THE HISTORY OF THE VIBES

By Our Founders: Bess Paupeck and Alissa Roeder

We came to GW as transfers in our sophomore year. Bess had previously attended Skidmore College where she sang a cappella for a group called the Dynamics, while Alissa went to Trinty College and sang a cappella for the Trinitones. Both colleges had a variety of a cappella groups. For many reasons, we both ended up at GW where we came to find only two major a cappella singing groups, and no other outlet to sing in a small group.  GW was such a big place after our small college experiences, it just did not seem right that there were not more opportunities for singers. There needed to be another place for those who wanted to sing to be able to sing... and so, in the Spring of ‘99 we began to plan.

'Sunday Morning', 'The DynaTones', '2:52', the 'Vibrations'... Ahh, the name would be difficult to choose. ‘Ah oui, c’est vrai’?. Finally, out of a late night of randomly selecting pieces of Lucky Charms and hitting them together and saying the first word that came to mind, the Vibes were born.

After many long nights and meetings, red tape and planning, we decided to hold auditions for our new a cappella group. We were to be GW's only Student Run Co-Ed A Cappella group. 

We made tons of signs, tons of calls, held auditions, and had more people sign up to try out that we could have ever imagined, showing us from the very start the we were indeed right about GW’s need for more outlets for singers. After long hours of auditions, we chose our group and surprised them all at their dorms later that night. The traditions were beginning.

To sum up the first year, some members quit, some stuck in through. Some people were happy to make new friends, others were mad at how long it to learn one song.  We had no funding, no way to even pay for photocopying of sheet music, and fought an uphill battle for rehearsal space. After much shifting and reworking, the Vibes were shaky but maturing into a fun-loving, talented college a cappella group.

With our previous experiences in mind, we both knew that forming a small group within a college setting where people could come together to do what they love could be a very powerful thing. We wanted to find a place where we could sing every night, and also make connections to people we would otherwise not have come in contact with. It was very important to us that the group we started be a place where people could sing and understand this wonderful sense of community we both knew could exist, even on our urban campus.