Central Harmony Rocks at Art In The Heart Festival

Story and photos by Katie Sergent

Central Michigan University based a-cappella group Central Harmony performed at the first annual Art in the Heart Festival, an inclusive art festival put together by students majoring in Recreation, Parks and Leisure.

Central Harmony is a co-ed a-cappella group on campus that first formed in 2005.

According to Sydney Carlson, a singer and brand manager for Central Harmony, the group feels like a family.

“We are all very close, and we hang out outside of rehearsals and performances as well,” Carlson said. “We love to have fun and make jokes, but we know when it’s time to get serious and really get to work during rehearsals.”

Central Harmony performs songs that are both main stream and easy to sing along to.

“Our setlist of songs changes every semester, but this semester our favorites thus far are Attention by Charlie Puth and Whatever it Takes by Imagine Dragons,” Carlson said. “We also recently performed a medley of songs from Aladdin for a Broadway invitational hosted by an a-cappella group at Michigan State, and that was a blast!”

Members of Central Harmony work hard to perfect their songs  for each performance, practicing hours worth of choreography in addition to their songs.

“We rehearse for 6-8 hours every week, typically in 3 to 4 two-hour rehearsals,” Carlson stated. “During rehearsals, we learn the music, perfect it, and learn how to perform cohesively, which includes choreography in some cases.”

“The best part about performing at various CMU events is that we get to be a part of the broader campus community,” Carlson said. “We get to be a part of all kinds of cool events that we otherwise wouldn’t have known about.”

Central Harmony will be performing in a concert on Dec. 1 at 2 p.m. at the Bovee University Center auditorium. The concert is free and open to the public.