Sweet Signatures sings goodbye to founding senior members
Four founding members of the group remember the
beginning as their time comes to a close
They are loved and they will be missed.
Five seniors, Brannon Dellinger, Natalie Newman, Diana Nolan,
Christina Piche and Andrea Palmer, are saying goodbye to
their beloved all-female a cappella group, Sweet Signatures.
Group members Brannon, Natalie, Christina and Diana were
asked about the steps they’ve taken through their past
four years from the beginning until now.
Q: Where did you all start?
NN: One night we were riding in the car....and my friend
Grace Philips ‘03 turned to me and said, I’m
going to start an a cappella group. An all girl a cappella
group. And I said, “What are you going to call
it?” And she said, “Sweet Signatures.”
Well, two weeks later, there were auditions. Good thing!
BD: A lot of people coming in knew about college a cappella.
I was the odd one, I guess. I just knew I wanted to sing. And
I saw a paper that said ‘auditions.’ After I saw
the massive people there to try out, I got scared and turned
around, but I stayed, so I was wishy washy during the whole
thing.
Q: What made you want to create Sweet
Signatures?
CP: Sweet Signatures was formed by a few seniors that
graduated last year. There was already a co-ed a cappella
group on campus, and I guess we were just really responsive
to them and Elon has a lot of women, so why not have an
all-female a capella group on campus?
Q: Did you guys have an initial kind of music you
wanted to sing?
NN: We sing everything. We try to sing everything. From
oldies, to country, to current pop to ballads.
Q: How long does it take to arrange an a cappella
song?
CP: I think it takes over eight hours. I don’t think
I’ve ever done a song in under eight hours. Not a
straight eight hours! But a few hours at a time.
Q: What does Sweet Signatures mean to you?
CP: It means fun and it means a lot of amazing girls coming
together to do something we all love to do.
BD: I love music, and I have been really surprised with what
I could do in the group. Sweet Signatures has boosted my
confidence level and I love being up in front and watching
people’s faces in the crowd.
NN: The thing I’m going to miss the most, the thing
that meant the most to me, is probably just all the girls.
It’s pretty incredible, because we are all so
different. We don’t have the same major, but whenever
we come together and put all our efforts into one pot, you
get a really good soup.
DN: I’ve always liked music, and I don’t know
what I would ever do without it. Kind of a relief you get
from your daily living. It’s nice to have a group of
friends who can come together.
Q: What problems did you face as a group? What sacrifices
have you made?
CP: I think the problem is people aren’t taking a
girl’s group seriously. I don’t mean everybody. I
think we did a great job on being an awesome girls group.
I’m not talking about Elon in general, but when a
cappella started, it was all male groups.
NN: From the beginning we’ve been pretty adamant about
not being timid at all. We wanted to be leaders of
women’s a cappella. We wanted to go out there and say,
‘We are just as good as an all-guys a cappella group.
DN: When you hear the words “girl group,” they
picture “sappy” songs and then they come to our
concert and they hear “Sweet Child Of Mine” by
Guns n’ Roses and lots of other stuff with a lot of
energy and a lot of fun, and to them it’s a big
surprise.
Q: To sum up the past four years of Sweet Signatures
into one word, what would it be?
CP: Roller-coaster. A wild ride, a whole bunch of fun and you
want to go on it again!
BD: Surprising. Surprising how much you make the group.
NN: Satisfying. Satisfied with everything!
DN: Gratifying. Very grateful for the for the experience
Sweet Signatures has provided me.
This January, Sweet Signatures was awarded first place in the
ICCA (Inter Collegiate Competition of A Cappella). Piche was
awarded best soloist at the competition. Piche performed
“Boys of Summer” by Don Henley at the ICCA.
Sweet Signatures started in the fall of 2000 with a group of
16 members. Currently, there are 15 members.
As for these senior’s futures, they are all
capitalizing on opportunities. Nolan will be headed to London
after graduating from Elon in May. Newman will be on a
national tour with “Grease” starting in October.
Later on, she will head to New York to find other job
opportunities. Dellinger will be getting married after
graduation and will fly to Las Vegas for a three-week road
trip with the honeymoon included. She will settle down in
Louisville, Ky., in July and begin graduate school in August
to get her master’s degree in social work. Piche will
return to the Washington, D.C., area for the summer and may
be headed to New York in fall 2004.
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