Under the bright lights of Blackman Auditorium, the Nor’easters delivered an electrifying performance at its Best of Northeastern Region a cappella, or BONR, show March 14.

Founded in 1997, the Nor’easters is a student-led organization and the first all-gender a cappella group at Northeastern. The group has won numerous accolades since its establishment, including recently placing second at the 2025 International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, or ICCA, Northeast Quarterfinals.

BONR has been hosted yearly by the Nor’easters since 2012 and has been a long-running tradition ever since. Each year, the group’s members choose two other collegiate a cappella groups from colleges in the Northeast to perform with them. This year, the Nor’easters were joined by Northeastern a capella groups Pitch, Please! and Distilled Harmony, which won first and third at the February 15 2025 ICCA Quarterfinals, respectively. 

True to its name, BONR showcased the best of the three a cappella groups, with each demonstrating their own unique sound and presenting the fruits of their labor across their separate performances.

The concert started with a rendition of “Oh Caroline” by the 1975 and “G Train” by Thirdstory, with an introduction chock-full of double entendres and smiles from Josh Timmins, a fourth-year behavioral neuroscience major and the president and assistant music director of the Nor’easters, in between songs. 

Anya Monchak, a first-year health science major, and Owen Austin, a first-year political science and finance combined major, emceed the concert. They introduced Distilled Harmony, which performed “Soft” by Lucky Daye, “Live for Me” by Omar Apollo and “The Blade” by AURORA, which garnered positive reactions from the audience. 

“I liked the choreography of the Distilled Harmony performance,” said Ori Levine, a first-year biology major who came to watch the performance with her friends. “I think my favorite was Distilled Harmony. I liked that it flowed one into the other.”

Levine came with Eliza Naftoly, a first-year biology major, who was also interested in seeing the performance.

“I decided to come because I love watching a cappella,” Naftoly said. “I can’t sing, but I love to watch other people sing. My favorite was also Distilled Harmony. I really love the choreography, and it was a full-on performance — so engaging.”

Distilled Harmony was followed by the Nor’easters, which performed “Human Nature” by Michael Jackson. After their song, Monchak and Austin returned to introduce the next group, Pitch, Please!, which performed a mashup of “Frontier” by Holly Herndon, and “Radio” by Vienna Teng, “Renegade” by Styx and another mashup of “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child and “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, which had the audience clapping during the chorus. 

“One of the members of Nor’easters was a senior in my high school a cappella group when I was a freshman, so I wanted to see what the group was like,” said Meghana Sen, a high school student visiting Northeastern. “I went to one performance last year. I think my favorite group was actually Pitch, Please! I thought their song choices were really, really cool. I think everyone was really good —  all the soloists were amazing.”

The concert concluded with a final performance from the Nor’easters. The group performed “Home” by WILLOW and Jon Batiste, “GPS” by Durand Bernarr, “THE GREATEST” by Billie Eilish and “Stayaway” by MUNA, though not without a final humorous closing speech from Timmins.

“I wish it could be longer but, you know,” Timmins said. “You start to realize that it’s not so much about the length of the show, and it’s more about what it is you can do with it.”

BONR attracted a wide audience, filling up most of Blackman and proving to be a successful show. The positive reception could be felt throughout the room, with thunderous applause erupting after the last song. Viewers left the performance incredibly satisfied, with a newfound appreciation for Northeastern’s a cappella groups.

“This was my first Nor’easters performance,” said Isabella Bobrowsky, a first-year psychology major. “All of it was really great. I enjoyed hearing how each of the groups differed, just with their different types of sounds, and I can see why some of them took awards at different shows. They were all so different, it’s hard to compare.”

For first-years Siena Becchetti and Joseph Odetayo of Distilled Harmony, the night was more exciting than nerve-racking. Though the rehearsals were grueling, everything felt worth it once they stepped foot on the stage.

“I don’t think I was nervous,” said Becchetti, who is an international business major. “We’ve done a lot of shows so far, so I think we’ve been practicing a lot. I think we felt all pretty prepared. But of course, this is a bigger show, so I was really excited.”

Odetayo shared this sentiment, expressing his love of performing. 

“I don’t really think it was nerves, I think it was just pure excitement, honestly,” said Odetayo, who is a computer science and environmental and sustainability sciences combined major. “Performing in front of a crowd of a lot of people, it makes me feel amazing, and I just love being able to provide that entertainment. The rehearsals were a lot, but the people made it worth the while. I mean, everybody gets burnt out here and there, but we overcame it.”

For the Nor’easters, BONR has a special place in the performers’ hearts, as the group puts an immense amount of work into it each year. This includes not just rehearsing arrangements and choreography, but also figuring out promotional material, photoshoots and communication with other groups and staff. 

“There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that we do, like planning the photoshoots of the pictures you see on the screen and creating the slideshow, creating the promotional material and posting it at a specific time,” said Jules Zannikos, a fourth-year health science major and the Nor’easters’ brand manager. “We do a mass post where every person in the group posts their photoshoot photo at the same exact time on the same day, just to flood people’s timelines with BONR promotion. It’s a lot of planning and it’s a very stressful time for the [electoral] board, but it’s really fun and very rewarding.”

Jackie Pottle, a third-year biology major and the Nor’easters’ business manager, said the last couple of songs of the group’s BONR performance were a sneak peek for the 2025 ICCA Northeast Semifinal, which the group will participate in at the end of March. All the song arrangers of its semifinal set are alumni, allowing for a close connection to the past Nor’easters’ identity while still cementing its own. 

Though the three groups that performed are technically rivals, it is clear they have a lot of love for each other.

“Northeastern, in particular, I feel like has such incredible a cappella here,” Pottle said. “All of our groups are miles ahead of so many other a cappella groups, and it’s just really something special and something that I really treasure.”

“It’s really fun to be with other Northeastern students who are also passionate about a cappella,” Zannikos said. “It’s a competition at the end of the day, but it’s also like we’re rooting for everyone else as much as we’re rooting for ourselves.”

Watch the Nor’easters’ 2025 BONR performance here.