“Singing in the Rain”: Farewell melodies and memories
Last Saturday, Apr. 23, all of the a cappella groups at SUNY Geneseo performed together for the final all-group concert of the academic year. The concert was titled “Singing in the Rain,” a name selected collaboratively by all five groups.
The show championed breathtaking performances from the groups Southside Boys, Hips ’N Harmony, Between the Lines, Exit 8, and Emmelodics. Each group’s setlist featured at least one “senior song,” a song in which a graduating senior selects and performs the solo for a song of their choosing, alongside a tribute to the graduating senior that involves a speech from another member of the group, a group hug on stage after the song is performed, and not a dry eye in the crowd.
Senior childhood and special education major Jacob Goldberg performed his senior song, the ten-minute version of Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well,” with Southside Boys, a group that Goldberg has been a part of for the entirety of his Geneseo career. Unique to Goldberg’s performance, he gave a small speech explaining the significance of the song and why he chose it before the performance began, introducing the emotional connection that him and Southside Boys shared going into the song.
The solo that Goldberg sang delivered every shred of emotion that his introduction promised. Goldberg’s passion and vulnerability in relation to “All Too Well” was extremely evident to the audience, calling each and every spectator in the crowd into the haze of emotion with which he performed.
“That was one of my favorite concerts of all time,” said Goldberg. “I have never had another concert that felt that personally fit for me. Having all five songs, it was honestly beautiful for me…It felt like an encore, it felt like a home stretch.”
For all the seniors, their senior songs represented a culmination of all the time and effort that they put into their groups, many of them for all four years. With the added effect of the COVID-19 pandemic taking away many of the experiences that these students would have hoped to have with their a cappella groups, this was a deeply emotional concert for many of the performers.
“I’ve been in Southside Boys for four years, [and] I’ve never been [closer] to them. I feel like I don’t even have more words to say, but… it was just so special,” shared Goldberg.
The passion dedicated to all these performances, senior songs or otherwise, was palpable on the stage and off. Jean Gillman, a senior communication major who attended the concert, felt deeply impacted by the performances. “The crescendos and decrescendos of [the] performance, as a viewer, [were] absolutely insane,” Gillman said. “It was so beautiful. The emotional rush that you got was the most beautiful thing, and as a viewer, you wanted to get up from your seat and be like ‘Yes, I’m experiencing this with you, I love it.’”
As always, the a cappella groups of Geneseo offered stirring and exciting performances that brought up themes of nostalgia, moving onwards, and celebration. While the graduating performers in a cappella move on to life outside of Geneseo, however, it is clear that they have a legacy within their groups of members who will continue to enrich Geneseo’s musical culture in their honor.