Photos and Article by: Casey Steinmiller
Back in April the movie Pitch Perfect 2 came out in theaters. Among the various musical groups involved in the movie were the Filharmonics. The Filipino-American a cappella group started three years ago in Los Angeles and have made quite the scene since then. The group has been featured on NBC’s show The Sing-Off making it to the semi-finals and toured across the country on the Sing Off Tour. Deke Sharon The Music Director of the show was also the Music Director on Pitch Perfect 2. Deke was looking for a group of multicultural young men and the Filharmonic fit the part pitch perfectly. The Filharmonic can be seen in the movie competing in the World Championship singing in Tagalog, a native language of the Philippines. In an interview with Julez Cruz and Trace Gaynor they talked about working in the movie. “There was a lot more dancing in the movie than our live shows. We actually had to pre-record it then lip-sync because of how much dancing there was in the movie.” Trace continued, “It was awesome experience meeting the cast and working with them. It’s not every day you get to be in an a cappella movie.”
In the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts the group of 6 started off with the song “Rock With You”, a Michael Jackson cover. Being a boy-band the women in the crowd screamed their hearts out at them. The Filharmonic was very crowd oriented and made sure everyone was on their feet or singing along. They covered a variety of songs from recent popular hits like “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk The Moon to “Chains” by Nick Jonas. They put their own spin on each song by infusing up-beat a cappella sounds into each song and made it their own. About halfway through the show, Niko the group’s beat-boxer, slowed the show down with some original beats free styling. They also played the hit song “Flashlight” from the movie Pitch Perfect 2. The show “ended” with the song “One More Night” by Maroon 5. The crowd applauded expecting the show to end, only to their surprise the Filharmonic came out and played “Treasure” by Bruno Mars.
They are currently touring the Northeastern part of the US and have high hopes to tour the Philippines in the future. They are always working on new YouTube videos, which can be found in the link below. Come Holliday season the Filharmonics hope to release a Holliday a cappella album.
To listen to them sing check out the link below!