OU's Gold Vibrations A Cappella group breezes to win in Windy City

Oakland University’s Gold Vibrations A Cappella group took first place at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) Great Lakes Quarterfinal at the University of Chicago.

Members of the group also won two individual awards - Brian Baylor won best vocalist for the song Cracked/Chains and Stefanie Sambrano won best Choreography for Cracked/Chains.

With their victory, Gold Vibrations has advanced to the Semifinals, which will be held in Chicago on March 5.

At ICCA competitions, groups are given 12 minutes to perform their set, which usually consists of three or four songs. They are judged based on a variety of factors such as intonation, vocal percussion, phrasing, vocal blend, vocal dynamics, overall tone, choreography, general effect, arrangement and interpretation.

Gold Vibrations scored 409 points out of a possible 465, beating second place Northern Illinois University by 44 points and third place University of Chicago by 83 points.

This is Gold Vibrations 5th year to compete in ICCA, and the second time they will be moving on to Semifinals.

Learn more about Gold Vibrations.

Learn more about the ICCA Varsity Vocals competition.

Learn more about Oakland University’s Music programs.