So, it’s currently the week before Spring Break. For many people this is equivalent to papers to write and midterms to be taken, but for me this is a pretty light week. Two of my classes have been cancelled, I don’t have orchestra tomorrow, my weekly Environmental Education lesson is set to go…the only problem I have right now is motivating myself to get cracking on all that thesis work that I have to look forward to over break. With that in mind, I don’t have a ton going on at the moment, besides thesis and avoiding thesis, so now seems like a good time to tell you about one of my favorite parts about college: my a cappella group, Kosher Chords.
I’ve written about us before, after SCAMFest, but that was a special occasion. And we most certainly are not a once a year deal. We rehearse three times a week, which might sound like a lot, but it’s always really fun. We are very chill and pretty silly, and I love it. A typical rehearsal goes something like this: people show up, we warm up, we sing through things, we joke around, we split up and learn new things, we come back together and sing more things. In between there may or may not be various types of shenanigans. When we get close to a performance, we buckle down, of course, but no matter what is going on, Kosher Chords is a super supportive group and rehearsal is always something to look forward to.
Some questions people ask about Kosher Chords, one of 8 (count them, 8!) a cappella groups on the 5Cs, is do you have to be Jewish to be in it? Nope! I think only about a third of us are Jewish at the moment. We do sometimes sing in Hebrew, though. We’ve sung Hebrew songs like “Shalom Rav”, songs by Jewish artists like “Kiss the Girl” (Alan Menkin is Jewish!) and “One Day” by Matisyahu, as well as stuff we enjoy, like the theme song from The Magic School Bus and Africa by Toto. Where do we get our music? We have various members that arrange music, though sometimes we also find things from elsewhere, like online. We sing snack concerts, and SCAMFest and Human Symphony and sometimes at Hillel or off-campus places. We recently road-tripped to La Jolla to perform down there. I think it is kind of amusing that a cappella is “in vogue” right now, but that is not why I love it. Besides all the fun stuff and the love and all that, it is a really cool thing to be a part of musically. The other day at rehearsal the bases and tenors were learning something new, and at first it didn’t sound that amazing, but all the sudden they totally clicked and it sounded magical. Purely magical. That is one of those moments when I am a little bit in awe—I get to be part of this. It’s pretty awesome.
But enough about that. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a moving picture must be worth a million. So check out Kosher Chords on Youtube for yourself!