Music and family

Family was the overwhelming theme of the weekend as we traveled down to Galesville to watch my cousin in an a cappella performance with the noted a cappella group “Six Appeal” performing afterwards.

As we walked up towards the brand new Galesville-Ettrick-Trempeleau Performing Arts Center, I caught a glimpse of one of my aunts and uncles I hadn’t seen in months. As we filtered in to the theater, more and more of my family members were appearing out of the tunnel and taking their seats around ours.

By the time the show was about to start, our family had consumed two rows of seats on its own. I began to think we might as well have made t-shirts and called this the “2022 Hogden Family Reunion.” I had almost forgot that we actually went to watch an a cappella concert.

When the concert began and “GE- T Vocal Point” hit the stage, it was amazing to see the attention to detail and the amount of time and effort that must have been spent by the instructors and students in practices and performances by the G-E-T a cappella programs.

Every single beat required 15-20 high schoolers to belt out a note at the perfect time as well as the perfect pitch in order to make the musical number sound like it is supposed to. It truly was incredible to watch different high schoolers singing solos, harmonizing and playing the drums and other instrumental sounds with their voices.

Every song had a new soloist with the other members of the group backing them up. The professionalism ratcheted up even farther when the a cappella group “Six Appeal” took the stage.

The six-member vocal group featured members from Minnesota, Texas and Hawaii. They played songs that spanned decades including “Cryin’”, originally performed by Queen, “Finesse”, originally by Bruno Mars and “Love on Top” originally performed by Beyonce.

The group infused a sense of comedy within the show as they had their vocal percussionist do a “drum solo” that featuered sounds of base and snare drums, cymbals, and even the “meow” of a cat.

After the performances, we traveled to Trempeleau to meet at one of our family member’s houses. There, we caught up with family members we hadn’t seen in awhile and said goodbye as we each went our separate ways for probably another few months.

I thought this trip was just going to be a concert but it turned into an outstanding performance by multiple groups, accompanied by a much-needed night spent with family from all over the midwest.

SPEEDING

THROUGH

L

IFE

NEAL H OGDEN EDITOR