The St. Joseph’s University, New York a capella group on the Long Island campus, known as the Sharps, hosted its annual invitational event on May 10, filling the Muriel and Virginia Pless Center for the Performing Arts with song.
The event allows the Sharps to connect with local a capella groups and work towards a common goal: putting on a public performance at the end of the day.
“Our university’s a cappella group invites as many local college, community and high school a cappella groups as we can to join us for the day,” said Stephanie Curley, co-president of the Sharps. “We mingle with other musicians, young and old, and play fun games like mixing music genres with nursery rhymes.”
Anna Malzone, director of the Council of the Arts for SJNY on the Long Island campus, leads the event alongside the Sharps to ensure the attendees feel confident about their performance.
“We also have a master class with Anna Malzone, a music professor on campus, who critiques the different groups that come to participate so we are ready to do our very best at the public performance we put on at the end of the day,” said Curley.
Though the groups spend most of their day working towards putting on a successful performance during the invitational, this is also a time where members can make connections with other musicians.
Students practice their craft during a Sharps rehearsal earlier this semester.
“We have made some genuine connections with these other groups and are lucky to call them our friends. We have many come back each year. We want to spread music to our school and community and hopefully give some high school groups a taste of college life in a way that interests them. It is a very fun day, full of laughs that we look forward to and prep for all year long,” said Curley ahead of this year’s event.
You can listen to select performances from the Invitation event on the Sharp’s social media page.
