ANN ARBOR—Compulsive Lyres, a University of Michigan student A Cappella vocal ensemble, earned first place at the seventh annual International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) competition, held Sunday (Apr. 28) at Lincoln Center‘s Avery Fisher Hall in New York City.

The ICCA finals included six A Cappella choirs from throughout the United States. Winning the competition gave the Michigan students the opportunity to sing on the NBC morning show “Today” this morning (Apr. 29). The students sang the U2 hit song, “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Lookin’ For,” with Kevin Morgan as soloist for the national TV audience.

Compulsive Lyres are a mixed choral ensemble of sixteen U-M students, who manage themselves as an independent student organization. The group earned the right to compete in the international finals by winning their district competition, held in February in Madison, Wisconsin, and the regional competition, held in March in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

A Cappella is a choral form of singing that is done without musical accompaniment—just the human voice in close harmony. Compulsive Lyres sang three specially arranged songs as part of their award-winning performance: They performed the pop band Chicago’s song “Hard to Say I’m Sorry,” with Jesse Nager as soloist; the Arlen-Harburg standard “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with soloist Brianna Sarr; and they rocked Avery Fisher Hall with the U2 hit song “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Lookin’ For” with Kevin Morgan as soloist. Besides the top prize, The Lyres’ Music Director Mark Surprenant won best musical arrangements and Jesse Nager was awarded the best soloist prize.

Members of Compulsive Lyres are Krista Luli, Brianna Sarr, Trisha Alberts, Susan Dailey, Christine DeLeon, Mary Sabin, Dan Hartley, John McLaughlin, Kevin Morgan, Jesse Nager, Stuart Naylor, Lincoln Gillett, Aaron Suh, Nathan Suh, Mark Surprenant, Melissa Swain. Susan Dailey and John McLaughlin are graduates of Huron High School and Melissa Swain is a graduate of Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor.

After the Lyres were awarded the top prize, soloist Stuart Naylor led an encore performance of “Inside Out,” a tune made famous by Eve 6. The lobby of Avery Fisher Hall was buzzing with excited college students, their parents and supporters after the excitement of the performances and the awards. An impromptu chorus of “The Victors” let the streets of New York City know that the lyrical voices of University of Michigan students had prevailed at this year’s International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella.

Finishing second to Compulsive Lyres was Last Call, a 14 voice male chorus from Cornell University. Finishing third was On the Rocks a nine-member all male ensemble from the University of Oregon. Also competing were: The Faux Paz, a 17 member mixed chorus from the University of Maryland; The Dynamics, a 13 member mixed chorus from Skidmore College and Terpsichore, a 13-member all female ensemble from Boston University.To get more information about Compulsive Lyres, you can log on to their Web site www.umich.edu/~lyres.

Phone: (734) 936-6396

Compulsive LyresMemberswww.umich.edu/~lyres