Columbia Theatre will sound with the vocal talents of a unique and multi-genre, all male a cappella group, as the Hullabahoos come to Hammond.
The performance will be held Friday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. Regular tickets will be sold for $25, while students will receive a 50 percent discount with a university ID.
“People who like choral music are really going to enjoy this,” said Roy Blackwood, interim director of Columbia Theatre. “There’s a real wave of popularity of a cappella choral throughout the nation and we’re lucky to have been able to book them here at the Columbia Theatre.”
The Hullabahoos are a 16-member college group from the University of Virginia (UVA), established in December 1987, and were invited to Hammond as a result of one of the member’s family roots.
The a cappella group has performed all over the world for the last 23 years with highlighted appearances in the Philippines, for President Barack Obama in 2011 and for former President George W. Bush in 2007.
“We had a blast here at Mardi Gras last year and we’ve been really excited to go down there,” said Sanford Williams, President of Hullabahoos. “Columbia is an awesome theatre and we’ve been working really hard to get our music up to par for the show.”
The group performs pieces from a variety of genres such as pop, soft rock, hip-hop, R&B and other contemporary styles.
“It’s really great to be in a group that can sing so many different genres and have fun while doing it,” said Williams. “One of my favorite things about being in the Hullabahoos is we could do some Adele song and then turn around and do a song from Jason Derulo.”
Their unusual name came about as a result of the founder Halsted Sullivan’s desire to be different from the traditional university a cappella group.
According to Williams, the name was derived as a mixture of the group’s nicknames, “whos” and “wahoos” with “hullabaloo”, which refers to a wild noise or loud sound.
Having further desire to be separate from the traditional bow tie and blazer wearing a cappella groups, as well as create some type of trademark, Sullivan decided to have the entire group wear robes. Each robe is made locally and entirely unique in color and pattern.
“The quality of the group is quite high and they do some really interesting arrangements of music,” said Blackwood. “We’re also giving students a 50% off discount, so we hope everyone comes out to hear them.”
For more information regarding the upcoming performance, visit www.columbiatheatre.org, or call Columbia Theatre box office at 985-543-4371.