CAMBRIDGE – The Harvard Opportunes, Harvard’s all-gender a cappella group recently entered into the Upstaged Aid virtual competition.
Framingham member Eric Tarlin told SOURCE about the group and the competition.
Tarlin began a cappella as a student at Framingham High school. At Harvard, he served as music director for the Opportunes this past year.
Upstaged Aid is a bracket format competition, where groups submit videos of past performances, competing for a pool of up to 10,000 of prize money. This money, however, will be donated to a charity of the group’s choice. The Harvard Opportunes chose the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, an organization striving for racial justice.
[broadstreet zone=”58892″]
The group submitted their impressive a cappella version of All for Us by Labrinth ft. Zendaya, which can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibe2UCSGBlw.
Tarlin, who produced and co-arranged All For Us, said that they intended the “arrangement to be a show stopper.”
While some groups put together virtual performances, the Harvard Opportunes’ All For Us was performed last fall, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic.
[broadstreet zone=”53230″]
With the pandemic, the group has had to step back from making music. Tarlin said: “Normally we would be seeing each other and singing in each other’s faces all the time.” Even with the challenges, the group has been connecting through zoom, engaging their alumni network, and working on virtual collaborations.
This year, the group is an “even spread of class years” with students from all over the world, studying in different areas, Tarlin said.
The a cappella group is an “extracurricular, so not everyone is incredibly interested In being a professional musician), but everyone is incredibly talented” he continued. In our current world situation, Tarlin hopes “that people continue to find ways to pursue the arts.”
Voting for The Harvard Opportunes in the Upstaged Aid Competition by clicking here.
MassBay Community College 
MetroWest Medical Center