Pitches with Attitude sing their final song together despite pandemic
When the pandemic hit America in March 2020 and Salve Regina went remote for the remainder of the semester, one of the hardest things for musical ensemble groups in the Department of Music, Theater and Dance had to accomplish during that time was to try to collaborate and perform remotely.
Musical ensembles could no longer finish out the semester, perform like usual, or say goodbye in a tangible way — which was especially difficult for seniors. But Pitches with Attitude, Salve Regina’s all-female a cappella group, found a way to bring their beloved ensemble together one last time.
Aly Churchill ’20, who was a communications major with a double minor in marketing and business and the student facilitator of the group for the last two years, decided to put together an online tribute. Staff at Salve Regina suggested “Hail Holy Queen” and offered to play the piece during the Virtual Conferral of Degree Ceremony that happened on May 17, 2020.
Pitches With Attitude Celebrate the Class of 2020
“We decided to take the idea and run with it,” said Churchill. “So … all 18 girls sent me a video of themselves singing ‘Hail Holy Queen,’ and I put them all into iMovie and lined up all next to each other and created a video out of it.”
Churchill also took sound clips and put them into Garage Band, layered it all together and produced a pretty polished piece for someone who doesn’t have a technical background in creating music videos.
“It was definitely a long process and not particularly something that is my forte,” said Churchill. “I just wanted to figure out a way to get our group together one last time even though we couldn’t physically be together.”
The song ‘Hail Holy Queen,’ a traditional Catholic tribute to Mary dating back to the 12th century or so, is a song that has been performed for years at Salve Regina due to a long-standing tradition at the University.
‘[It’s] a song that … always brings a smile to our face, and we just are so proud we represented Salve in the best way we could,” said Churchill. “So this song really meant a lot to us.”
Other seniors who graduated with Churchill and were part of Pitches with Attitude include: Caroline Burns ’20, Olivia Cardarelli ’20, Isabel Donahue ’20, Jenna Hanson ’20, Emma Randazzo ’20, Natalie Reid ’20, Katie Simonello ’20, Brooke Smith ’20, Cierra Vicente ’20 and Micayla Yorski ’20. Other members include Lauren Flynn ’21, Sophia Collins ’22, Riley Finn ’23, Ciara Marro-Wilson ’23, Marisa Sarcia ’23, Olivia Thomas ’23 and Caroline Watson ’23.
