Fun fact: The a cappella scene in the Milwaukee area is thriving.
One example of that is King’s Chord – Rufus King High School’s a cappella group.
They’re the first Milwaukee Public School to compete in the International Championship of High School A Cappella (ICHSA). It’s the global tournament that inspired the hit movie Pitch Perfect.
“What’s great is you get to see different forms of artistry,” says Lee Stovall, Rufus King’s choir and music technology teacher. “There's no restrictions on what songs you can sing, so groups can come in with completely different repertoires and visual elements of their choreography. … I really think it's a great way for us to showcase who we are at King. There's also a lot of extra pressure and a lot of extra excitement having to represent Milwaukee Public Schools as well.”
King’s Chord formed in late 2024 and is made up of members from Rufus King’s Advanced Choir class. The group first competed in the ICHSA in 2025 and again this year — they placed fourth in the competition’s Great Lakes Quarter Final in February.
“For a lot of students, it was their first time doing anything like it,” Stovall says. “And so, given the chance to have a full audience, a full sound system and people that care about a cappella hear you and see other groups — it was really exciting.”
One of the groups King’s Chord competed against this year was Port Washington High School’s a cappella group, Limited Edition, who won third place in the world championships in April.
“So not only do we get to see other groups, but we get to see some of the best groups in the world,” Stovall says.
Rufus King senior and King’s Chord member Ruth Ohlendorf has dreamed of being part of an a cappella team since she started high school and is proud of where the team has gotten to today.
“We worked our butts off to be on the same status as all of the [ICHSA teams],” Ohlendorf says. “You can do anything you put your mind to. We're a school in a district that has never competed in this type of competition before, and we made it work and we're just really having fun with it.”
Meanwhile, Rufus King senior and King’s Chord member Breyana Meeks had never heard of the word “a cappella” until she was in high school. Now, she can’t imagine her life without it.
“I love the way it turns heads,” Meeks says. “Not a lot of people hear a capella on a day-to-day basis… so when you get to hear that, you're just like, ‘Wait, it's just their mouths doing that? What the heck?.’ It’s just so cool, and I felt I want to be a part of something like that.”
Both Ohlendorf and Meeks say they plan on pursuing music in some form after they graduate from Rufus King in June. As for the next year’s King’s Chord team, Stovall plans to help the students establish their performance style.
“I really want to lean more into, ‘Who's the personality we are in the group and what can that group say?’” Stovall says. “When I'm trying to craft sets, I collaborate with the students and have their voices be heard. I look at the lyrics, and I make sure — whether we're choosing to do one consistent message for the whole 10-minute set, or if we want each individual song to have separate messages — that we're all committed to saying what we want to say as artists on stage.”
Stovall says King’s Chord is one of the few ICHSA teams that has no formal try-outs, and his only criterion for members to join his advanced choir class is that students are confident in singing by themselves.
“I really appreciate that we have a very diverse group of students [in King’s Chord], both from just their perspectives on music and their own cultural backgrounds,” he says. “We have featured student original compositions in our performance, which is great. We're also strong in a lot of different genres, but I think we're especially excellent compared to some other groups in R&B and soul.”
At the end of the day, Stovall hopes people feel the dedication and excitement the King’s Chord students put into each of their performances.
“I always want people to feel the joy and passion in singing, and it's really about us breaking down barriers and building connections,” he says. “In a live performance, being able to connect with an audience really just builds humanity and empathy, and that's why I do what I do with music.”
