1. Dear Ms. Duncan,
I am writing at the referral of Cali Roper, a friend and fellow classmate of mine. I am part of the
Rice Philharmonics, a club of undergraduate students who sing a cappella music at Rice
University. We are celebrating the group’s 20th
anniversary this year! Having seen various bands
and singers on your morning show, including an a cappella group from the University of
Houston, I would like to propose that the Rice Philharmonics perform on Great Day Houston
within the next month to strategically accompany the release of Pitch Perfect 2 on May 12, 2015.
With the success of the box office smash-hit Pitch Perfect, a movie that depicted the world of
collegiate a cappella, the sequel is bound to garner significant attention. The genre of a cappella
music has been on the rise not only because of these movies, but also with the growing
popularity of Pentatonix, an a cappella group that recently won a GRAMMY this past year. I
think viewers would enjoy a performance from a collegiate a cappella group that would localize
the increasing attention on this genre of music.
Because we are the oldest and most accomplished singing club at Rice, we will showcase some
of the best collegiate a cappella that Houston has to offer. Over two decades, the “Phils” have
released seven CDs, with our most recent currently available on iTunes and Spotify. We have
also toured across the country and even participated in the International Championship of
Collegiate A Cappella (the same competition featured in Pitch Perfect!). The best part is that
none of our members are music majors, yet we arrange all of our songs ourselves!
As a contemporary a cappella club, we can perform many different genres of music depending
on what caters most to your audience. For example, we incorporate attention-grabbing
choreography into our cover of the currently popular “All About That Bass,” relive nostalgic
favorites with our medley of songs from the Lion King, and also revisit older classics like “Ain’t
No Sunshine.” You can view our performances of these songs by clicking on the hyperlinks, and
you can see more of our performances at www.youtube.com/RicePhilharmonics. Overall, I can
imagine the segment lasting about six minutes to include the performance of one song as well as
some short talking points.
I am looking forward to speaking with you – you can reach me via e-mail at mem11@rice.edu or
by cell phone at 210-244-3341. I will call you early next week if I don’t hear back from you.
Thank you, and I hope you have a great day!
Molly Mohr
Past President of the Rice Philharmonics
www.RicePhilharmonics.com