Sing Song veteran and assistant director of student productions Nick Tatum is starting a freshmen a cappella performance group.

Nick Tatum

Tatum said the idea stemmed from his experience in a student-led a cappella group called Pulse when he was a sophomore. Tatum said when he returned to the university two years after graduating, Pulse was no longer active.

“I came back and not only was there no a cappella group, but there also wasn’t a lot of people singing at chapel,” Tatum said. “There are limited leaders as compared to what it was when I was a student here; there were tons of people that were singing and knew all the harmonies. There’s just less now.”

Tatum also directed Freshman Follies. He talked with a few freshmen after the event who expressed interest in joining an a cappella group.

Tatum said he plans to start with an exclusively freshman group of 10-16 members, evenly distributed among the various vocal parts.

“Creating a group that is only freshmen is a way to set the building blocks, or to set the foundation in training people up from their freshman year,” Tatum said. “At the end of their full first year, there’d be a concert. And they’ll sing all the music they’ve learned.”

Tatum said his vision is for the freshmen to learn 75 percent praise and worship songs and 25 percent contemporary secular music.

In the fall of 2018, Tatum said he hopes to start a second group composed of upperclassmen, including the freshmen this year who would be then sophomores. This group would sing more contemporary music than praise and worship, and Tatum said there is potential for this upperclassmen group to compete nationally in a cappella competitions.

Both a cappella groups will be student-run, but Tatum will be the director and vocal coach. As a student, Tatum led the class of 2013 to sweep Sing Song wins, which means the class won the competition all four years. He also arranged music and provided vocal coaching to many Sing Song acts after he graduated.

The auditions will take place from 6 p.m to midnight Thursday Oct. 5 in the basement of the Campus Center.

Freshmen can sign up by emailing Tatum at Nick.Tatum@acu.edu by noon on Thursday Oct. 5.