By: Alex Spindler

The Xavier holiday season got off to a musical start last Sunday with a dual holiday concert featuring the Harmon-X and A caBellas music groups.

Harmon-X and A caBellas are the two a cappella choirs (the former being all men and the latter being all women) on campus.

They decided to jump-start the festivities with an enjoyable show in the old cafeteria in Cintas Center. While the groups decided to showcase some perennial holiday favorites like “White Christmas” and “Carol of the Bells,” they also performed popular pop hits they have performed in other concerts like “Tightrope” by Walk the Moon and “Same Love” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

This composite mix worked in favor for the concert’s overall reception.

Now, this isn’t to say that everyone only wanted to hear holiday hits, but the addition of the groups’ other a cappella standards demonstrated variety on their part. The audience received both groups very well, with Harmon-X bringing charm and power in its presence and the A caBellas bringing beauty and resilience in its song selection.

Some technical trouble affected the groups’ performance. Another event in Cintas Center brought vocal and physical distractions to the performers and the audience. Still, Santa came early and brought with him a charming conclusion to the semester with a thoroughly-entertaining performance.

Acappella music has grown in popularity across the United States considerably in the past decade.

The release of the popular film, “Pitch Perfect,” last year and other reality programming like “The Sing Off ” on NBC sparked the formation of many a cappella groups on college campuses.

In fact, Harmon-X and A ca- Bellas, despite what many students think, are very new and fresh clubs that just came on the Xavier scene in the last few years. It’s clear to see that this interest has not died down since such great talent contributes to these groups’ success.

These a cappella ensembles frequently perform at basketball games, service projects and individual concerts year-round, so missing a performance is entirely inexcusable.