Noteworthy to perform in the de Jong Concert Hall for the first time

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Noteworthy 2014-2015 to perform in the deJong Concert Hall for the first time on December 11
Noteworthy 2014–2015 to perform in the deJong Concert Hall for the first time on Dec. 11.

The BYU a capella group Noteworthy will have its first concert in the de Jong Concert Hall since its founding 10 years after.

Noteworthy is a nine-part, all-female a capella group at BYU. As the newest official performing group at Brigham Young University, Noteworthy will perform for the first time in the Harris Fine Arts Center in the de Jong Concert hall on Dec. 11. The group had been aiming to perform in the concert hall for more than 10 years. After being dubbed an official performing group, Noteworthy was given the green light to hold a concert in the HFAC.

“I expect that the ladies’ intense preparation, the beautiful venue and the high energy of the crowd are going to combine to create the greatest Noteworthy concert ever,” said Keith Evans, director of BYU Noteworthy. “Seriously, it’s going to be a blast.”

The group has had an impressive résumé for the past 10 years as a student-run group, but members have been aiming to be part of BYU’s School of Music for a long time, so this is one of its highest achievements. This is an exciting time for the members of the group, as well as for alumni who have participated in prior years.

“When I saw a huge poster for their show hanging in the HFAC I freaked out with excitement,” said Tatiana Quinn, a BYU law student and former director of Noteworthy. “I’m just so excited that Noteworthy is finally an official BYU group and that more people will be exposed to them now. Noteworthy finally has the chance to live up to its potential.”

The group has produced highly acclaimed recordings, appeared on NBC’s “The Sing-Off” and won the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella in 2007. It has produced four albums and been a hit on both iTunes and Spotify. Noteworthy’s nine singers deliver a power-packed concert that combines vocal percussion, humor and a tight harmony.

Janae Klumpp, a member of the group studying music dance theater, has worked for two years for this opportunity to perform in the de Jong Concert Hall.

“We finally hit our goal, so now we can make bigger and better goals,” Klumpp said. “People are starting to hear Noteworthy, and we can get our message across.”

Klumpp said the show will be worth the wait. “We have a pretty wide variety of songs, and most of them are brand-new arrangements that Noteworthy has never done before,” she said. “It’s going to be super high energy.”

The group has eight brand-new members. It has been working overtime to prepare for the show, as it had to prepare a full concert in a span of three months. Janessa Lyons, a senior majoring in elementary education, is one of the newest members of the group.

“The hardest thing for me was learning to sing and dance at the same time,” Lyons said. “We have been singing for people on campus to get our name out there, and we have been working overtime. If people come to the show they will be impressed with all the work we have put in.”

The group’s founder and a BYU alumna, Esther Vangorder, patterned the idea of the group after the nine-member, all-male group, Vocal Point. After seeing Vocal Point perform, Vangorder wanted to create a female group of the same caliber. The group was self sustained and run by BYU students for 10 years. Now, as an official part of BYU’s performing arts, it will have many more performance opportunities, including this opportunity to perform in the de Jong concert hall.

“Watching Noteworthy evolve has been an emotional process,” Vangorder said. “I had hopes and dreams for Noteworthy, but I wasn’t sure what would happen to it.”

She said BYU had wanted to wait and see whether the group would keep going on its own before. “Noteworthy stuck around, grew and rocked the house.”

The group has various styles, including rock, pop, country, jazz, R&B and spiritual. The group will perform Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall.  The cost of the performance is $12 for the general public and $10 for students and BYU employees.

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