Thirteen music-based student organizations collaborated to hold the first Music Organization Fair in Phillips Hall on Friday evening.

About 50 students came to the inaugural event to learn about the different music based student organizations on campus and how to gain membership. Organization leaders said the event’s separation from the general organization fairs allowed them to connect with prospective members more easily than in years past and allowed all music organizations to be accessible in one place and for students to easily see all of the options available.

GW Bands, GW Jazz Orchestra, GW Orchestra, GW University Singers, GW HipHop Ensemble, Black and Gold Jazz Choir, Student Musicians Coalition, GW MotherFunkers, GW Pitches, GW Troubadours, Sons of Pitch, Forbidden Planet Productions, and The Voice Gospel Choir tabled at the organization fair.

Organization leaders sat behind tables, with some draped by banners of their respective organization and sprinkled with candy to attract potential members. Students steadily trickled throughout the classroom, mingling with peers also interested in joining the organizations and learning about their different musical options.

Zael Hurtado, a senior and the president of GW Bands, which consists of three different instrumental ensembles, said the idea of the fair began with his organization wanting to table with GW Jazz Orchestra and the two bands also decided to invite other music based student groups. Hurtado said the fair was created to establish a better relationship and sense of community between the different groups while also “raise the profile” of musical organizations on campus through a more niche recruitment style.

“The obvious goal is recruitment and getting more people interested in music at GW and another thing would be to kind of bridge the divide between student orgs and groups more affiliated with the music department,” Hurtado said.

Hurtado said the University’s organization fairs typically take place after the fall audition season for many musical groups, making it difficult for students to get involved at that point in the year. 

“Having an org fair earlier was something a lot of us were interested in, just so that we can get people in the door quicker and get them through the general audition process,” Hurtado said.

Hurtado, who has also been on the executive board of the GW Foghorns, said that the group changed their name from Colonial Brass to C-Brass and then to Foghorns in order to separate themselves from the reference to colonialism and align themselves with the University wide shift away from the term.

Robert Baker, an associate professor of music and director of performance studies for the music program, said the fair’s ability to bring students with a background in music together while giving musical groups more attention and notoriety than they normally receive during larger organization fairs made it a success.

“Many times our music students don’t know each other,” Baker said, “And they are in their one music org, and they’re in this one choir or a band, or the student music coalition or this a capella group, and they don’t intersect and interact and know about each other, and I’ve seen people who are in the same space hanging out together, and I think that’s a grand outcome,” Baker said.

Dylan Shugar, a sophomore and the assistant music director of the Sons of Pitch a capella group, said the decision to have a separate music organization fair prevents music organizations from getting lost among the many other student groups participating in the general org fair.

“​​We really want to advertise our group to students who are interested in music and singing and who want to share their creative side with the rest of GW,” Shugar said.

Tanishka Dhingra, a first-year studying math, said she attended the fair to learn more about the different ensembles offered. Dhingra said she is interested in joining the GW Band because she has been playing the saxophone since sixth grade and hopes to continue in college.

“It was nice to actually be able to sit down and have all my questions answered,” Dhingra said. “I think I just spent like, 20 minutes at the band table asking questions right now.”

Paris Albrecht, a first-year studying organizational sciences, said she signed up to audition for the GW University Singers group prior to the event but came to the event to learn more about the other music organizations.

“I think music creates a lot of community among the people that are involved in it, and so through joining a music org, I hope to find that community of my own and start making some more friends here on campus,” Albrecht said.