Performing at the World Figure Skating Championships
As the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics have once again reawakened my obsession with niche sports and my strangely vast knowledge of flags of countries of the world, I have also been reflecting on one of my absolute favourite experiences at Tufts: Performing at the World Figure Skating Championships!
Somehow this slipped through my brain bank of blog ideas but as I was watching Alyssa Liu stun the audience with her Ice Dancing on my couch at home, I remembered how electric it was to watch her perform in real life… LAST YEAR!
So you might be wondering, how in the world did you land this gig? To this day… I am also asking myself this question. I used to sing with one of Tufts many a cappella groups, called sQ!, and one fateful day we got a wonderful little email from the ISU (International Skating Union). Our lovely logistics team led by one of our singers, Jack, responded to the email within minutes (as he so often did). Maybe it was our tenacity, our lightning fast response time, or our notoriety at Tufts’ Freshest All-Gender A Cappella group - but the ISU was impressed.
After a few agonizing weeks of waiting, pestering the ISU, and sending several (many) videos of our group singing various songs to prove our capacity to do Boston proud - the ISU confirmed that we would have the honor to sing the National Anthem before the Women’s Free Skate Finals - a sold out event at Boston’s TD Garden!
In the coming weeks we practiced nonstop, learning a complicated arrangement of the national anthem filled with crescendos, key changes, and 8-part harmony.
On the day of the event, we were herded through the backrooms of TD Garden and sent through special security which we later found out is where the Boston Celtics and Bruins enter for their games. We vocally warmed up in the Bruins Business Office and had to restrain ourselves from taking 1 million selfies with all of the Boston sports memorabilia scattered around the place.
Remember: this was the World Figure Skating Championships - so the energy backstage was incredible. We were ducking between media outlets from across the globe hearing different languages around every single corner and walking past ice dancers currently performing in the Olympics on our way to the stage.
As we approached the platform to sing, I remember feeling a collective sense of panic, euphoria, delight, and the urge to vomit. I knew that my extended family had all gathered to watch me back at home on TV, and all I could think about was how grateful I was for the experiences I have had since I came to Tufts.
I think especially at a time like this - singing the National Anthem can come with a lot of mixed emotions. I also remember feeling those. There’s the multifaceted layers of resistance, triumph, and joy all intertwined within the words of the song that we have always known to represent our country. Even in times of turmoil, we find community in the universal language that is music.
Singing on a stage like that was a blur. You look out into the audience and cannot make out a single face, but you know that somehow 50,000 pairs of eyes are staring right at you - not to mention everyone watching on TV. My favorite part about singing with an a cappella group is that you’re never doing it alone - so it makes it feel a lot less scary. While our goal as a group is to unite as a sort of one voice - we do it as 15 unique individuals that each bring our own histories, perspectives, and personalities to the group.
The a cappella community at Tufts is so valuable - not just for the incredible experiences that it brings such as this one - but for the community it creates on and off campus as well. I think each and every person involved in the scene would agree that their group acts as a sort of second family to them - a community they can go to for a laugh, a cry, or maybe just a good time.
Whether you’re performing at the World Figure Skating Championships or singing in the shower, I hope you have a chance to make your musical mark on Tufts.
That’s all for now,
Joe