A Capella is central to Smith culture. With seven a cappella groups in total, they all bring a different niche to the stage and negotiate their histories with their present to create vibrant communities.
Back in 1936, when Smith was Yale’s sister college, a group of Smithies saw Yale’s a cappella group the Whiffenpoofs perform at a picnic. This inspired them to start their own group, the Smiffenpoofs, which became the first collegiate all-women’s a cappella group in the United States.
The Smith Special Collections keeps a scrapbook of Smiffenpoof (or Poof, as nicknamed) history, spanning 1936-2000. The photographs reveal a transformation of a group of proper young women from the 1930s towards a more modern and edgy look in the 1990s. This trend also held true for the extensive photo collection of the Smithereens (also called the Reens), another Smith a capella group, founded in 1948. According to the notes in the Poof scrapbook, the 80s were a transformative time for Smith a cappella, as groups started using percussion and revamped their repertoire to be more current.
The third a capella group, the Noteables, may have been a catalyst for these changes. According to Sierra Steinwert ’23J, the Noteables were founded in 1982 and were the first Smith a cappella group to use vocal percussion (beatboxing) and sing songs originally sung by men.
Other more recently founded groups, like the Vibes and Crapapella, which were founded in 1995 and 1996 respectively, also tended to present themselves as alternatives to the established clubs. The Vibes’ audition posters archived in the special collections are easily the most raunchy, featuring edited photos of the Clintons in BDSM gear and endless vibrator innuendos. Second up for debauchery would have to be Crapapella, with the expected fecal punchlines.
According to Jackie Altman ’25, Groove was founded by the Music department in the early 2000s for choir students to streamline their rehearsal time. This year, Blackapella is being reactivated after a hiatus during COVID-19, making them the youngest group in terms of continuity.
One of the benefits of having seven a cappella groups on one campus is that they can collaborate on performances and other logistics, like auditions, which are held each fall.
Most interested students, like Altman, attend Arch Sing right before auditions to get a feel for the group that they’re most interested in joining. According to Steinwert, auditions are held in the same building and are in the form of drop-in hours a few evenings in a row, so that students can audition for as many groups as they’d like. Then, each group hosts call-backs, before finalizing who they’ll admit. According to Rosangela Mejia ’25 of Groove and Blackapella, auditions consist of warm-ups, learning a small piece of music to see how you blend with the group and performing a solo, among other exercises.
Mejia also explained that some criteria for auditions has been criticized recently as being too exclusive, such as needing prior a cappella experience to join or being able to read sheet music. As of today, these vary among the groups, which further explains the proliferation of a capella groups on campus.
To welcome new members, most groups hold “sing-ins”. Traditions vary, but Steinwert said that the Noteables go to admitted members’ doors and sing to them in their dorms to welcome and collect them. Then, everyone goes to a specific location to sing the group’s traditional song together and do other traditions. Jo Strand ’24 described how the Smithereens made their way to Paradise Pond and wrote out their dreams in the air with sparklers.
Sing-ins provide one of many opportunities for group members to come together with traditions. Others mentioned were senior wills, sharing meals and watching The Bachelorette together. (There are also several that are secret and only are known by the members of the group).
As expected, COVID-19 has disrupted some of the more traditional aspects of a cappella. Sasha Mead ’25 from the Poofs described how they don’t have any seniors this year, so there’s no one who joined before Covid to keep all the traditions alive, and underclassmen have stepped up into leadership roles. Lucie Brock ’24 described a similar situation in the Vibes; membership shrunk during the pandemic, so most members are in leadership positions. Both Mead and Brock expressed that this isn’t necessarily negative, because the turnover provides the opportunity for reinventing the groups to best serve current members.
The group with the biggest room for innovation right now is Blackapella. Rosangela Mejia and Zora Danticat ’25 have undertaken restarting the club, which has been daunting yet fulfilling. Mejia described how it’s been challenging to not have access to alumni for advice (or for minutia, like getting into the email account). Despite this, she emphasized that she enjoys the work because it creates a space for Black students “to sing songs that we used to sing when we were little, or that our parents taught us.”
Mejia is also a Groove member and explained that almost all Blackapella members are also members of a second a cappella group that they joined before this school year. Because most a cappella groups rehearse for 6 hours a week, that means that these students are rehearsing for 12 hours a week. Mejia said that this commitment comes out of having connections in the original group but also wanting to sing a repertoire that reflects one’s own identity and cultural heritage.
This is a common thread between all the interviewees — there are so many a cappella groups because there’s a demand for every single one. The abundance of groups also means that prospective members get to be discerning about which group they want to join, which is important because of how high commitment most of the groups are.
Another factor for differentiation is that some groups have a business aspect. Both Mead and Strand are business managers for the Poofs and the Reens, respectively, which means that they’re responsible for organizing performances and gigs. Mead and Strand both described how their groups continue to uphold relationships that they’ve accumulated throughout their long histories for performances. According to Mead, the Poofs regularly collaborate with other a cappella groups nearby, like the Whiffenpoofs and the Brown Derbies. Strand described how many of the gigs that the Reens get are from alums nostalgic for their time at Smith. These gigs contribute to the groups’ income, which helps them organize performances away from Northampton.
On the other side of the spectrum, Crapapella was founded for the express purpose of screwing around and having fun. Most groups rehearse around six hours every week, but according to Rivera, Crapapella starts rehearsals a few weeks before each performance. Rather than putting on rigorous performances, Rivera said that the goal is to boost members’ confidence, because “if you can go up on stage and have fun while making fun of yourself in a way, you can literally do anything.”
On that note, every single interviewee emphasized the importance of having fun. Mead said that the reason why she’s so committed to the Poofs is because the group “makes Smith feel like home.” Altman described how members text their group chat with “Groove goes…” to invite everyone to a laid-back activity. Brock expressed that they joined the Vibes because of how much fun they saw members having together, and because they were unpretentious, which is important because “a cappella is an objectively corny thing to do.” As Rivera from Crapapella said, “at least for me, being in Crapapella has given me a new perspective on life and has helped me take life a little less seriously. All in all, we’re all about fun, being yourself, and passionately singing our favorite songs (whether or not it sounds good).”
