Oriel trio preparing for Edinburgh Fringe debut 

Otis de Ville Morel, Nicholas Moreau and Niall Blaskett are all members of ‘Out of the Blue’ (OOTB), an a cappella group formed of students at Oxford University and Oxford Brookes.

Founded in 2000, the group has performed in the West End and on Broadway, reached the semifinals of Britain’s Got Talent, and toured around the world to countries including the United States of America, Japan, China and India.

This will be the first year the Oriel trio will experience performing at the world’s largest arts festival in Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Fringe.

“I’m incredibly excited,” said Music student Niall.

“It’s going to be kind of wild doing a show effectively every single day for a month.”

All three students had a background in choirs and musical theatre before coming to Oriel College and soon became involved in OOTB.

“It’s just all so energised and everyone’s having so much fun on stage,” explained History student Nicholas.

“The audience really gets into it, more so than any other kind of music that I’ve done.”

OOTB typically consists of 11 to 14 members for each academic year, with three of the 13-strong group representing Oriel for 2025/26.

“It’s a testament to the strong musical acumen of so many Oriel students that we have three of them in this great group,” said Nicholas.