Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a brotherhood united by its members’ love of music, is one of three musical fraternities at the university.
The music fraternity performed on Monday, May 6 in Pottle Auditorium. The first half of the performance consisted of the Sinfonia Chorus and the second half consisted of the Sinfonia Jazz Ensemble.
Phi Mu Alpha Fraternity member for seven years and a finishing graduate student Aaron Turnipseed directed his fellow brothers through their pieces.
“You just have to have a love for music,” said Turnipseed about the fraternity.  “[You need to] want to be or inspire to be a great leader. We are moral and upright men of music. We welcome all styles of music and all styles of art into this organization.”
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia recognized Erica Reine as their sweetheart and Bethany Putnam as their chapter sweetheart. Both girls were serenaded by the members and given flowers.  
After singing about love, the chorus jumped into a humor-filled rendition of “Manly Men” by Kurt Knecht.  The song began with elaborate coughing and then humorous and lively hand motions, snaps and dance motions, all to exemplify the manly men.  
The laughter from the crowd reached its peak as the chorus ended the song by lovingly making fun of Turnipseed.
“I love the colorful personalities that we have in this organization,” said Turnipseed later that night.  “I love the fact that I can call on them at any time of the day no matter how goofy or ridiculous the request is.  I love the fact that they’re just so good and kind in heart, and they will give the shirt off their back just to make somebody smile.”
Enforcing the fraternity’s value of kindness, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia collected money to help reestablish the chapter at the University of Southern Mississippi during intermission.  
After intermission, member Steven Ban performed a dance in honor of his grandmother who passed away this past May.  His grandmother loved “Clash of the Titans” so Ban created a mix of the soundtrack to dance to.
Dr. Ronald Traylor presented the Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing a Sinfonian who exemplifies Sinfonian idealism, musicianship, character and service.  The award was first given in 2012 to James H. Wilcox, who the award was named after.  This year, Frank and Marco Mannino received the award.
“We are a secret social fraternity, so a lot of people don’t know about us, but what we like to do is see the things behind the scenes,” said Turnipseed, further explaining who they are as a fraternity.  “We like to go to charitable hospitals and nursing homes and whatnot, and we like to perform. We also like to help out our community as much as we can, whether it’s singing or cleaning the park, which we’ve done a few times. We run, do relay for life, anything of that nature. Any way that we can go out and not only help our community, but spread music in America, come back to our home and stick to the ideals our founders set before us.”
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia will perform in the Tri-Fraternal Concert in the fall. This concert will feature members of each musical fraternity at Southeastern. Dates are currently being decided.  The event will mark one of Turnipseed’s last performances as a director at the university.