Popularized by the movie Pitch Perfect, acapella riff-offs have found their way to Choate. On February 17, the School’s oldest all-female acapella group, Whimawehs (Whims), and their all-male counterpart, Maiyeros, collaborated on a riff-off performance at a launch party for Choate’s literary magazine, The Lit.
This unique performance opportunity was the brainchild of Whims Vice President Tiffany Xiao ’23 and Maiyeros Junior Officer Chris Childs ’24. They presented the idea to the other leaders of the acapella groups, who were instantly on board.
Part of the appeal was the history between the two acapella groups. In 2019, they performed “Coldest Winter” at School Meeting. Whims Junior Officer Elsa Franks ’24 said, “The current seniors are always reminiscing about how good it was, but with the pandemic, we haven’t been able to do a collaboration since, so it was on our to-do list this year.”
Maiyeros President Zach Halna du Fretay ’23 and Maiyeros Vice President Case Sakamoto ’23 added that in addition to paying tribute to the historical bond between the two groups, the riff-off was an exciting venture into a richer auditory experience. “Maiyeros is just a tenor bass group, and Whimawehs is just a soprano-alto group. It’s nice having all of those voices together,” said Halna du Fretay.
Because of the “romantic” chemistry between Whimawehs and Maiyeros, they decided that Valentine’s Day was the perfect occasion for a collaboration. With this in mind, the acapella groups reached out to The Lit, who holds a winter launch party every year around February. Childs said, “We performed at the Lit Launch last year. We knew we would be able to do it again, and, with the rehearsal times, this is the day that made the most sense.”
Cassatt Boatwright ’24, a member of The Lit Masthead, approved of the plan. She said, “We were obviously all for it because we thought it would be a really fun thing to see.”
At the performance, Whims and Maiyeros performed a medley of love songs composed of “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “Grenade,” “Love Story,” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” They ended with a grand finale of Whitney Houston’s iconic “I Will Always Love You,” swaying in unison from side to side before audiences erupted in applause.
