On September 12th, the Riverside Brookfield High School A Cappella Club held their first practice. The club is run by Kayley Smetana, a fine arts teacher at the school.
A Cappella groups consist of singers coming together to perform without instruments. At RB there are two groups within the club with about 50 students in total.
“A Cappella in general means without instruments, without accompaniment. So as a vocal group, it is essentially singing mostly popular music,” Smetana said. “They’re taking percussive elements and instrumental elements and putting it into their voices.”
This is not the first year students such as Vittoria Gentile, a senior at RB, have been practicing this musical style. There was a student-run club four years ago, but it died out due to Covid-19. In 2021, when Smetana came to RB, she helped start it up again, and this year it became official.
“2020 through 2022, it was just running to kind of see if people were interested, and this year is actually the first year it’s recognized as a club in the school,” Gentile said.
Any student from RB can join the club, and experience with singing is not necessary. If someone does join the club with no experience, there is a learning process to help them.
“It definitely helps if you come in with a little bit of singing experience, but you don’t have to be in choir to join. You just have to be, as I say, willing to make noise in front of other humans,” Smetana said. “If you’re terrified to sing, I’ll never make you sing alone, but when I teach you, obviously you have to sing back. As long as you’re comfortable with that, we’re open to whoever wants to join.”
Many different types of students have joined to create an environment where they can sing and meet new people with their same interests.
“We have lots of choirs here at RB,” Smetana said. “A Capella is like all kids from every choir, kids that are not in choir, kids that have been singing since they were toddlers, and kids that have never sung before. We’ve got student athletes, kids that are in Student Association, and musicians. It’s a way to bring a lot of the student body together, whether or not they are in a choir class.”
There have not been any performances by the A Cappella Club this year yet, but the club does have plans to perform at school and be present in the community.
“They perform at every choir concert we have. There’s one in October, they’ll perform at our holiday concert in December, they’ll perform at our winter concert in March, and then our spring concert in May. We’re hoping to find little ways to get them out in the community, whether it’s Christmas caroling or wherever nearby,” Smetana said.
The newly official club is not only a great way to be involved in the music community at RB, but it is also a great way to meet new people and have fun singing.
“It’s been super fun. There’s a lot more freedom around picking the music and just working with people,” Gentile said. “I’ve met like a billion people just from being in a apella that I had no idea who they were.”
