News from the Soon Room - Fall 2021

by Sean Crites '22

L-R: Aaron Hilton '23, Yuyu Yasuda '25, Proby Gottipati '24, Casey Beidel '24, Ian Accetta '24, Tim Manley '24, Karlo Andrei Antalan '25, William Yang '25, Sirfraz Shah '24.

The undergraduate Nassoons are thrilled to be able to sing in person once again. Thus far this year, we hosted a robust warm-up week in New York City thanks to the generosity of recent Nassoon alumni Zach Levine, Ryan Melosini, Thomas Jankovic, and TJ Li. We then completed a very successful audition season, welcoming 9 new members who have been beautifully quarteting and learning our repertoire since. We've taken a moment to introduce them below.

Aaron Hilton ‘23

Voice Part: Baritone

From: Washington, D.C.

Fun Fact: Aaron is 24 years old because took several gap years to dance professionally with the Miami City Ballet. He also lived in Stockholm for two years growing up.

Yuyu Yasuda ‘25

Voice Part: Tenor 2

From: Hyoto, Japan

Fun Fact: Yuyu played baseball for 6 years and he is an expert on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

Proby Gottipati ‘24

Voice Part: Tenor 1/ Tenor 2

From: Long Island, NY

Fun Fact: Proby is our resident chef, having attended summer culinary camp growing up.

Casey Beidel ‘24

Voice Part: Tenor Baritone

From: Bergen County, NJ

Fun Fact: Casey is our newest Tri-Soon (Nassoons in Triangle) and in fact, he is the male lead for the Triangle Fall Show!

Ian Accetta ‘24

Voice Part: Bass

From: New York, NY

Fun Fact: Ian is a lover of sea shanties, so much so that he is the founder of Shantopia, a sea shanty ensemble on campus.

Tim Manley ‘24

Voice Part: Bass

From: Essex, UK

Fun Fact: In high school, he was the Head Choir Boy at Eton.

Karlo Andrei Antalan ‘25

Voice Part: Tenor 1

From: Bronx, NY

Fun Fact: He is a coxswain on the Princeton Lightweight Men’s Crew Team.

William Yang ‘25

Voice Part: Tenor 2

From: Keller, TX

Fun Fact: William is a hungry hungry lad nad one of his proudest achievements is eating 4 cheesesteaks in one sitting.

Sirfraz Shah ‘24

Voice Part: Tenor 2

From: Scottsdale, AZ

Fun Fact: He is absolutely phenomenal at Super Smash Bros on Nintendo Switch.

As for performances we introduced our new members to the Princeton community in our Newbie Arch Sing and have provided a clip of our newbies (minus 1) singing "All The Things" right after learning it in callbacks!

Our first official gig was Saturday October 9th for Trenton Youth Singers, which is an organization that provides musical opportunities for and mentors underprivileged children from Trenton, NJ.

Soon after, we started fall tour off strong by traveling to Flinchbaugh’s Orchard in Lancaster, PA. There we used our Princeton education to traverse a spooky corn maze while collecting farm-related clues to solve the maze’s crossword. R Squad member, Aaron Hilton ‘23 was so dedicated to finding every clue on his own that he stayed in the maze until the rain came (hence why he’s not in the picture with the pumpkins). As a reward for solving the crossword, each member received an apple which Casey Beidel ‘24 then baked into a delectable apple crisp later in the week.

After performing in Oakland Maryland, I took the Nassoons on a day trip to my home state of West Virginia for hiking and sightseeing. At Blackwater Falls State Park, Ian Accetta ‘24 ran over to an alternate landing to take this lovely picture of the group by the falls.

This trip also involved teaching R-Squad “Shenandoah” with a backdrop of the mountains.

We're beyond excited to be sharing even more music with everyone on December 11th, 6 PM, at our holiday concert in Philadelphia at St. Mark's Church. Tickets are on sale via our event website - we can't wait to see you there!

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