by Alexa Schmidt Asst. A&E Editor

Make way for the new singing group on campus: the Performing Hearts.  New to the college this semester, the group is MC’s first all-female acapella group.

Junior psychology major Naomi Uy originally came up with the idea to create an all-women acapella group. 

“I did acapella in high school with an all-girls group, and it was mashed up in between a classical women’s choir, but we were also a pop acapella group and I felt like we were kind of missing that here. I feel like girl-groups are totally badass. And I justed to bring that to Manhattan College,” Uy said. 

To follow through with this idea, she talked to Andrew Bauer, director of music and coordinator of performing arts. He gave her a list of people who were already involved with Singers or Music Ministry, to whom she sent out an interest email over the summer. 

Juniors Gabby Kasper and Megan Lawlor received the email and immediately took an interest.

“I thought it was a fantastic idea and just an awesome way to bond and get some girl power on this campus, which we always need more of,” Kasper said. 

Whoever got the email automatically joined the group. However, Uy is always interested in expanding the group.

“Since we’re just starting out, I wanted to get a good core group of people that are obviously dedicated to the idea. We didn’t have auditions this year, but we will in the future if the idea goes through,” Uy said. 

“Honestly, it’s a pretty diverse group, there’s a lot of girls that I know in it which is really cool, I mean even though it’s a small school, performing arts is always bigger than you think it is,” Lawlor said.

She continued.

“It was really nice, I got to see a bunch of new faces at our first meeting, but also just a lot of people that I kind of knew before, though groups like Singers, which is just massive that you can’t know everyone, but now I’m getting the chance to know everybody better which is nice,” Lawlor said. 

Besides practicing each week, the Performing Hearts has high hopes for participating in other events. 

“We’re planning to do something at Open House hopefully. As far as performances go, we hope to tie in with other singing groups, like Manhattones maybe. We could do a concert with them, or in the spring we do an orchestra or singers concert and we could tie that in,” said Uy. 

She continued.

“I know these girls have a lot of musical potential, and maybe we can enter music competitions and stuff like that, and bring MC a name. There are a lot of competitions around the New York area that we could join, so we hope to do that,” Uy said. 

 Uy, Kasper and Lawlor all hinted that an ABBA medley is a possibility, as well as “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” and “It’s Raining Men.”

Lawlor said their style will be typical. 

“Kind of stereotypical but fun stuff that everyone knows and loves. We’re definitely leaning away from classical. It’s a little bit of classic pop, definitely more in the pop category,” Lawlor said.

Even though the group is just starting out, each girl wants to pursue the idea and make it into something bigger. 

“I have a lot of hope for us, even though we’re a very new small group, we’re just trying to figure it out. I think it’s a bunch of people who are all coming together with the common goal of loving to sing, so it can’t go bad,” Lawlor said. 

“I have really high hopes for this group. I love acapella music a lot, I know its not some people’s forte, like they don’t really listen to it, but I personally do, like all the time, which makes me a huge nerd, but I’m really tied to this group. And I hope it goes as far as it can,” Uy said.

She continued.

“There’s a lot going on the world right now, and I think it’s really important that women stick by each other. There’s a different kind of support that comes from being with a group of women, especially a group of strong, powerful women, all working towards the same thing,” she said. 

“I think it’s really awesome that we’re creating a space for that to happen. I hope it’s something that people will join in the future, and it can expand and grow, because I do think it’s an important thing,” Kasper said.