The Story
The A Cappella Bond
A student walking late at night past Ewell Hall is likely to hear Reveille’s melodies or the Intonations warming up at the beginning of practice. Students gather en masse outside at Wren Tens whether it’s a balmy end-of-summer night or a frigid winter one, anticipating the 10:05 arrival of a favorite group. As a campus, we love our a cappella groups, but do we take their music for granted? Perhaps, we should think of a cappella groups as more than tools to satisfy our musical needs.
What is a cappella at William and Mary? How do these groups work? And what is it like to be a member?
A Council of Crooners
A cappella “is what it is,” said Monica Holt (’09), vice president of the William and Mary A cappella Council and a member of Reveille and the Christopher Wren Singers. “It’s not some profound activity but it’s totally worth every moment you put into it for the college time frame.”
Holt said it’s an organization poorly understood by students outside of the a cappella community.
The A cappella Council itself is composed of two members of each group, either the director, the president(s) or the business manager. Then, the council elects a president and a vice president.
Holt and Council President Greg Genovese (’09), who is director of the Gentlemen of the College and a member of The Christopher Wren Singers, have held their respective positions in the a cappella council for the past two years.
The two are in charge of organizing the Wren Ten schedule, basic organization of all-group performances and other inter-group issues.
The A cappella Council was originally created in the 90’s to better organize the audition process for the different a cappella groups. Many of the College’s groups were founded in the early 90’s.
The first a cappella group was The Christopher Wren Singers, created in 1987. In 1990, The Gentlemen of the College and The Stairwells both sprang up, followed by The Intonations in ’91, the Accidentals in ’92 and Reveille and Doubletake in ’93.
When there were only a few groups, they did their audition processes independently. However, once other groups came about, there was too much confusion in the audition process and the A cappella Council was born.
Since the creation of the council, groups have had to petition for membership. Holt says “it’s not truly an application process, but an indication of interest. Then, the potential membership is discussed at a meeting prior to making a decision.”
There are ten a cappella groups currently associated with the council, a large number for such a small campus.
“Due to the size of the College, one would not expect to find ten a cappella groups,” said Holt. “Still, I don’t think that a cappella groups are as selective as the general population thinks. It’s not some prestigious thing to be in the A cappella Council - it’s just an organization. I think the other a cappella groups on campus [that] are started on freshmen halls are fun and great, all the same, but not really interested in making it a big thing.”
As for new groups, Holt said they shouldn’t be discouraged, because “William and Mary thrives on the fact that people can create the experiences that they want.” However, she also said the A cappella Council would probably not add more groups to its membership any time soon.
This is not to say that new interest is not welcome. Based on auditions this year, Holt and others agree that the female groups are in a good place in terms of quality and quantity, but that there was a lower turnout of male interest than they had been seeing for the past couple of years.
Following this trend is the disappearance of the all-male, Christian a cappella group One Accord. This set of crooners chose to take this semester to regroup from difficult past recruitments and the loss of their leader, who graduated last spring.
There has been some chatter that One Accord may combine with Ebony Expressions, a gospel choir group that is also spending the semester regrouping. Ebony Expressions might come back as an a cappella group, as opposed to its previous choral arrangement, said Holt.
Unique Voices
Each a cappella group has a different leadership structure.
In The Gentlemen of the College, the director decides who the next director will be.
In Reveille, the director is chosen by election. As a rule, the seniors cannot talk during deliberations unless they are asked questions - so as to ensure the voice and pick of next year’s members.
The auditions process is also a source of mystery to many.
Sarah Gwilliam (’09), a member of Cleftomaniacs, said that “auditions lasted two days, and were relatively painless.”
Another Cleftomanic, Abigail Stokley (’10), said that one of the only good things about auditions was that it doesn’t take much time.
The A Cappella Council leaders will coordinate the groups in the fall to get their posters up for the activities fair on Tuesday night. Then, Wednesday is an a cappella showcase where all the groups perform. After the showcase, the sign-ups for auditions are posted in Ewell Hall lobby. Traditionally, male auditions are Thursday night and female auditions are Friday. Callbacks are held throughout the day, generally in three time blocks. There is a selection meeting, and after that, all the groups go out and grab their “a cappella babies,” said Holt.
If you get called back to only one group and are accepted as a member, then you must join that group. However, a student called back to multiple groups will fill out a preference sheet, explaining which group they would like to be in. A student could be called back to all the a cappella groups, but not be accepted into any.
“In the fall of my freshman year, I auditioned for all the groups that I could, with the exception of a couple,” commented Holt on her own experience. “I was called back to several of them, but I was not accepted into any.”
However, Holt auditioned in the spring and was accepted into Reveille. After two years in Reveille, Holt auditioned for The Christopher Wren Singers in the fall of her junior year and got in.
Holt said she loves being in the two groups. It “helped me enjoy a cappella more because the two groups complement each other really well. But, I do know that sometimes when people are in two groups, it can get a little crazy when the two groups overlap more.”
Love of the Song
Once the group comes together, they seem to almost unanimously love to perform.
“It is one of the reasons I sing!” said Gwilliam. “It is why we work so hard. I enjoy providing entertainment and musical background to groups and events.”
Stokley agreed. “I really, really enjoy the performance aspect. I've been a choral singer all my life, and I've participated in musical theatre since elementary school, so you know I love performing. With the Cleftos, performance is a huge part of our identity as a group, and everyone somehow manages to take it seriously - and focus - and have a really good time as well.”
Another member of the Cleftomaniacs, Steve Hayet (’09), said he really loves performing at the Wren Tens. “It is mainly the one time all semester where our concert is focused solely on our friends and fellow students. The energy is incredible. The fans that come out to Wren 10s are so supportive and want to have fun as much as we do. Why else would they skip the end of Project Runway to be there?”
However, a cappella life does not just involve singing at Wren Tens and selling CDs. A cappella groups and the members themselves are involved in the school and give back in ways other just singing.
Stokley told The DSJ that in the Cleftomaniacs “last semester we had a 4th grade teacher from inner city Richmond e-mail and tell us that her class starts out every day by listening to one of our songs. We were able to fundraise and bring her class here last semester for a day on campus, a meal at the Caf, a mini workshop and a private concert.”
This piece originally appeared in the November 2008 issue issue of The DoG Street Journal.