Mixing In The Pitches’ Brew

Photo by Maxwell Reide.
Photo by Maxwell Reide.
Photo by Maxwell Reide.

Witching hour will come this weekend as The Sexy Pitches host their first invitational, “The Salem Pitch Trials.”

The event, set for Friday, April 4 at 7 p.m. in McKenna Theatre, will be cast upon the campus a year before New Paltz’s 15-member, all-female a cappella group’s 10th anniversary.

Second-year public relations major and member of The Sexy Pitches, Sara Shameem, said the invitational has been a goal the group has strived toward for at least a year.

“We have worked really hard this semester expanding our repertoire…so we wanted one night to really showcase our talent to the New Paltz community,” Shameem said. “We wanted to show the New Paltz community the world of a cappella and how it’s such a big part of college in general. That’s why we are inviting groups from different schools to spice up the invitational.”

Bubbling in the same cauldron of this invitational will be New Paltz’s two other a cappella groups, Male Call and Absolut A Cappella, as well as guest performances by Hofstra University’s Hofstra Dutchmen, Syracuse University’s Orange Appeal and SUNY Purchase’s Choral Pleasure.

Shameem said the invitational’s theme, “The Salem Pitch Trials,” will be introduced at the beginning of the event with two videos: one a humorous play on the words “witches” and “pitches” and the second showing the group’s progress within the past year as a way to “celebrate [The Pitches] as a group of fabulous women.”

Third-year public relations major and longest-running member of The Sexy Pitches, Natalie Skoblow, said the group has transformed in the best possible way since she joined the second semester of her freshman year.

“We have a more diverse song selection, and are much closer as a group than ever before,” Skoblow said. “This truly felt like the perfect time to have our first invitational and be able to show off our talents in a fun and creative way. The invitational is called ‘The Salem Pitch Trials,’ so you can most certainly expect a haunting performance as well as funny history references and witchy attire.”

As president of the group, Skoblow said organizing the invitational required a lot of paperwork and meetings to make sure everyone was on the same page about the night’s program. The Pitches utilized any of their connections with other universities in order to invite outside performance groups before deciding on three final groups to invite.

The Pitches collaboratively decided to put the suggested donation proceeds toward The Malala Fund, an organization focused on helping girls go to school and raise their voices for the right to an education.

“The Malala Fund helps girls from all around the world get a proper education and fight for the right to be educated regardless of social and economic background,” Shameem said. “Not many women are allowed to get an education because they have no rights as women. Raising the money for The Malala Fund will hopefully help change this problem and I have so much faith that it will.”

Shameem also said The Sexy Pitches have been through a lot, from members graduating to the changing of dynamics within the group itself. She said the invitational will bring about a new era.

“The Sexy Pitches is a joy to all of us,” she said. “Being in this group relieves stress and gives us a lot of confidence. We know that this show will bring us to the next level, and we want to show that.”