Here are your 2019 competitors!
Congratulations to all of the groups accepted to the 2019 Open! We are so thrilled to see this competition grow each year in the number and quality of talented groups joining us on stage as we enter the third season of the #AcaOpen this summer!
The 2019 Open Finals will take place on Saturday, October 5, 2019 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Semifinal events will take place in July and August 2019. The highest scoring group at Finals will be named the the Champion of The Open and will receive a $25,000 prize, which comes with no strings attached (a cappella pun intended!), but we hope you’ll use it to support and advance your professional a cappella career!
In our third season, we’ve adjusted the format to allow the best of our applicants to compete. This year across North America we will have 6 Semifinals: West, Midwest, New England, Northeast, South and a Virtual Region. The winner of each of these six semifinals will be named Champion of their region and will advance to The Open Finals. As in the ICCA and ICHSA, groups that place second and third at semifinals are entered into our Wild Card round, a virtual round evaluated by some of our top Varsity Vocals judges — and the top two Wild Card Champions also advance to The Open Finals. The stage for The Open Finals, then, will feature our six regional champions, the top two Wild Card champions, and of course our 2019 ICCA and ICHSA champions. The final scores of the groups that place at any event will be made public. The scores of the eliminated groups will remain confidential.
Unfortunately, we were not able to accommodate all the groups who applied. If you don’t see your group’s name on the list, we hope you’ll consider applying again next season. We also hope you’ll attend an Open event — they’ll be a great experience from the audience, too!
Tickets for our regional Open events will go on sale no later than June 15 with The Open Finals going on sale July 15. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for a reminder, or better yet, join our mailing list. Please remember that many Varsity Vocals events sell out in advance, so we recommend picking up tickets as early as possible.
Congratulations to our accepted groups, and welcome to the 3rd season of the International Championship of A Cappella Open!
2019 International Championship of A Cappella Open Lineup
Northeast Region
7/20/2019 – New York City, NY
Black to Gold | Hempstead, NY
Echo A Cappella | New York, NY
Embassy | College Park, MD
LEGEND | Philadelphia, PA
Tacoppella | Garden City, NY
TONEWALL | New York, NY
Vice A Cappella | New York, NY
West Region
7/20/2019 – Los Angeles, CA
Aca-word | Concord, CA
Aperture | Anaheim, CA
Cold Opus | Portland, OR
Echo Lab | Los Angeles, CA
Good Measure | Portland, OR
Intermission | Reseda, CA
Vessel A Cappella | Glendale, AZ
Midwest Region
8/17/2019 – Dayton, OH
Flux | Grand Rapids, MI
MSU Spartones | East Lansing, MI
Square One | Dayton, OH
VIBE | Allen, TX
Zero to Sixty | Akron, OH
New England Region
8/24/2019 – Boston, MA
Blacklight | Salem, MA
Forest Fire | Seaford, DE
Martini Glass A Cappella | Bethel, CT
Sound Off | Boston, MA
Spider Horse | Brooklyn, NY
WitchPitch? | Salem, MA
South Region
8/10/2019 – Video Submission
Crown | Orlando, FL
Forecast | Clemmons, NC
Nomadic | Kansas City, MO
Project V | Orlando, FL
Side Note | Phoenix, AZ
VXN | Raleigh, NC
Virtual Region
8/10/2019 – Video Submission
Business Casual | San Francisco, CA
Inside Voices | Bowling Green, OH
Inverse | Charlotte, MI
Lark | Denver, CO
No Comment | Champaign, IL
Out-R-In Tune | Columbus, OH
2019 ICHSA Champion
InToneNation | New Manchester High School, Douglasville, GA
2019 ICCA Champion
The NYU N’Harmonics | New York University, New York, NY
*A Note about video submission semifinals: Given that many of our competitors are part of professional a cappella groups, or are professionals themselves, we understand that traveling can be time and cost prohibitive. Therefore, we will be holding Video submission rounds for qualifying groups who are unable to attend an in-person event due to physical location or due to conflicts listed in their application. Wherever possible, we tried to place groups at in-person events. Just like our typical in-person Semifinal events, only the top placing groups from video submission rounds will be named Champion and advance directly to Finals. The groups placing 2nd and 3rd will be eligible for the Wild Card round.
**Show assignments updated as of 8/9/2019.