Woman’s Club Welcomes Choir

They come from as far as South Korea and as near as Westchester, but the diverse student a cappella group the Dobbs 16 is all about harmony.

Their latest performance came Friday as special guests for the Woman's Club of Larchmont, part of a continuing effort to provide its members with something extra after each meeting.

"We try to educate our members and entertain our members, and we were delighted to have the Dobbs 16 come and perform," said Janet Day, club president. "I thought they were wonderful, so diverse and such strong beautiful voices."

For a dozen years Choral Director Gillian Crane has been leading the Dobbs 16 and aims to create a positive environment where the students can have fun singing popular songs with great a cappella arrangements.

"We have a really fun group of kids, and a really diverse group, and they are a great example of what the Masters School is all about," Crane said. 

Before the students took the stage, Crane roused the audience with an unscheduled solo performance, featuring a collection of love songs. Her song list included "Times Like This," a song about being in love with a dog, instead of a man; "P.S. I Love You," "Meadowlark," and two Roger Quilter pieces, "My Life's Delight" and "Love's Philosophy."

Crane was filling in for Ben Lusher, an acclaimed jazz pianist and a Masters 12th grade student, who was supposed to share the program, but unfortunately was unable to attend due to an illness.

"I thought she was delightful, I really did," said Athena Bradley, former president of the Woman's Club. "They all were just great and it was so nice for them to come here and sing for us."

Once the students took to the stage, human beatbox Chris McIntyre began the Dobbs 16's program with an improvised vocal drum solo. He later gave a lesson to the audience on how they could also use vocal percussion, and soon the whole room was filled with drum and cymbal sounds.

"I started doing this last year, but I would play around with it with my friends," McIntyre said. "When I came here last year, the beat boxer before me helped me get better at some of the drums, snares and really get it all right."

Student Hunter LaMar gave an American Idol-worthy performance soloing on the John Legend song, "It Don't Have to Change."

"My mom did 20 years on Broadway so I get this from her," said LaMar. "I am developing my skills at the Masters School, and it has been really great. They have been developing me as a musician and I can see pursuing this as a career."

Other songs included Nora Jones' "Don't Know Why," John Legend's "If You're Out There" and Dan Fogelberg's "Longer."

"We really all work very well together, it's kind of like a little family," said singer Jason Kuster, who hails from Rye. "We all love to perform together."

The standing ovation at the conclusion of the event was well deserved, and the students enjoyed meeting the Woman's Club members afterwards.

"The kids are excited to not only share the music that they are singing, but also meet some women from a different generation and find out from them what music they like and talk about how this a cappella has changed choral music around the country," Crane said. "I think the collegiate style of a cappella has become more popular the past five years in high school because of national high school competitions, but I think [the TV show] Glee has also really blown up the style of doing pop music with a choir."

Later this year, the Dobbs 16 will host the Annual Gilda's Club A Cappella Extravaganza, inviting performances by many Westchester schools to raise money for breast cancer research.