OverStaffed creates new, non-gender specific ensemble

The IU coed a cappella group OverStaffed aims to provide IU students with the opportunity to join a non-gender specific a cappella ensemble.

Sophomore Cassie Schwietert, who sings soprano, started the group last semester with friend Chris Yousif, a freshman majoring in music education who sings bass.

“We talked about starting our own a cappella group and joked around about it,” Schwietert said. “We held auditions in November and started rehearsing in December.”

Schwietert said she was a dancer and participated in choir and show choir in high school but didn’t find anything to get involved in at IU.

The name OverStaffed was chosen because the group has a lot of members and because they wanted the name to relate to music, Schwietert said.

Currently, the young group consists of eight women and nine men.

While they said they have started thinking about the future, they have no plans for a second round of auditions yet.

“Our group is pretty young right now,” Schwietert said. “We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores and one junior. We’ll hold auditions when we need to.”

The group practices twice a week and is led by two group members.
Its first performance was Thursday at BuffaLouie’s.

“We were a little nervous about how we sounded and if people could hear us because it was really loud, but the feedback we got was pretty good,” Schwietert said.

OverStaffed performed a Michael Jackson medley and “Glitter in the Air” by Pink, which was arranged by group member Michael Day.

A freshman majoring in music education, Day joined OverStaffed in November.

“Chris encouraged me to audition so I did, and it’s been a really fun experience,” he said. “I did some a cappella in high school, but there’s not much opportunity here outside of Straight No Chaser.”

Freshman and soprano Alex Onion is majoring in communications and was involved in an a cappella group with her church.

She said this is her first real experience with pop a cappella music.

The group is currently working on songs like “Marry You” by Bruno Mars, “Earth” by Imogen Heap and a Katy Perry medley.

“I’m also in a curricular ensemble, so being a part of OverStaffed has been a nice compliment to that,” Onion said.

“It’s fun to learn more current music in a student-led group where we all have a say in what we perform. Performing in OverStaffed has been such a unique experience, and I’m glad to be a part of it,” she said.