Among Luther’s more traditional a cappella groups, a new choral outfit called “AWKapella” has recently established itself on campus.

The co-ed music group is composed of eight junior music majors who have been practicing together since September 2007.

“[The group formed] through conversation about how we don’t have the opportunity to sing music other than classical,” said Matt Myers (‘09). “It just kind of happened.”

Although the group formed in September, they did not start practicing seriously until October, and their first performance was in December.

The group was practicing in Jenson one day when they randomly decided to come out of the practice room and sing to see if anybody would stop and listen. It just so happened that a member of Undeclared was walking by, and impressed with what he heard, invited them to an open rehearsal in the Noble Recital Hall in December.

“Undeclared decided that since our parents rarely get to hear our a cappella groups sing because many of them live far away, they wanted to have an ‘open rehearsal’ for our families and friends to hear what we are up to,” said Justin Madsen (‘09).

The concert was held in conjunction with Christmas at Luther weekend.

“We ended up with a couple hundred people there,” said Myers. “It was a great time.”

Since then, the group has performed at the Vennehjem retirement community, Marty’s, Williams Lounge of Dahl Centennial Union and during the intermission of the Intercollegiate Championships of A Cappella in February.

“That was cool because we got feedback from a cappella groups that have been performing for years,” said Madsen.

The name of the newly founded group was actually a joke at first, but they soon became known as AWKapella around campus and decided not to change their already established title.

“We were going to just keep it until we found something better,” said Sarah Frederickson (‘09). “But then it just stuck.”

The name is based partly on the wide variety of music the group sings.

“That’s partly why we think we’re ‘AWK,’ because we just do whatever,” said Madsen.

The group sings a variety of genres, which draws a wide audience, and explains how they are able to perform for the elderly at a retirement community, in addition to a college audience.

“We have an interesting variety of repertoire because we basically sing anything,” said Madsen. “Anyone in the audience will find something they like even if they don’t like everything.”

The group practices and performs many styles including pop, jazz and chamber choral music.

“I think that’s what sets us apart,” said Myers. “We just do what we like.”

The group performs published music, but members also use their own skills to arrange well-known songs for the choral group.

Frederickson recently arranged Rihanna’s “Umbrella” for the group.

“A couple of us have started arrangements on our own based on famous songs,” she said.

Although the group does not have any performances lined up for the end of the year, they are gearing up for concerts next fall, including a potential show at Marty’s.

“We’ve started arranging a lot more music at the end of this year to bring up our repertoire for next fall,” said Madsen.

The group is excited for the possibility of more gigs next year.

“We are always open for new opportunities for performances,” said Madsen.

Over the summer, the group will continue putting more pieces together for next fall. Until then, they will continue to think of themselves as more then just an a cappella group.

“Eight friends who sing together — that’s what we are,” said Madsen.