A Capella Festival: Music to the Ears

Seven schools across Connecticut and Massachusetts competed in a pitched (pun intended) battle for the top prize in the 14th Annual Wyvern Invitational A Cappella Festival (WIAF) last Saturday night: Bristol Eastern High School’s Strawberry Fields, Conard High School’s Be S#arp, Conservatory of the Arts’ (Springfield) Revolution. Hall High School’s A Cafella, Kingswood Oxford’s Crimson 7 and Oxfordians, Lexington High School’s Onomatopoeia and Peanut Butter & Jelly, and Miss Porter’s School’s The Perilhettes.Proceeds from the event support Kingswood Oxford’s partnership with the Tobati School in Tobati, Paraguay, which increases the opportunities offered to the youth of Tobati and offers KO students a fantastic experience of working for the greater good in the developing world.

Upper School Spanish teacher and Team Tobati organizer Ron Garcia did a terrific job as emcee for the night. The day included workshops with Backtrack, the guest professional group who performed, for all groups except the KO students who had musical rehearsals during the workshops. After all, there’s only so much time in the day!

Each group performed two numbers during the evening that ranged from joyous to somber and everything in between. The songs featured complex arrangements and distinct, unique versions of popular, classic, and traditional tunes. The Lady Gaga medley performed by Revolution was a true crowd-pleaser. While the judges deliberated, the a capella group from Trinity College, the Trinity Accidentals, performed. Our talented Wyvern, Matthew Marottolo ’20 is president of the group and always gave a powerful vocal performance of “Feeling Good” while in Crimson 7.

Crimson 7 sang second with the following:

“Sail Away” (originally performed by the Jonas Brothers): soloists = Jacob Mapp ’24 and Leo Kollen ’26; beatbox = Riley Mapp ’26

“Feeling Good” (originally performed by Nina Simone, based on Michael Buble’s version): soloist = Zaire Ramiz ’25, beatbox = Jason Chen ’26

Oxfordians sang fifth with the following:

“Rolling in the Deep” (originally performed by Adele): beatbox = Hadley Hersh ’26

Although our Wyverns didn’t walk away with any awards, the evening was still a tremendous hit.

The award winners were:

Be S#arp (Conard High School) – Gold Medal

Peanut Butter & Jelly (Lexington High School) – Silver Medal

Onomatopoeia (Lexington High School) – Bronze Medal

Revolution (Springfield Conservatory of the Arts) – Honorable Mention

Special thanks to the Mandell JCC, who provided the venue free of charge, as the Roberts Theater was under repair.