Princeton’s Old NasSoul Visited and Shared Advice about A Cappella and College

The Old NasSoul singers who performed in the First Church after their performance (Photo courtesy of Chloe Hartwell, tour manager and publicity chair of the group)

On October 15th, Newman was pleased to welcome Old NasSoul, an A Cappella group from Princeton University. They not only performed a beautiful setlist at the all school assembly, but they also shared advice and answered questions about what college is like to students afterwards.

Starting off performance wise, many of the members shared how they joined, with a mix of those who had an experience with music beforehand, and also those who joined just to try it out. Alex Yoo ‘25, the president of the group had commented, “I had wanted to do music since it had been a large part of my life. I had wanted to try something new [within] music but knew I had wanted to do something within the vibrant community that music [has]”.

The group members also explained how the group dynamics work, especially working without a staff leader. Chloe Hartwell explained, “Everyone contributes, even if it’s not in a leadership position. Daniel [Wang ‘26] takes pictures for the website and Monica [Sing ‘27] designed art for our Spotify album”. Some of the older members also commented on how organizing the numbers work. They explained how they use the traditional order that was used in previous years. Therefore, at times, these older members would have to lead and share how to do so.

Philipp Janke ‘28 shared that solos are decided based on group voted auditions, and that person has the solo until the end of their time in the group when auditions take place again for the song. 

However, they didn’t only talk about music, they also shared some advice for college to students as well.

Yoo commented on managing extracurriculars in college, saying, “In Freshman year, many test their limits because you want to do a lot of [activities] and realize you need to pull back to focus on work.” However, many members stated that they do many activities and that it does take up a lot of time, so one of the most important things to do is to prioritize the clubs you’re passionate about and allocate your time efficiently according to those.

Another piece of advice shared was about making sure interests are prioritized in college applications, rather than doing what one might think the college would want to see. Wang shared, “College isn’t just what you want to do then but also the kind of person you want to be afterward. Some fields might make more money but not align with your interests, so you have to start thinking of tradeoffs in the real world, which is a very important consideration people have to make”.

Adding on this, many talked about the difference between college and high school, Abigail Cheng ‘27 sharing that “In high school, there's a pressure to reach for a product, but in college you learn for yourself as a person rather than for your grade. You develop your values and have that nice freedom making college a nice experience”. Many agreed with this, emphasizing how much more freedom is given in college.

The group gave several helpful pieces of advice. We greatly appreciate their wonderful performance and wish them the best for all future endeavors.