Are A Cappella Groups Hosting Guest Groups?

In the fall of 2010, The A Cappella Blog invited every collegiate a cappella group we could find to participate in a survey. Our objective was to develop a better understanding of current trends in a cappella—what groups are or are not doing and to what degree.

Over 300 groups from across the US and abroad responded to the survey. Throughout our 2010 publication season, we will review results from this survey and talk about what our findings mean. We welcome and encourage groups to look over the information to learn, to benchmark and to satisfy their own curiosity.

This edition’s question: In the last four years, how many times have you had a guest group come in or hosted a competition?

Of the groups surveyed, 80 percent indicated that they had played host to other a cappella groups in the last four years, including an impressive 42 percent that indicated they had played host five times or more during that period.

It should come as little surprise that groups are bringing in guest groups or hosting competitions. For one thing, it’s a great way to entertain an audience—there’s a distinctive appeal to getting see a group you’ve never seen before, and such groups have the potential to add a really different flavor to one of your shows.

In addition to engaging the audience, bringing in guest groups is a great opportunity for the host group to learn and develop itself. Through a process of coordinating with another group, there’s plenty of opportunity to network and learn how other groups handle business. Furthermore, every group has unique talents, techniques and approaches to the art of a cappella. And so, each time a group collaborates there’s the opportunity to glean something useful to take back to the group’s own work.

Of course, hosting can be hard work. There’s all of the advertising and booking work required of a normal show, and then the process of finding a guest act, making travel and sometimes lodging arrangements with them, and so forth. Therefore, it’s also not entirely surprising that over 14 percent of the responding groups responded that they hadn’t hosted guests in the last four years.

Nonetheless, it does seem a strong majority of groups are finding benefits to hosting, and that intercollegiate collaboration is on the rise.