Under the Arch: A Cappella, Acapolitics and Acaprez

If you attended a rotation arch sing anytime last year, you probably saw eight a cappella groups. But if you stuck around until the end, chances are you saw a ninth perform - and some of the people who sang earlier in the night weren't too pleased about that.

Many a cappella fans on campus probably don't realize that a somewhat complex system lies behind the sweet-voiced, finger-snapping facade. After all, while there are more than a dozen groups, only the eight oldest and most-established ones are included in the bi-monthly arch rotation: the Footnotes, Katzenjammers, Nassoons, Tigertones, Tigressions, Tigerlilies, Wildcats and the Roaring 20.

The presidents of these groups make up acaprez, a sort of supra-group organization designed to schedule their various interactions and performances.

Each group has a role to play. The Tigertones supply the meeting room, the Wildcats maintain a list of all the groups' songs to ensure that there is no overlap, and Roaring 20 publicizes the arch sing schedule and puts together the annual Tiger's Roar CD for freshmen.

But acaprez has stringent standards of entry, and not everyone's invited to join the party - from Jock Jams, the group for varsity athletes, to religious acts like Kindred Spirit and Koleinu, to more general groups like the co-ed Shere Khan and the all-male Old NasSoul.

Joining acaprez - which a group can do only after completing a certain number of group tours and recordings - means getting to perform with the rest of the rotation under Blair Arch. In short, it means guaranteed public exposure. But it also means committing to a certain practice schedule and following other acaprez guidelines - though most of the presidents interviewed were unable to clarify exactly what those guidelines and prerequisites were.

The last group to enter was the all-female Wildcats in 1991, though at least one other group - the now-defunct Culturally Yours - tried to join since and was rejected.

"Some groups are very, very opposed to having new groups in the arch rotation," Roaring 20 president Betsy Goodman '10 explained. "At least that's what it seems like to me, and that's very stupid."

But while being outside the rotation might cause some inconveniences, popular groups like Old NasSoul, founded in 2006, and Shere Khan, founded in 1993, aren't rushing to join.

Though Shere Khan was invited to join the rotation in 1997, they declined in order to maintain their "independence and individuality," according to the group's old website. "We weren't sure if we wanted to be constrained by the rules they have, such as arch sings and practice schedules, " said president Amy Baumgartner '99 in a 1998 article in The Princeton Spectator, a former campus newspaper. The current Shere Khan president, Fiona Chan '11, declined to comment.

Jasper Sneff Nanni '11, the president of Old NasSoul, insisted that he was not particularly keen on joining the rotation. "There's a prestige, definitely, to the older guy groups, but I don't know that that has anything to do with the rotation itself," Sneff Nanni said. "It's just those groups and the history they have and how good they are," he explained.

As a relative new kid on the block, Old NasSoul is too young to have fulfilled all the rotation requirements, but it's unclear if the group will eventually try to join or choose to stay independent.

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"We just don't seem to have a problem drawing crowds," Sneff Nanni pointed out.

Some members of the established groups might disagree, complaining that Old NasSoul has piggybacked on the rotation's audience in the past. On a few occasions last year, including over Princeton Preview weekend, Old NasSoul scheduled arch sings directly after the rotation ended, effectively taking advantage of the crowds already there.

While some groups were unfazed by the practice, some of the all-male groups were less than pleased, Tigerlilies president Miriam Marek '10 said. This was particularly problematic during Princeton Preview weekend.

"We had arranged to meet with the pre-frosh after the arch, and, instead, all the pre-frosh who were there just stayed for Old Nassoul," one member of an arch rotation group who spoke on the condition of anonymity said. "They kind of ruined our time with the pre-frosh."

Sneff Nanni didn't deny that Old NasSoul's actions might bother some people. "I understand that sometimes it ruffles the feathers of some of the a cappella groups," he said. "I can entirely see why they wouldn't want us to do that."

Still, Sneff Nanni noted that it is well within Old NasSoul's rights to schedule their performances at the most convenient time. "We think there's no reason not to," he said, "especially when we really need to showcase ourselves, like during April Hosting last year."

"We benefit from the crowds that they gather. It's very convenient for us," he added, though he noted that now Old NasSoul notifies the rotation groups before scheduling an arch sing directly after theirs.

Still, to view the a cappella community as caught up in an epic battle between the acaprez and the outside groups would be wrong. After all, many a cappella presidents emphasized that there is cooperation between all groups, mentioning recent mold issues as an example.

After a mold infestation damaged some a cappella rooms in the basements of Bloomberg and Henry halls over the summer, the presidents were unsure where to host this fall's auditions and open houses. Goodman noted that acaprez met with the affected non-rotation groups to figure out how to proceed.

"We had kind of a snafu with our open house location," Sneff Nanni said. "We had to move at the last second, and Roaring 20 invited us to share their space." Sneff Nanni has also recently been included in acaprez meetings coordinating the complicated callback schedule.

Tensions aside, most a cappella members emphasized what the groups have in common. "At the end of the day, we are all really similar," Nassoons president Connor Diemand-Yauman '10 said, "in that we belong to this group of students who love singing a cappella."