The Tartan

Since 1996, the men’s acapella group The Originals has wowed Carnegie Mellon with their sweet songs and harmonies. On Friday, April 26, the organization’s nearly 30-year legacy came to an end. Culminating in a final concert sadly we say goodbye to one of Carnegie Mellon’s premier acapella ensembles. 

The Originals was one of the first acapella groups started at Carnegie Mellon. After reaching finals at the ICCAs in 2016 and even getting to perform at the White House, this group has more than proven that they have the chops. 

With so many successes, why is the group folding? Current president and second-year Design student Lucas Barnes cited the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We had to rehearse via Zoom,” Barnes said, “and because of that we had to change the way we did things a lot.” He added that “the lessons learned from the seniors in the group were sort of lost in translation. Since then we’ve been trying to reinvent ourselves as a group and it’s been a little shaky because of that.” They went down to seven members over the course of the school year. 

In the last year, that loss of information and membership led to the difficult decision to end the group. Many students (seniors especially) weren’t as available for rehearsals and performances due to the pressures of schoolwork and careers. After losing so many members, only a couple people were interested in leadership positions.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when The Originals backed out of the ICCAs this year because they didn’t feel as prepared as they would have liked.

They found that at that time it would be best to just focus on smaller things. Barnes said that backing out of the ICCAs “sent a shock through the group because people were really confused about what we wanted to do.” They began to discuss and realized that the best thing for everyone would be if the group no longer existed. 

“The amount of work required to keep the group going probably just wouldn’t be worth it,” Barnes said. He also pointed out that after Covid-19 the best thing for the group probably would have been to stop participating in the ICCAs, but they just continued doing it because it was what they had always done.

“We want to use the money we have and talent we have to put on a good show and preserve the strong reputation and history that our group has and just set it down right,” Barnes said.

Fourth-year music performance major and former Originals president James O’Malley Gorbea added that “it’s been a long time coming. … There’s a reason I’m the only senior.” 

O’Malley Gorbea said that there have been issues getting members to join since he was a first-year. Covid-19 hit the group hard, but coming out of it there were still some members that remembered the glory days and were able to teach O’Malley Gorbea how to show up and rehearse.

“Even though there were only seven people, it worked because we still had that integrity and tradition,” O’Malley Gorbea said. He added that every year there have been issues with leadership in the group and “passing on the torch.” 

O’Malley Gorbea explained that what really harmed the group was the inability to maintain a music director. “People were not happy or content with how the group was going to go,” he said. “That created one of the first shifts in the group.”

There was an entire class that left The Originals because of Covid-19 as well as other reasons, O’Malley Gorbea said. “Even before I joined the group, I feel like it was on a slope downward. We’ve been trying to lift it up, but it’s been hard.”

The group started out mainly as a group of friends hanging out — there weren’t strict rules or guidelines on rehearsals or performances. When a president would want to provide structure, many members were not on board because they were used to a more laid back system.

Gorbea said that when he joined the group its president hated the group, but felt they were the only one keeping it alive. “That was the type of feeling — like why are we here then?” 

People left the group for a variety of reasons. O’Malley Gorbea explains that at one point “we had a lot of voice majors. Which made rehearsals hard to handle because voice majors have a very packed schedule. So that kind of hurt the morale when not everyone is present for rehearsals.”

Over time people just became more relaxed and kept thinking that everything would work itself out. When Barnes became president, he inherited many unresolved issues. One by one, people started leaving.

“Probably the last thing was losing our music director [this year] and not having a clear replacement. Without a music director how do you have a music group?” O’Malley Gorbea explained. 

O’Malley Gorbea said the group taught him “about pop singing and collaborating in an all vocal group.” 

He said that it felt like a band and it was fun at times, but also that a lot of people are only out for themselves. Many times members would only contribute if it felt like it would serve them in some way rather than simply because it could benefit the entire ensemble.

“This is honestly one of the best ends that I can think of for the group,” O’Malley Gorbea said. “There are many times where I’ve thought ‘should we just end the group now?’ It just took one rehearsal with five people and no music director to make that decision.”

He went on to say that he does not “think a group should go on just because it’s had a good past.” 

Barnes stated that he was “super excited to get into it this semester and I’ve put in a lot of work to input actionable plans.” He said that it was emotional coming to this decision, but that he’s now at peace with it. “I’m sad to see it go, but I’m happy to see it go in the best way that it can at this point,” he said. 

O’Malley Gorbea concluded by saying that he hopes other organizations on campus take this as a learning opportunity. “Strong leadership and responsible leadership is key to any organization’s long-term success,” he said. 

“The issues that we’re dealing with today should have been dealt with years ago. It’s important not to get too comfortable with your organization. Just because it’s going well now doesn’t mean it always will,” O’Malley Gorbea told The Tartan. He said student members should feel lucky if their group has good funding and good leadership, but realize that “that can be gone in an instant, as the Os have learned.” 

O’Malley Gorbea stated about The Originals that “their success wasn’t as measured or prepared so therefore their fall equally happened at a pace that no one could see or care about.”