about us
Our Mission:
WHOS was started to show the love of Christ both externally to the campus and internally as an IVCF (InterVarsity Christian Fellowship) small group. We hope to present Christ's love to the campus in a fun, new way that will reach a large audience that might not normally hear about Jesus.
- Evan Smith, Musical Director '06
History:
It all began a couple of years ago. The IVCF on our campus has been interested in sharing the gospel in new ways that are relevant to our campus, and a cappella was one way that we thought would be cool. Nothing ever really came of this. At the start of fall 2004, a girl named Marina Biggs wanted to start an IVCF small group on music ministry. It was a little disoriented and chaotic, and it didn't have much of a direction. Basically, a bunch of people, many of whom would not consider themselves singers, met together once a week to sing Christian music and some worship songs. Heather Parrish (C'05) showed up one day with a CD of her friends that were in an a cappella group in Pennsylvania, called Gracenotes. We listened to the song "Coca-Cola" and then tried to sing it. Thus WHOS was born. It wasn't until a few weeks later that we decided to make ourselves an official a cappella group and really try to learn some other songs. We practiced "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord" from Godspell, "This Child Is" (a Christmas song), and "Lord I Lift Your Name on High". We sang once at the Catholic Mass on campus, but our big goal was to prepare for the Last Day of Classes Jam. We had a few members from Mad Ave come to listen and critique us, and as the performance approached, we were ready.
We wore black choir robes for our first song, "Prepare Ye", and during the song, tore off the robes to reveal jeans and "Jesus is my homeboy" T-shirts. We sang "This Child Is" and "Coca-Cola", and we were a big success. However, the next year we were not invited to sing with the other a cappella groups, because people were uncomfortable with us talking about Jesus. There was a big debate about it, and it even got in the school newspaper for a few weeks. After much discussion within our group, our response was one of love and acceptance. So, since we couldn't go to their concert, we hosted a concert of our own, called "Existing in Harmony". Our theme was the 80's, and we sang the Fresh Prince Rap, as well as Jackie's song ("If This World") and Panda's song ("Next Thing You Know"). It went really well, and we were asked to perform at the Last Day of Classes Jam again. Since then, it has been tradition to perform at the concerts hosted by AOTA, since there are quite a few members of WHOS in AOTA. However, we have not been invited to the concerts hosted by the other groups. As a result, we have been struggling ever since to be recognized as the 4th a cappella group on campus. However, we are making considerable progress.
- Evan Smith, Musical Director '06