On Feb. 14 UCONN held their 2nd Annual Real Men Sing! High School Choral Festival, which aimed to recruit male singers into high school choral programs. Among their performers included Ledyard’s very own Final Cut.

Being the only non-professional male a capella group, performing was quite an honor.  “It felt awesome to sing in a setting that was so much bigger than Final Cut’s usual fare,” senior Joe Warmus, a first year member in the group, said. “It was also cool to sing alongside far more accomplished choral groups from UConn like CDN (Completely Different Note) and Conn Men.”

“Final Cut was the featured high school a capella group at the festival,” junior Avery Davies said. “We were the only high school choir that sang there, so that was pretty cool.” Among their repertoire included some well-known crowd pleasers. “I’ll Make a Man out Of You” from the Disney Movie, Mulan, is one of Final Cut’s most remembered songs. The song even introduced some members of Voice Male. “The song features Final Cut showing off our awesome combat moves,” Davies said. “A lot of people know and love that song, so I think the crowd really liked it.”

When a few of Final Cut’s members couldn’t make it up to UCONN for the festival, the group did some readjusting. “We figured it wemight as well bring up some guys from Voice Male to help us out,” Davies said. “They were a huge help, and I think all of FinalCut is thinking about some collaborations between the two whole groups for a song or two in the future.”

The group riled up their audience. “It went well for Final Cut,” junior Aaron Norcia said. “We sounded good and put off a very charismatic look. I thought that the best part was hearing the ‘real deal’ college a cappella groups. Those guys were phenomenal.”

Andrea Gamboa, Multimedia Editor

Junior Andrea Gamboa is the Multimedia Editor for the 2014-2015 Colonel. She sings in Ledyard Carolers, Chamber Choir, and Acabellas, and was a lead role in Ledyard Drama’s production of How to Succeed in Business, Without Really Trying.