Major 7 a cappella group unveiled

The Hopkins a cappella scene welcomed a new group of entertainers in the midst of The Vocal Chords’ 18th Annual Spring Concert. 

On April 20 an infantile a cappella group called Major 7 — featured as The Vocal Chords’ guest act — performed for the first time in the Bloomberg Auditorium.

Most small, lesser known groups struggle to draw an audience for at least the first few months of their careers.

However, unlike typical fresh-faced a cappella groups, the troop known as Major 7 brought a large fan base to its debut, receiving personalized cheers the second they entered the spotlight.

Contrasting rookie norm, Major 7 appeared to possess an enthusiastic following before ever performing.

While ordinary, novice a cappella groups naturally appear nervous during their early shows, Major 7 was poised, prepared and arguably gave a flawless performance.

Several audience members recognized the faces of Major 7.

Familiar to a cappella fanatics were soloists Jaquain Sloan and Jacki Choi, for both singers belong to official Hopkins a cappella groups outside of their Major 7 membership.

In fact, every Major 7 singer originates from a separate Hopkins musical establishment. Ari Messenger and John An accompany Sloan in the female-favorite AllNighters. Ben Ackerman leads ICCA Quarterfinal winner, The Octopodes. Jacki Choi belongs to The Mental Notes, while Nicki Hodgins and Carrie Quarquesso are Voice majors at The Peabody Conservatory.

Unaware viewers began to wonder if the exclusive unit branded Major 7 stole its members from various musical corners, snatching some of Hopkins’s most talented in the hopes of creating a hybrid, powerhouse group. Inquiries arose regarding the happiness of members in their independent musical pursuits. Buzz circulated questioning Major 7 auditions and whether or not tryouts were underground or invite-only.

Fortunately, sophomore and Octopodes Assistant Music Director Ben Ackerman addressed these questions in an interview with The News-Letter to set the record straight.

When asked about a mastermind behind the troop’s formation, Ackerman explained that there was no plotting figure responsible for Major 7’s birth. By contrast, the idea casually arose during a conversation between two friends.

“My suitemate, John An, and I were talking one day and we decided it would be fun to get a group of our friends together to sing a couple songs.”

Needless to say, no auditions were held for Major 7.  Ackerman and An simply invited mutual friends from campus and Peabody to convene and test their chemistry.

“We just tried out an arrangement that we had lying around, and once we saw that we were able to learn it quickly and were happy with the results, I arranged Skyfall,” Ackerman said.

Jacki Choi’s rendition of Adele’s “Skyfall” subsequently accrued over 20,000 views on YouTube.  The video received hundreds of praising comments, including those of admirers willing to buy Ackerman’s arrangement sheet music.

The popular footage generated some of its fame after being featured on Brazil’s leading pop culture blog, PapelPop (a BuzzFeed equivalent). Major 7 certainly had not predicted the tremendously positive reception.

“I was honestly really surprised. We definitely weren’t expecting such a massive response when we posted the video on YouTube,” Ackerman said.

Major 7 is currently not officially registered with the University.

“I don’t think we plan on becoming an official group. The nature of Major 7 is just a group of friends who want to have fun in something low key. We rehearse maybe an hour every time we meet, which has been a total of five or six times since we started,” said Ackerman.

Attributing to the casual nature of the group, Major 7 takes a backseat to the members’ outside music commitments.

“We wouldn’t miss our individual rehearsals or gigs for Major 7,” Ackerman said.

He assured that members did not band together as a result of dissatisfaction in their former groups.

“We came together for the opposite reason. A lot of us had fun, positive experiences in the other groups that we’re in. Major 7 came out of us wanting to hang out to share our positive, separate singing experiences with each other.”

“Each Hopkins a cappella group is unique, but certainly not lacking. The Mental Notes are a comedy a cappella group, The AllNighters are entirely male and Peabody isn’t a cappella at all. This was our chance to come together and try something different than what we’re used to in our primary groups.”

Campus a cappella troops can rest assured knowing that Major 7 will not compete to recruit incoming talent.

“We’re a very young group. Most of us are freshman and sophomores, so we plan on remaining the original seven in upcoming years. I don’t foresee any of us being exchanged out because the whole point of our gathering was for this group of friends to be able to experience a cappella together,” Ackerman said.

Hence incoming freshmen should not plan on adding Major 7 to their list of potential a cappella tryouts.

Major 7 is scandal-free and for fun.

These seven friends have multiple songs in store both on the web (be sure to visit their YouTube page) and in possible upcoming performances.