Once again, we have added another amazing experience to our quartet memory book. We were beyond excited just to have been selected by the producers to be a part of the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Harmony Sweepstakes A Capella festival. To have walked away with a successful hit on stage, survived our first use of handheld mics as a quartet (not necessarily easy for a barbershop quartet) and spent the evening with some unbelievably talented singers was more than we expected… and that’s an understatement. Icing on the cake–we placed second. You can’t believe how stunned we were, having heard from many folks in the audience that this year’s line-up was impressive and competition was fierce.

If you’ll allow us to get even cheesier for a minute, we’ve gotta say that there’s something very magical about “The Sweeps” competition. It’s not surprising that this event was the inspiration for NBC’s popular show, “The Sing-Off.” The different styles of a capella harmony all coming together in one show was super, super cool. Epic was proud to compete, but we were also STALKERS of the other singers and styles (some of us more than others… no names… Anne!). Seriously, these folks are WICKED talented and they do their specialties SO WELL. We listened to as many groups as we could from the back of the hall during the show, which is why were particularly shocked to hear our name called as second place finishers!!

A shout-out to the amazing young ladies who took first place and now will represent the Mid-Atlantic region at the national finals in San Francisco in May…. GQ. These four women are so talented and engage with audience in a stunning way (which earned them “Audience Favorite” accolades as well). Please go like them on Facebook and watch for the impressive things they are certain to accomplish in the future.

And to end on a sentimental note… Harmony Sweeps was Epic’s first competition as a quartet. We’ve been together for less than a year and this was our first pressure-cooker experience of walking up onto a contest stage. Sometimes you wonder how the “behind the scenes” dynamic of a group can change when stress is inserted in the equation. But we were sisters all the way… supporting each other through health challenges, a very stressful work-related crisis for one of our members, the application of fake eyelashes and a last-minute scramble to find an inhaler in a cramped dressing room catering to 20 female competitors!!! If this fantastic event was any indication of our future contest dynamic, Epic’s competition approach will be one of love, mutual respect for each others’ talents, trust, humility and a genuine goal to share every last ounce of energy we have with our audience.

It was a rush. It was an honor. Thank you, Harmony Sweepstakes.