Otto Tunes’ first ICCA semifinals is the result of a close knit brotherhood
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In the fall of 2011, then-freshman Jeff Kurkjian heard a couple of students messing around on the piano in an underground hallway between Flint and Day Halls. After he asked to join, the students told him about their larger group that enjoyed hanging out and singing together.
They were thinking about starting a barbershop quartet and, as they lived on “the Mount,” they called themselves the Mount Men. As the group grew larger, they could no longer be a quartet. So, they changed their name to Otto Tunes.
“When we created Otto Tunes, I knew in my heart that this could be the brotherhood I was looking for coming to college. And it was. It really was,” Kurkjian said.
Otto Tunes became an officially recognized Syracuse University organization in 2012. Just 12 years later, the group traveled to the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) Central Semifinal on March 9 for the first time in the organization’s history. The competition started with over 440 groups from 39 U.S. states, Canada and the United Kingdom. Come semifinals, only 89 remained.
After competing earlier this month, Otto Tunes didn’t qualify for the final round.
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor
Otto Tunes concluded their last rehearsal before the competition by turning off the lights and singing their alumni song together.
“We’ve got something on those other groups, and that’s this right here. This is what it’s all about,” Otto Tunes President Lukas Fives said before they parted for the night.
Kurkjian heard stories of alumni who said they considered transferring to a different university but joined Otto Tunes and decided not to. They found the brotherhood they had been looking for.
“Everybody finds something on campus,” Kurkjian said. “And the fact that Otto Tunes can be that for even just one person … that’s why I’m proud of what we did because it now gets to be a home for students to come to when they join Syracuse their freshman year.”
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor
Out of the 23 current members, only six of them are studying music. Even when the group first started, about 80% of the members did not study the subject in college, Kurkjian said.
“There’s always been that attitude of, like, we’re not a group of music majors. We’re a group of people who just love to perform and love to sing,” he said.
Some members didn’t even know they wanted to be a part of an a cappella group when they came to SU.
“If you’d’ve told my freshman self that I would be the president of an a cappella group, I would have laughed in your face,” Fives said.
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor
Whether it be during rehearsal, through playing hacky sack when the weather is warm or living together, the group spends the majority of their time with one another.
“Most of the time, we don’t take a serious approach to music,” junior member and business manager Ryan Myers said. “You see it in our energy. We love to have fun on stage.”
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor
As soon as each a cappella group stepped into the venue space, their eyes widened in awe of its size. Syracuse doesn’t have a theater similar to the venue at the University at Buffalo, so the space elicited even more excitement for the performance, junior member Declan Wavle said.
“The stage is bigger than any stage we’ve ever performed on,” Walve said.
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor
To determine the order of the competition, an elected member of each a cappella group went on stage to pull a number out of a hat. SU senior David Goz pulled the number “one,” and each Otto Tunes member responded with nervous “ohs.”
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor
The group left College Place on a bus around 9:45 a.m. in order to make their call time at the University at Buffalo at 12:30 p.m. After event organizers checked in with all 10 competing groups, Otto Tunes went through sound check and spent six hours waiting for the competition to start at 7 p.m.
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor
Otto Tunes started practicing their set in August before they recruited new members for the upcoming year. When they saw the sheet music for the first time, they felt like they were in over their heads, said junior member Nick Glassman.
The entire set was 51 pages, with one song – “All Night Long” by Lionel Richie – being 33 pages long. But the group bonded once they learned to work with their group dynamic — and their sound clicked.
While Otto Tunes strives to take a fun and “wacky” approach to a cappella, they are also serious about their music when they need to be, Fives said. Many members agreed that the competition night was their best performance of the set and the first time their sound blended perfectly.
“We still have an amazing rest of the semester ahead of us and I’m so excited to spend it with you,” said Myers during the group’s last huddle before heading home. “I hope this experience has been as meaningful for you as it has been for me. It’s been such a wonderful ride.”
As they gathered their belongings, conversation and energy remained as high as they were when the group arrived.
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor
After having no specific outfit for their first two and a half years, the Otto Tunes group found their iconic look — a pair of orange pants — in the campus store and decided to buy them for their last performance before the spring semester ended.
Kurkjian loves seeing that a decision made on a whim has now become a large part of the group’s branding during performances and on social media. The orange pants are featured on the cover of their 2023 album, “From the Closet,” as well as their 2021 EP, “Quarantunes.”
“Selfishly, it’s cool that they continue on the things that maybe me and some of my buddies started, sure,” Kurkjian said. “But the real feeling is the fact that something that meeting my buddies at a dorm on the Mount started now will become more or less everything for some of these students at Syracuse.”
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor
While the group was competing in Buffalo, about nine Otto Tunes alumni gathered to celebrate a wedding. Members crowded around Fives’ phone screen to watch a video that the alumni sent wishing them luck at the competition. Though Kurkjian has been the most in touch with the current members out of the alumni, he says he’s not the only one who wants to remain connected with them.
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor
Every winter break, Otto Tunes does a tour where they perform at schools, churches and other nonprofit organizations, said Myers. In 2023, they traveled to the D.C. area and South Carolina, working their way back to Syracuse through Pennsylvania. They are the only touring a cappella group at SU.
Long hours spent together in the car allow members to bond more than when they do performances on campus, Myers said. When Kurkjian was in college, he said men’s mental health wasn’t spoken about as much as it is today.
“It was important for us young men to have people to be around and be creative with and talk to,” Kurkjian said.
Cassandra Roshu | Photo Editor
Otto Tunes members are there for each other through the highs and the lows, Fives said. He believes that the intimacy of their friendships allows them to sound better together. As president, Fives said he tries to make himself an open and available problem solver for those in the group.
“I do it because I love each and every one of them like they’re my own brothers — more than they can ever probably realize,” Fives said. “It’s not only been a highlight of my college experience, it’s been the highlight of my life. And I truly mean that.”
