Vocal groups to sing in benefit for UPH

Five Skidmore student vocal groups will take center stage at an upcoming benefit for the Universal Preservation Hall (UPH).

?An Afternoon of a Cappella? is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at UPH. Performers will be Skidmore?s Bandersnatchers, Accents, Drastic Measures, Dynamics, and Sonneteers.

A family-friendly event, tickets will be available at the door. Admission is $10 per person; students under 10 will be admitted free.

All of Skidmore?s a cappella groups perform throughout the year at on-campus songfests and at such community events as the Victorian Street Walk. Their polished programs include contemporary selections and old standards and typically draw huge crowds. Several have recorded CDs, which are available for sale at the Skidmore Shop, the campus bookstore.

Tom Lewis, head of the UPH and professor of English at Skidmore, explains that Sunday?s concert will give the community a chance to see progress on the restoration of the hall, as well as the opportunity to hear Skidmore?s acclaimed music groups in the main auditorium of the hall.

He continued, ?The men and women of Skidmore?s premiere a cappella singing groups have shown enormous generosity to the community and to the hall by offering their talents to our restoration effort.

?This is a concert for the whole family, and the Universal Preservation Hall is really grateful to these wonderful Skidmore singing groups for their support. It will be great to hear them in the acoustics of the main auditorium at the hall.?

A cappella singing has been popular among Skidmore students for many years. The Sonneteers, an all-female group, was founded in 1947 and has the distinction of being the first club at Skidmore. The all-male Bandersnatchers have been singing for 33 years. Another all-female group, the Skidmore Accents, was launched in 1980 as a spinoff of the Skidmore Chorus. More recently, Skidmore?s a cappella scene has gone co-ed: the Dynamics, approximately 10 years old, and the Drastic Measures, the college?s newest group, include men and women. The Dynamics earned acclaim in 2002 when the group performed in the finals of the International Collegiate Championship of a Cappella at Lincoln Center?s Avery Fischer Hall.