The Low-Down: My Experience in Noteworthy...so FAR!

I haven't really shared any of my experiences with Noteworthy this year, and as it has been a fantastic experience, I will now share many of the crazy things that have happened this year. WARNING: COULD BE LONGEST BLOG POST EVER. I tried out for Noteworthy last fall and was soo nervous, the only reason I tried out (again) was because my Dad and Michael told me I HAD to. I was really nervous, I hadn't been singing in any groups for two years and I was starting to doubt my abilities as a performer. I tried out the first Friday back to school, and I honestly did

n't know what was going to happen. I sang "Anyway" by Martina McBride, and felt great about my tryout. I knew that I'd done my best and that was all I could do. :) I remember that night laying on the couch talking to Michael who was already staying up late to do some homework. I asked him if he honestly thought I could make it, and he said, "Siri I have no doubt, you're going to be in Noteworthy this year." (I was thinking to myself, ok well you have to sound all hopeful because your my husband and you have to support me.) I fell asleep on the couch, and for anyone who knows me well, knows that I am not friendly when I wake up in the morning, or from naps...Michael woke me up at 12:30 and told me that I'd received an email from the girls...we read it together and I was invited to call backs the next morning at 9 AM. I was excited but at the same time, I'd been to callbacks before, it was definitely an intimidating experience. We went to bed that night extremely exhausted. The next morning I had the best tryout of my entire life in callbacks. I KNOW I had so much help from Heavenly Father that morning. Learning the music was simple, and learning the dance seemed effortless, which is definitely not so characteristic for me. :) (as the other girls in nw will now attest to haha). After a 4 hour call back with 19 other talented girls, they told us that they might call some of us for interviews, better known as the "circle of intimidation." Micha

el picked me up and we were on our way to lunch at Cafe Rio, when SURPRISE Courtney called and asked if I could come NOW for the circle of intimidation. We turned around and headed back to the HFAC, I felt the butterflies in my stomach start fluttering around more crazy than ever, it's good to be nervous, I kept telling myself. We arrived and saw another girl walking out, she told me good luck and Michael and I went in together. I was so grateful to have him there with me...seemed much less intimidating :). We started talking to the returning girls and some former members who were helping with tryouts. It seemed to be going well. And then they asked Michael what he thought of Noteworthy and what he would think if I were to be in the group, as it is a huge time commitment, not just inside rehearsal but for gigs, competition, traveling etc. I truly think his answer is what made the girls want me :) He said, "Obviously you've seen how talented Siri is, and I truly think that it'd be a shame if she wasn't able to share that talent and be in this group her senior year." He continued by saying how much he loved me and how willing he was to support me in this. By this

time I was crying, along with the entire group of girls :). I figured that was a good sign. We finished the interview and left. Michael turned to me when we were outside and said, "Was that an ok answer?" I started laughing and told him that it was a VERY good sign that he made all the girls cry. haha then he told me that he didn't think he'd ever understand women. Later that day I got a call from Courtney while we were on our way up to Draper, she said she had one more question for me..."Would you like to be in Noteworthy?" (Insert abrasive scream HERE.) I couldn't stop screaming, but I calmed down en

ough to tell her that yes I would LOVE to be in Noteworthy. She said our first rehearsal was Tuesday. Wow I couldn't believe it!!! That Tuesday I met the girls...2009-2010 lineup for Noteworthy: Lizzy Early, Cassie Crabbe, Kelsey Rapps (now Pratt, she got married while we were filming for the Sing Off...oh the things we sacrifice for Noteworthy), Katie Jensen, Courtney Jensen, Amber Catherall, Amy Whitcomb, Laina Walker, and Siri Alemany!

And that was the start of the craziest adventure ever. Rehearsals started we began bonding as friends, and then became increasingly obsessed with each other, forming an everlasting sisterhood (and while this may sound cheesy, it's definitely the truth). In October we had our first gig and it went pretty well, the new girls, were pretty nervous but it was sooo much fun singing on stage with your best friends, who you know you can trust. At the end of October a meeting was called, all husbands/fiances were invited (only Michael and Alec) so we knew this was probably super important. Amy and Courtney announced that we'd been invited to compete on a new NBC reality show called "The Sing-Off" (Insert multiple abrasive screams HERE). We were obviously all so excited and of course we said YES! Then Court and Amy looked at Kelsey and Alec and announced that we'd have to be in LA on November 28 and start filming the 29th. Kelsey and Alec were getting married November 28. Alec looked at Kelsey and told her that she didn't have a choice, she was doing it, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and there's no way he'd let her not compete. Talk about a supportive guy! Those were a couple of crazy months of rehearsals...and we couldn't tell ANYONE!!! Oh my goodness that was so hard. Finally the press release went out and we were able to tell people, what a relief that was. We worked it out with all of our professors (some more accommodating than others) and rehearsed, visualized, prepared, and rehearsed some more. We got to LA and met the other groups, oh my goodness it was like bonding with NW all over again. We love the other groups so much, it honestly felt like one big a cappella bash rather than a competition. We had so much fun filming for the show, and being "wrangled" around haha. (We couldn't do anything without permission, and couldn't go anywhere unless our wranglers knew where we were...kinda felt like elementary school again). Time for filming came and we performed our guts out, and felt so confident in each of our performances. We had so much fun, and I think that's the truly important thing. The night we got kicked off was so sad (contrary to the huge smile I had on tv when we got kicked off haha), we were sooo sad to be leaving. We had created incredible friendships with the other contestants, the staff, especially the fabulous stage manager Rob :) However we were so comforted and we knew that everything was going to ok. Funny story...the day after we got kicked off we were on our way to the airport and our wrangler (who will remain nameless) was driving. She looked at our plane tix said we were on Southwest and dropped us off at Terminal 5. We were already running kind of late, we got in line and thought we'd be fine. Well we get up to the check in counter and our tickets won't scan on the machines...the lady who was working there asked if she could see our tix, and then told us we were actually on Delta...which is in terminal 1. (If you've ever been to LAX you know how HUGE it is...kind of a big deal). So we picked up our bags and started RUNNING frantically through the airport, down the stairs, out to the shuttle, climbed on.......climbed off made it to Delta's line and started singing for people so they'd let us cut...well unfortunately we didn't make it in time. We missed our flight, which was actually pretty hilarious. We just hung out in the airport for about 4 more hours, making videos and coming up with ideas for our competition set. After Christmas break we had our show at the Covey Center the first week in January. It was sooo much fun (and props to the sound people...thank you for knowing how to do your job and mix a female a cappella group CORRECTLY, much appreciated). We were and are so appreciative to all of our fans who have supported us, written us letters, facebook posts, bought our cd's/tshirts/posters etc. and who in general are the BEST FANS EVER!!! WE LOVE YOU! After our show intense rehearsals started for the 2010 International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella competition. We were so excited to find out that we'd be competing in Eugene with our best friends, Divisi--whom we love and miss so much btw!!! It was such an exciting night, we got on stage, performed our set from muscle memory and felt pretty good about it. We honestly had no idea how it was going to turn out though, because according to the ICCA officials it was the hardest quarterfinal ever. Standing on stage during the awards ceremony...

Outstanding Soloist goes to Amy Whitcomb of Noteworthy for the entire set (Insert abrasive screams and jumping up and down HERE)
Outstanding Vocal Percussion: Courtney Jensen of Noteworthy (Insert abrasive screams and jumping up and down HERE) and Danny Cavero of UC-Santa Cruz Acquire for "Circle of Life"
Outstanding Arrangement goes to: Haley Steinberger of Divisi for "Fallin'" and Catherine Papworth of Noteworthy for "Stayin' Alive" (Insert abrasive screams and jumping up and down HERE)
Outstanding Choreography: Megan Schimmer of Divisi for "He Lives in You" and Courtney Jensen and Amy Whitcomb of Noteworthy for the entire set. (Insert abrasive screams and jumping up and down HERE)
3rd place goes to: Oregon State University Outspoken (289 points)
2nd goes to: University of Oregon Divisi (391 points)
1st place goes to: Brigham Young University Noteworthy (400 points)

Finally, all of our hard work and effort paid off! ICCA quarterfinal champions!!! Wow what a feeling! We are now preparing for semifinals which will be held on March 20 (the day after my senior thesis is due..yikes) in California at USC!! We are so excited! Thanks for everyone's support, I love you all and am so appreciative!!
Especially...thanks to my husband Michael who is by far the most supportive, hardworking, loving husband ever...I love you babe! Thanks for always supporting me, even though it takes soo much time! You truly are the best and I don't know what I would do without you!!!

(More pictures of NW to come in a crazy upload of the whole year!)