Jane Scheffel

Viva Voce line up during their performance of Doomsday by Lizzie McAlpine. Before school Feb. 5 Viva Voce practiced their ICHSA set for Ladue High School staff. “I’m most excited to see the other groups,” Davis said. “I feel we’ve put in our work and what’s gonna happen is gonna happen, but I really like meeting all the new people and seeing what they put together.”

Viva Voce will perform at the International Championship Of High School A Cappella at Washington University of St. Louis Feb. 7.

Viva Voce is an all female a cappella group at Ladue that competes against other a cappella groups across the country. 

“[Viva Voce] is in the Midwest region, and we’ll be competing against around 10 other groups from Illinois, Missouri and all around the Midwest,” business manager Violet Coughlin (11) said. “The groups who get top two move on to the semi finals, and the top two from the semi-finals move on to finals, which is in New York.”

International Championship Of High School A Cappella is Viva Voce’s main competition of the year. Starting in the summer of 2025, they worked on arrangements for songs and in the beginning of the school year they added choreography. 

“The rehearsal schedule is Thursday mornings at 6:30 a.m. but once we get closer to [competition] like the last two months we add weekend rehearsals and some weekly rehearsals,” Khamari Davis (12) said.

At the competition, the club has a ten minute time limit, so the group has decided on singing three songs. Viva Voce is singing Jealousy, Jealousy by Olivia Rodrigo, Doomsday by Lizzie McAlpine and What You Don’t Do by Lianne La Havas. 

“We connect the chords of each of the songs, so that way it’s seamless,” Coughlin said. “We do have to cut out some parts of the song, like the second verse of Jealousy, Jealousy and the last part of Doomsday, just so we’re keeping under that limit and making sure that the audience stays engaged.”

The members have to work hard to keep their stamina up the entire time. They have to make sure that every minute of their performance is full of energy and all out. 

“We’re singing and dancing, it gets tiring,” Coughlin said. “So keeping that high energy throughout the whole time, especially since the loudest, biggest, most high energy part is the end of the set. We really have to conserve our energy so we can have a big, strong ending.”

For the past two years, Viva Voce has gotten fourth at ICHSA. But Viva Voce performed at International Championship Of College A Cappella, the college version of ICHSA, which is hosted at the same theater so they were able to practice their set on the stage of the competition.

“I am so excited to just compete because this is the best we’ve been as a group since I’ve been in the group,” Coughlin said. “I think we really do have a high chance of getting in the top two and moving on.”