A mixture of nerves and excitement flood backstage as Dually Noted prepares to go onstage. Members get their mics ready. Junior soloist Allison Moore preparing for the spotlight that’s about to shine brightly on her. The group says their final words of encouragement to each other, and with a final deep breath they walk out ready to perform. 

“It was a little nerve wracking,” Moore said. “But the whole group was hyped up, and I was really excited to share this experience.”

On Dec. 1, the 18 member mixed a capella group Dually Noted competed at the DFW Acatex festival. The event was a two-night process with 17 groups from the Dallas Fort Worth area. Several groups were non-high school a cappella groups, raising the bar of difficulty. Their hope was to be one of the six to advance to the next night. There was also the wildcard, an a capella group present at the festival but not competing. When this group was randomly selected, they were then included in the night two competition for top three.

For night one Dually Noted performed “Forbidden Fruit” by Bella Coppola. The song included two soloists to start off the competition, senior Van Pui and junior Rebekah Rogers. The stage came to life as the 18 members began to sing and perform their choreography.  After this act allowed them to advance to the next night, the group showed off with their full set. This consisted of “Forbidden Fruit” from night one, “All I Ask” by Adele and “Joy” by Andy Grammer. The question that the members asked themselves as they performed: Will they make it to the next round? 

Being a soloist on “All I Ask”, one of their competing songs, Moore wanted to give the audience a genuine, heartfelt emotional performance. 

“I kind of had a breakthrough onstage,” Moore said. “I was able to connect with the audience, which I haven’t really done before. That was something I was working towards, so I feel good knowing I was able to do that.

Senior, and two-year member Mia Arostegui felt confident the first night, even more so after advancing to the next round. However as they got ready for night two to compete against the seven final groups, she was nervous.

“It was a mix of emotions, but we were all excited and ready to do our thing,” Arostegui said. “We felt pretty prepared by that point.”

The group had been working on their night one competition song since the first day of school, as they had also showcased “Forbidden Fruit” at Marcus Idol. The flow of the performance steadily developed throughout this time, allowing for them to be more than ready to compete with it.

Although they knew the choreography and music in and out, Senior member Montana Staten believes the chemistry of the group and the passion each person put into their performance is what made them most successful.

“A lot of the groups that went up there didn’t look like they were having fun,” Staten said. “For our group though, we just went for it. It was all about having fun, smiling, laughing while we were singing and just enjoying ourselves.”

About 30 minutes after their night one performance, the 17 competing groups gathered on stage, anxiously awaiting the result.  

“If I’m going to be honest, I was convinced we weren’t moving on,” Moore said. “So when they announced our name, we were shocked. I think we sounded good, but I was not expecting that. It’s such a hard competition.”

Dually Noted’s connection, trust, and support from their director drove their triumph, placing them fourth out of the seven finalists. They also got to celebrate their male soloist, senior Ian Antonellis, receiving an award for best solo throughout the festival. From jumping and screaming with excitement onstage as their name got called for top six, to rehearsing in the practice rooms before performances, Dually Noted truly found joy in their lives throughout the weekend. They said they were immensely grateful for the experience and how it strengthened their bond as a team. 

“We were able to go up there and show everybody something incredible, and to have that experience with each other is way more important than a trophy,” Staten said. “There’s the emotional takeaway and companionship. All of that was so much more important than any award we could have gotten.”