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OCappella unites schools in a cappella fest

The OCappella festival brought musical diversity, but will it stay?

by Kristen Schultz

Last weekend was a typical musical marathon at Oberlin, with five concerts in two days, eight visiting a cappella groups and seven from Oberlin, including two new groups giving debut performances. The unusual feature was that all the performers in the aforementioned groups had something special in common: they were all singing at Oberlin's first OCappella!

The five concerts, OCappella Madness, OCappella Insanity, OCappella Bedlam, OCappella Lunacy and OCappella Chaos, were the realization of a project started last fall by Steve Baer, college sophomore and member of two a cappella groups on campus. Baer had seen an a cappella invitational at Tufts University in Massachusetts a few years ago, and as a member of the Obertones, an all-male a cappella group at Oberlin, Baer visited Smith for an a cappella invitational last year. He enjoyed both experiences and decided to see if Oberlin could also host an invitational a cappella fest.

Baer and Brandon Enriquez, college senior and a member of the coed groups In-A-Chord and Yeomama, organized discussions with representatives from Oberlin a cappella groups halfway through fall semester. Since all the groups were in support of the idea, Baer contacted groups from other schools. Those invited included some that Baer had seen at other a cappella fests before or ones which had performed at Oberlin in the past.

Of the 10 a cappella groups invited to attend, eight groups from seven different schools were able to come and perform. The groups were the University of Illinois' Xtension Chords and Rip Chords, Delaware University's D-Sharps, University of Rochester's Vocal Point, Binghamton University's Harpur Harpeggios, Haverford College's Ford S-Chords, Vassar College's Measure for Measure and Tufts University's Beelzebubs. These were joined by Oberlin's own Slavic Folk Choir, Nothing But Treble, In-A-Chord, Obertones, Dynamics and two new groups, Temporary Insanity and Yeomama. The Oberlin Dykes and Divas were not able to perform, though they were scheduled to.

It was apparent that the visiting groups had varying degrees of experience. The Beelzebubs rehearse every day, perform four times a week and tour every weekend, and this expertise stood in contrast to the performances of the Harpeggios and the D-Sharps, who were both performing away from their schools for the first time.

Other than these differences, there was also a notable contrast between the laid-back style of the Oberlin groups and the more polished style of the visiting groups. The Xtension Chords and Beelzebubs included skits and jokes in their performances, and they, as well as others, included choreography in their songs. As a general rule, Oberlin groups had simpler choreography, if any, and their performances included less straight-white-male humor than some of the non-Oberlin groups included. In general, the visiting groups didn't seem to know what kind of humor their mostly-Oberlin audience would appreciate,which resulted in occasionally apathetic responses.

Baer thinks that the a cappella scene at Oberlin has been getting slow and under-appreciated in recent years. The Kenyon College Kokosingers came last semester to perform with Obertones and In-A-Chord, and the Obertones used to have their year-end concert with a visiting group, but that hasn't happened in years. By inviting groups and bringing together the Oberlin groups, Baer hoped to give new life to a cappella at Oberlin.

The fest ended up being an opportunity for both old and new friends to meet. Opportunities also arose for Oberlin groups to visit and sing at other campuses. Already, as a result of the connections made at the invitational, Nothing But Treble has been asked to visit the University of Rochester, Yeomama has been invited to sing at Binghamton and the Obertones have been asked to visit the University of Illinois.

Turnout for the five concerts was OK, according to Baer, who said that when the groups were planning the concerts, they did not know how many people would show up. As organizer of the fest, he said that the last show on Saturday night at Finney Chapel was the best attended, with approximately 350 people.

Baer hopes the success of the fest will encourage people to come next year, since it will become an annual event. Baer and others are starting to plan for it soon, hoping to invite some of the same groups as well as others from the West Coast, since all of this year's groups came from the nearby states.


Photo:
Haverford's Ford S-Chords: These guys perform with the ease of compacts and the comfort and luxury of most high-priced imports. (photo by Chandrika Rai)


Oberlin

Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 124, Number 16; March 1, 1996

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