A cappella Jam is back and better than ever!

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Photo provided by Vivien Hines

Soloist junior Mackenzie Clegg leads Syncopate during their set on stage!

Joshua Sarfert, Staff Writer

   The curtain rises in the RJR auditorium to reveal an empty stage lit with bright colors and a welcoming feeling; the excited crowd awaits the start of the highly anticipated annual A Cappella Jam!

    The 2023 RJR A Cappella Jam for Hope was hosted by the music arranger of the “Pitch Perfect” movies, Deke Sharon, and featured covers of songs like “…Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears and “Sign of The Times” by Harry Styles. 

    Jam had performances featuring all four A cappella groups at our school and special guests from surrounding high schools and colleges. 

    “Our business people will email a lot of groups and just ask them if they want to come,” the leader of one of the RJR a cappella groups “X” and member of “Syncopate” Lilly Greene said. “A lot of people have been attending for multiple years, like Atkins and other schools, so we always have a good amount of people who are willing to attend.”

    A yearly tradition, the beatboxing competition, in which a beatboxer from each group competes with one another to decide who the “best” beatboxer on stage is, brought all the groups together.

    “The beatboxing competition was the best part about Jam,” “A Cafellas” group member Mac Greenwood said. “I didn’t really expect what was going to happen.”

    It’s no secret the members of RJR A Capella feel at home with each other. Not only was the audience cheering and applauding after each song, but so were the performers from the balcony and backstage.

     You could feel the sense of community in the auditorium. The performers were hyping up one another and making each other feel special during each group’s performance time.

    “It’s really awesome being able to do music with people who value it as much as you do, and that community is really great,” Greene said. “Our final products are worth all of the work, and it is so amazing to see what we do in the end.”

 

   Throughout the show, Sharon kept reiterating that the world needs to bring people together right now. He expressed that the best way we can do this is through music. Seeing the many groups from different schools and backgrounds come together to follow their passion is a unique experience that is rarely shared. If you happened to miss this amazing night this year, be on the look out for Jam in 2024!