Think Wharton grads can only talk the stock market? Think again: at least 19 of them also know how to sing.
They call themselves the "Whartones," the co-ed a capella group for MBA students and their partners. And when it comes to a capella, this singing group means business.
According to second-year MBA student Melissa Cayanni, one of the group's three presidents, weekly rehearsals give members a refreshing pause from the daily grind of Wharton life.
"One evening a week, it's a break from the recruiting and the finance," she said. "It's pretty much a release for most people here because obviously no one is here to sing as a primary goal."
Whartones member and fellow second-year MBA student Janet Cockey expressed a similar sentiment. "It's a great way to get some downtime in, because otherwise we would work ourselves to death," she said. "You feel grudgingly at first about leaving your textbooks for three hours, but then you get [to rehearsal] and it's a release to sing and relax and have fun."
The Whartones bring music to the MBA community four times each year, performing at biannual concerts and MBA Pub, a bar frequented by Wharton graduate students.
Pub is "such a fun, energetic audience, and it's really informal, so that's probably my favorite part," Cayanni said. In addition to its on-campus concerts, the troupe also performs for local nursing homes.
The group also expects to release an album this month, entitled "Stuck in an Elevator with the Whartones." The title describes the fate of a stranger the group encountered in the elevator on their way to the recording studio, Shen explained.
According to co-president and second-year student Kevin Shen, the Whartones provides members with a great opportunity to connect. "A big part of being in business school is making new friends and extending your network," he said. "The first-years network with the second-years and ask for advice on jobs and academics."
Cockey found the a capella network especially helpful.
"It was one of the few opportunities I actually had to get to know second-years, talk to them about recruiting and ask for advice on finance professors," she said of her experience last year.
While Shen said the possibility of a Whartone turning down business for the arts was "highly unlikely," he did say that some members hope to pursue business-related careers in music. Shen himself is considering taking his Wharton degree into the film and entertainment industry.
But are the Whartones as good at a capella as they are at crunching numbers?
"If we were that good at singing, we wouldn't be in business school," Cockey said. "But it's a great group of people, and we have a lot of fun."
The Whartones' musical repertoire includes swing, jazz, pop, rock, rap, barbershop, and Broadway.
