Crowds of people vying to enter McLeod Hall, girls screaming "Have my babies!" and a packed auditorium can only mean one thing: It's time for another a capella concert. This past Saturday, the Academical Village People hosted their first annual charity concert to benefit tsunami relief, which featured a capella groups from three different schools:James Madison University's female group Note-oriety, the University of Maryland's male group Generics and Johns Hopkins University's co-ed group Octopodes. Every last penny of the proceeds collected will be donated to victims of the tsunami disaster.
Second-year College student Paul Tiffany commented on the work that the group put into the project to make it a success.
"We started planning for the concert before Christmas break," Tiffany said. "Holding a benefit concert was something that we all wanted to do, and we were influenced by the fact that many other schools' a capella groups were holding similar concerts to raise funds to help tsunami relief. We've also participated in other events that support this cause."
The long trip to Charlottesville (a three-and-a-half-hour journey from Johns Hopkins and a two-hour trip from the University of Maryland) did not stop them from joining the cause that AVP had organized, and Tiffany said he believed this was because a capella groups from different schools are supportive of each other's events.
"We perform with a capella groups from different schools at least once a semester, maybe even as many as two or three times a semester," Tiffany said. "We go on road trips to visit other schools for invitationals, and we sang with JMU's Note-oriety at their spring concert last year."
According to third-year College student Jason Sonnenschein, the wild response from the crowd after these performances made the long trips worthwhile.
"The other groups were so excited to see the enthusiasm of the audience," Sonnenschein said.
The individual performances highlighted each group's unique performing styles and specific talents. Among the key performances was Note-oriety's energetic medley of Spice Girls songs, the Generics' funky performance of "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne and the Octopedes' harmonic performance of "Holding out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler. And, of course, the crowd responded enthusiastically to AVP's improvements upon old tunes, with their renditions of "Mr. Jefferson" (sung to the lyrics of "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel) and a new take on "The Reason" by Hoobastank.
A touching moment in the performance came when the lights were dimmed, and AVP and past alumni came together on stage to sing "A Prayer for the Children" to commemorate those people whose lives were lost and changed forever by the tsunami disaster.
"Ultimately, through the ticket sales and benefit concert t-shirts sold, we definitely raised over $2,000," Sonnenschein said. "After the success of this event, we're hoping to start a tradition of holding yearly benefit concerts. In the future, we plan to raise money for local causes and to get more people involved around the community. I think we could have an even bigger impact by raising money for smaller, local causes"
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