Recently, over the past few weeks, a group of talented musicians within Timberlane Regional High School’s chorus program have created a new acapella group together. They do not have a name yet, but are coming up with one soon. The group consists of eight students.

There are vocalists from each section: Amber Farrell and Jenna Horan as Sopranos, Taylor Aprile and Christianna Kosta as Altos, James Slipp and Jayson Caissie as Tenors, and Ian Machemer and Maxamillian Orio as Basses. Max and Jenna put the group together, and the group is fully led by students. 

Max Orio explains the reasoning behind starting the group .“I started the group because there was a common theme in the conversations I was having with my peers in the chorus – They abolished the chamber choir which was the accelerated choir so we were in a class that had great potential but we had already been in chorus for years now. This wasn’t satisfying our musical needs.” He also mentions how the difficulty of the songs were not enough for the group. They collectively wanted to sing and perform more music.

Amber Farrell says “I’m really excited about it! I haven’t been able to make as much music as I did last year, so it is exciting to get to make more this year”. 

The group’s first performance was on November 5th at 4pm. It was live streamed on Timberlane’s Vimeo, and it is still on there for everyone to go and check out. They performed Hallelujah, composed by Leonard Cohen, arranged by Ian Machamer, a member of the group. The piece was performed six feet apart, and everyone had masks on. The group did an awesome job. They are in the very beginning stages of their group, and have practiced two times since the performance. “Our group is very new but we are getting better each week and I’m really enjoying the practices” Max says.

The group, for safety reasons and due to COVID-19, are not looking for any new members at the moment, but are excited to keep performing and to spread the word about their group, hoping it continues on. They have some big plans for the future. Max says that he is looking to get the group to have a repertoire, a collection of pieces to perform, so they can perform in front of crowds.