It’s late Tuesday night, and it looks like someone is throwing a party on the first floor of the Music Administration Building. A group of friends is laughing, jiving, starting up some beatbox and getting really, really into the music.

This is Purple Haze, and for these 17 students, singing and dancing together isn’t just infectious fun: It’s seriously hard work. The a cappella group is getting ready for one of the most exciting and prestigious opportunities that it has faced, an international competition at New York’s Lincoln Center. For Communication junior Morgan Karr, the reality is still sinking in.

“You can’t prep yourself for walking onto the Lincoln Center stage, so once we get out there we’ll have that moment, like ‘This is where we are,’” he said, eyes widening as he tried to explain the momentousness of this quickly approaching instant. “Oh God. It just got real.”

Karr and the other members of Purple Haze will be one of six troupes competing in the finals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, held this Saturday in New York City. The remaining teams represent young performers from across the U.S. and Western Europe.

This is the first time in several years that Purple Haze has entered a large-scale competition, but the group met with blazing success this season. It first applied last November by submitting a recording of live performances. In the quarterfinals, Purple Haze not only placed first, but swept the individual awards. Despite this formidable accomplishment, Music junior Catherine Brookman, one of the group’s two music directors, brushed off her friends’ clamoring over the prizes she recieved for best soloist and best arrangement.

When they won the semifinal round held here at Northwestern, they were stunned. “We had no idea we were going to win,” Brookman said. Karr gets visibly excited remembering the moment. “We should have run out and accepted the certificate they were holding for us,” Karr added, “but we were jumping around each other and celebrating the fact that, yes, we were going to New York City.”

However, with a busy bunch of students, including 11 out of 17 members involved in theater productions, even once they earned their spot in the finals, Brookman thought it would be “nearly impossible for us to go.” Luckily, by pulling some strings and explaining the opportunity they had made for themselves, all 17 members cleared their weekend. “It’s such a big deal,” said Music sophomore Tasha Koontz, Purple Haze’s other music director. “People are being really, really supportive of us, and we appreciate that.”

In its ten years of existence, Purple Haze has worked hard for the support it gets. Karr explained how many college a cappella groups are more like a class, with a faculty teacher and credits hours given. Many groups also purchase professional a cappella arrangements, instead of arranging (and often re-arranging) songs themselves. “We are a student group, completely student-run,” he said, “Everything comes from the group. I think that’s something unique and cool about where we are in the competition, that we don’t get outside help.”

In addition to preparing themselves for the championship, over the past few weeks members have also been perfecting their bi-annual CD. This new album — its title still under wraps — will soon be available for purchase online.

Rehearsals seem more like parties due to the closeness of the group, but Purple Haze means business. Photo by the author.

On years when they do not record a CD, Purple Haze uses proceeds from its albums and gigs, along with help from the School of Communication and the Alumni Association, to tour abroad. They mainly give workshops for schools, and have visited Dublin, Rome and, last year, Barcelona.

With few of the group’s singers speaking Spanish, this trip proved an extra challenge. “Music was something that, by the end of the day, we could sing a song with the kids, but we couldn’t talk about much,” Karr said. Koontz maintained that working and singing together was more than enough to communicate over the linguistic and cultural barriers. “This sounds really hokey,” she said, “but it really was the perfect example of music as the universal language.”

Brookman knows that she has personally gotten a lot from her more than two years of involvement with Purple Haze. “I’ve learned so much about music — about leadership, about group dynamics, about collaborating,” Brookman said. “It’s been hugely educational for me, sometimes in a really difficult way, but we work it all out.”

The singers sometimes seem a bit dazzled by the prospect of moving their show from school workshops and close-to-home venues to a world-renowned stage, but the group is eager to prove that no matter where they are, this team deserves the limelight. “We get to, at 20, 21, 19 years old, do what we do on a random Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday night on the stage of the Lincoln Center,” Karr said, grinning.

Is the pressure making them nervous? Right now they’re too excited to worry much. To make the most of these last few rehearsals, Brookman said the group is simply “trying to really be joyful about the music we’re making. Obviously we have to fine-tune things and make sure everything’s in solid shape, but [we're] mostly trying to rejuvenate the songs so that we love singing them.”

When the group swings into song together, it seems to bring out the best in each member. No one can stop smiling, and the teammates give high-fives for excellent notes. “Bottom line, at the end of the day, our main goal is to make really good music,” said Koontz. “That’s what carries us so far.”

Purple Haze’s spring show at Northwestern will be May 22, 23 and 24 in Jones Residential College, with Mee-Ow as the opening act. For more information on this group, check out Purple Haze’s website, podcast, Facebook or youTube site.