, and we all found ourselves singing it in improvisational arrangements after rehearsals, so Ben [Dreier ’18] finally decided to arrange it. It was a really exciting moment for all of us, I think, to have been able to have a spontaneous part of one of our jam sessions realized into an incredible, cohesive, and presentable arrangement.”
Another focal point of the performance was the dance choreography. On this, Poetti commented, “Our lovely Sabrina Carlier [’21] was actually the choreographer of all of our moves throughout the piece, and a few of us were actually originally skeptical and unsure about whether or not we ultimately wanted to execute them on stage. However, after having watched the video of our performance, I — and I’m sure the others — see that it was well worth it. We looked awesome as a group.” She added, “I think a massive part of a musical group is its stage presence, and, for the first time in a while, I think we established that really well during “Grenade” thanks to Sabrina’s choreography. For me personally, I didn’t do any of the moves since I was soloing, but I was constantly conscious of what was going on behind me and recognized how important it was for the performance to come together as a whole.”
Bellacanto member William Robertson ’20 provided his outlook on the performance: “I thought Shraya was outstanding. Throughout her time at Bellacanto, she’s proven herself as an amazing vocalist and performer, and I think that her talents really shone through during the school meeting.”
As leaders of the group and students in their senior spring, Ben Dreier ’18 and Elaine Shen ’18 wanted to make an impact on Bellacanto. Dreier explained, “Elaine and I have been focused on continuing some of the great work done by the previous presidents, and this year we’ve really been focusing on our entertainment value. Singing songs that people recognize and bringing in some interesting choreo to spice up our performances has definitely made for a lot more audience engagement. I’ve also been spending a lot more time working on arranging the songs that we sing, trying to balance what will sound dope with what’s actually sing-able by our group members. I worked for a long time on the arrangement of Grenade, and I’m really satisfied with how it turned out.” Dreier finished by mentioning an upcoming event: “Now, we’re looking ahead to Acapellooza; as the second-to-last performance of the year, we’re hoping to make it our best one yet.”
Shen, the other leader of the group and one of the oldest members of Bellacanto, has a unique perspective when it comes to how the acapella group has changed throughout the years: “I joined Bellacanto my sophomore year, so this is my third year in this group. I can’t help thinking how much this group has grown. I have a collection of the videos of most our performances in these three years. When I look back every now and then, it’s noticeable that we’ve definitely got stronger vocally, especially our ability to hold harder harmonies. In addition, we’ve also improved our speed to learn songs. I was very impressed that we finished learning a pretty long Christmas medley plus choreography in just two weeks this year. The other important thing I noticed is that the bond of this group grew much tighter. In my sophomore year, more than half of the group members were new. Now a lot of members have been in this group for two or three years, so we feel more like a family.”
Bellancanto has a unique identity, which many members can attest to. Rebekah Agwunobi ’19, a newer member, said, “We’re not just a group, we’re a groovy family.” Robertson added, “Fun fact: it’s a recent Bellacanto tradition to refer to leaders of the group as moms and dads, and to the members as their kids. I think this really reflects the way we see each other inside the group!”
Last Tuesday’s outstanding performance of “Grenade” by Bellacanto made the group’s chemistry, talent, and hard work clear to the entire Choate community. Hearing Poetti’s moving voice only made us more curious and excited for the upcoming Acapellooza, where every acapella group will be performing.
