Remember that 2012 Anna Kendrick movie, Pitch Perfect, about a capella singing groups facing off? This weekend in Harrisonburg, you can listen and watch in real life as 10 local community and university groups sing to win -- all for a good cause. WMRA’s Christopher Clymer Kurtz reports.
Organizers for the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir are hosting a new event this year: a Sing Off designed to bring together a variety of local a cappella groups in friendly competition for cash.
Ten pre-selected groups will face the audience and a panel of judges including Drs. Jeff Bush and Larry Taylor of the JMU and Bridgewater College music departments and SVCC’s own Assistant Director Joy Anderson. The judges will grant two awards, of $750 and $500. Harrisonburg mayor Deanna Reed will also judge the audience’s responses during the first round and award a $250 prize to the ensemble that generates the most enthusiasm.
The children’s choir, which just last weekend celebrated its 25th anniversary, will sing between rounds. Among the competitors: Shekinah, the Harrisonburg Harmonizers, and Exit 245.
Even though it’s a competition, SVCC Artistic and Executive Director Janet Hostetter says that the real power of the event -- and the value of SVCC and music in general -- is to build community.
HOSTETTER: If everybody could learn to use their voice, what a different place this world would be.
The two-and-a-half-hour event begins at 7:00 Saturday evening, April 8 at Harrisonburg High School.