By Shannon Gugarty

Harmonic Velocity, Fitchburg State’s premier a cappella group, is holding auditions all this week. According to Vice President Theo Demosthenese, the group has been an officially recognized Fitchburg State club for about a semester. However, as stated by the group’s President Dominic Geehan, the group initially started about three years ago in Geehan’s freshman year by their good friend Jillian Bailey.
“It started off as a small gathering of friends,” Geehan stated, “and she formed it into the group that it became. It was very small group of people at first; we didn’t even have a table at Rock the Block. It has come a long way.”
While both Demosthenes and Geehan have been involved in music since childhood, Demosthenes says that Harmonic Velocity brought him back into music.
“I didn’t get back into music until my sister dragged me to one of Velocity’s rehearsals. Jill asked if I could sing, and I told her I could beatbox, and she said, ‘You’re in!’”
That moment inspired him to become more professional, and he sought out voice lessons. Meanwhile, Geehan’s interest in chorus stemmed from his middle school’s chorus, which promised a free trip to Six Flags to all participants, seeming a small incentive for rising to his now prestigious role in the group. From there, he went into musical theatre, and reported his achievements in having participated in them. “I’ve done 11 musicals, probably eight or nine different choirs, I do the chamber choir that’s here.”
While Fitchburg State’s music program is still growing at a steady rate compared to other departments, Geehan and Demosthenes are hopeful for Harmonic Velocity’s success as an organization. In respect to the group aspect of the a cappella group, the vice president and the president both stated that they have many goals for the group.
For Demosthenes, he stated, “This semester, we want our name out on campus,” and for Geehan, he went on to explain Demosthenes’s goals in further detail; “We have events planned with other groups. But we’re looking forward to our off campus work. We were asked by the Fitchburg fire department to sing the national anthem at their memorial 5K in October.”
Geehan continued, “We want Harmonic to be one of the first things people know about Fitchburg State.”
For those who are interested in learning more about the group and meeting Geehan and Demosthenes, Harmonic Velocity has audition sign ups on the door of Conlon 157.