Amanda Crouse ’27
Last Friday, Aug. 30, the College’s six a cappella groups held a collective showcase in the Scheide Music Center. The event was intended to garner interest among prospective future club members, as well as to share the simple pleasure of all-vocal performances.
The College’s first co-ed a cappella organization, A Round of Monkeys, experiments with a variety of genres and silly songs, but are best known for their covers of hits by 1960s pop-rock band The Monkees. Their performance included a rendition of “The Monkees,” by The Monkees, and an equal parts impassioned and hilarious ballad sung from the perspective of a cow.
The CowBelles, with their all-treble lineup of voices, followed with some upbeat pop covers. Club president Bridget Krus ’25 described the group’s musical preference as “whatever songs we’re really into at the moment,” naming Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift as two recent favorites.
The third act of the night was Scots in Harmony, the College’s premier competitive a cappella organization. Boasting a broad spectrum of vocal ranges and song selections, the Scots bring their musical talents to Varsity Vocals — a national a cappella competition with final rounds that include colleges from all over the country — every spring semester. President Brianna Swinford ’25 belted a soulful solo verse as her fellow club members backed her up with smooth harmonies.
Clad in their trademark maroon, The Dukes provided some prime foot-tapping fodder with two renditions of jazz classics. Despite being the youngest of its peers, The Dukes have made a name for themselves as Wooster’s foremost jazz a cappella club.
A niche within the pre-existing niche of the a cappella world, After These Messages specializes in covers of popular commercial jingles from the height of the cable television era in the twentieth century. For Friday’s short showcase, the all-treble ensemble sang a Gloria Gaynor soul classic, punctuating it with a catchy Coca-Cola chorus and an old Rice Krispies jingle.
Merry Kuween of Skots, the College’s all-tenor/bass a cappella group, closed out the showcase. The first song of their set, promised the group’s president, would be familiar to most audience members. And familiar it was — the reverberating wall of basso voices erupted into a rendition of the Wooster Pipe Band’s signature anthem. The instrumental version is a classic in its own right, of course, but I was impressed by the rich tenors and thundering basses that lilted along to the melody.
In all, Friday night’s showcase was an awesome start to a semester of hopefully many more performances.