Whether caroling at Natural Bridge Caverns or performing a capella arrangements on campus, the Acabellas provide spaces for talented treble vocalists to sing together.
The club holds auditions at the beginning of every year where prospective members from a broad array of backgrounds can show their skills. Once the new members have been chosen, the club holds two weekly rehearsals to prepare for upcoming performances. These rehearsals are often late at night to accommodate the members’ school schedules. Leah Dooling, junior marketing major, said that this time commitment reveals the love that each member has for their craft.
“I find joy in it because it’s something that I do just for me,” Dooling said. “So being able to share that with people who are just genuinely there because they’re passionate about music and take the time out of their day to do this. That’s what I enjoy the most about it.”
Katie Dickinson, first-year psychology major, said her close relationships in the club are the most rewarding aspect of being an Acabella. She emphasized that all of the members have great trust in each other — a necessary aspect of making the performances clean and unified.
“These are just people that I can let down and relax around, and there’s never any pressure amongst the group. It’s very unified, everyone is very supportive of each other,” Dickinson said. “We’re often auditioning solos for songs, and it’s always just a very supportive and laid-back process. And I always know that I’m never going to be judged by the other members of the Acabellas. So that is really nice.”
As for the music that the club performs, it’s a mixed bag. Dooling said members will choose songs based on what interests the group, which can be anything, including jazz, classical and country, but tends to lean towards pop. After members choose a song, they must either find a pre-existing arrangement or assemble the arrangement themselves. One arrangement was Dooling’s favorite performance.
“At a TULA event last year, we did a Selena song, and I really liked that. That was just a really fun arrangement, super out of a lot of our comfort zones, because, obviously, not all of us speak Spanish,” Dooling said. “One of our Spanish-speaking members made the arrangement, and it was a really cool arrangement. It’s fun.”
On campus, the club performs every other week in Coates Student Center for their Happy Friday performances at 12:22 p.m., at various cultural festivals on campus like Diwali and on Tiger Fridays during the spring semester. Off-campus, they perform gigs across San Antonio, with the holiday season being their most packed for off-campus performances. To find dates and other information, their Instagram @tuacabellas is the best way to keep up with the Acabellas. Chris Medeiros, senior communication major, has been in the Acabellas since his freshman year. Over nearly four years of performances, they said that the most memorable ones have been on Tiger Fridays.
“I really like doing the Tiger Friday performances in the spring, because there have been a couple of times where people have stopped me on campus later that day from that tour, students or parents, and been like, ‘Oh my gosh. That’s so cool. What is that? How do I audition?’” Medeiros said. “I just think that’s really cool that we’re making our presence known to new and incoming students.”
