Nine of Washington University’s 11 a cappella groups will come together for a charity concert benefiting METAvivor Research and Support, a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating metastatic (stage 4) breast cancer.

Excluding After Dark and The Stereotypes, all groups will perform two songs, in addition to a collaborative performance by beatboxers from the nine groups. All the proceeds will go directly to METAvivor.

Courtesy of Elvin Hu

The Mosaic Whispers perform in April 2016. Nine of the 11 Washington University student a cappella groups will perform at a charity concert April 1.

The event was originally conceptualized by sophomore Michael Kaushansky, despite his lack of formal affiliation with the University’s a cappella community. The showcase provides a relatively rare chance to see the various groups together in concert, according to Rohan Khazanchi, a senior and the president of the A Cappella Advisory Council (ACAC).

“The First Year Center has all of the groups perform during the fall semester at Voices and Sounds, which is a parent’s weekend concert with all 11 groups performing,” he said. “We don’t really get many opportunities to come together with all of our groups, so it’s a fun way for us to be able to all share our music with each other and with the community, and it’s also a way for us to come together for a good cause.”

The concert was originally brainstormed mostly by Kaushansky, who noted that the idea came largely from his own enjoyment of past a cappella performances.

“I’m not personally involved in a cappella, but I’ve seen a couple of the groups perform and I absolutely love it—I really appreciate the music,” Kaushansky said. “But I think it’s kind of difficult to go to each of their individual concerts, so I was wondering if there could be an event where all of the groups performed together. I thought the student body would really love it and that they would come out for it, and if we could raise some money toward a great cause through that, that would be even better.”

Kaushansky reached out to Khazanchi, who was enthusiastic, and the two quickly settled on a cause close to Kaushansky’s heart.

“A family member of mine has suffered from stage 4 breast cancer, so I really wanted to kind of dedicate this event toward that cause,” Kaushansky said. “I mainly pushed for it because it was just something that was near and dear to me, and stage 4 breast cancer is something that’s really underfunded, so the organization we’re [donating the proceeds to] towards focuses largely on the later stages of breast cancer.”

According to Khazanchi, once the general cause had been decided, METAviver was an obvious choice of charity.

“We thought it was a good organization to donate to because they have a specific goal in mind,” he said. “They also have a pretty well-established track record of using money that is donated to them efficiently and for great purposes.”

Although many a cappella groups hold charity concerts individually, this performance will represent the first collaborative charity concert the groups have put on in a few years.

“Back when I was a freshman, we did an event called ‘Tunes for Tay’ that I think was an annual tradition for a while where everyone would perform a song or two, and the ticket sales would go to a charity,” Khazanchi said. “But for the last two or three years, we haven’t done anything like this, and I definitely think it’s something that as an outgoing senior I would love to establish as an annual tradition for our community.”

The charity concert will be at the 560 Music Center this Saturday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m.