When Clinical Assistant Professor of Arts Katherine Girvin launched the university’s first-ever upper level a capella group last fall—the NYU Shanghai Chamber Singers—she knew that Chinese songs would also play a starring role in the group’s repertoire.
Last semester, she asked each of her students to nominate a few songs and then allowed them to vote on the choices. ”Mojito,” the 2020 pop hit by Mandopop star Jay Chou, won by a landslide. The group’s a capella rendition of the song, complete with rap and dance breaks, brought down the house in its debut performance at last Spring’s End of Semester show. Which got Girvin and Dean of Students David Pe thinking they could do even better - why not film a video?
Last May, just before the students went their separate ways for the summer, 19 members of the Chamber Singers got together on a typically hot and humid Saturday to film a Shanghai-based homage to the Havana vibes from Chou’s original music video—where he’s dressed in tropical attire, breezing down the Cuban capital’s streets in a pink convertible or surrounded by live musicians.
Watch the NYU Shanghai Chamber Singers "Mojito" music video here.
Stills from Jay Chou’s “Mojito” music video, filmed in Havana.
“‘Mojito’ is a song written purely with instrumentation, so it's not a cappella by design,” said Girvin. “There's a bass, a trumpet player, maracas and other instruments… [H]e uses a live band in his music video that has an infused Chinese-Latino sound.”
To create the NYU Shanghai Chamber Singers’ unique adaptation of “Mojito,” Girvin reached out to Ross Hansen, an arranger from San Diego, CA. “It’s 10 part harmony including the soloists, which means there are a lot of different things going on. His vision was that each section—sopranos, altos, tenors, bass—they're all imitating a different instrument while they're singing.”
Filming took place at NYU Shanghai, Little Bridge School, and around the Columbia Circle pool (pictured), a popular hangout for American expats in Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s.
“I asked the students, ‘Who can imitate a trumpet?’ and Edward [Wang Zhuo NYU ’23] , our soloist, just happened to be the best at it,” Girvin said. “I asked them to play around with different sounds and see what they could come up with, and I had a professional beatboxer from California host some Zoom lessons with my beatboxer student [Alex Jia ’23].”
“When I learned we would sing ‘Mojito’ arranged for NYU Shanghai a cappella especially, I was so thrilled,” said Wang. “Everyone was super devoted, and we learned it well in a surprisingly short time.”
“During the music video, I didn’t expect the filming to feel so enormous,” says Wang. “I felt like I was in Havana when I was dressed up tropical-style, singing near the water.”
Watch the Chamber Singer’s Mojito rehearsal video on Youtube.
Even though the actual filming day meant working long hours in the heat, it still felt like a vacation, said Steve Sun ’22, an interactive media arts major. “Me and Edward as soloists and dancers had to do multiple takes on different angles and places, which was very taxing physically, but each time we finished we could hear people in our group cheering behind the cameras,” said Sun. “We were having a grand old time.”
“My experience here with NYU Shanghai’s a cappella group has been the most precious time during my Go Local term,” said Wang, who spent the 20-21 academic year at NYU Shanghai as a Go Local student. “I’ll always remember these days with Professor Girvin and all of my friends.”
This fall, the Chamber Singers are looking forward to performing a repertoire of a cappella Disney arrangements at the Shanghai Symphony Concert Hall, as well as a Disney-themed concert at NYU Shanghai sometime in October. The two concerts are a lead up to a series of Disney concerts the group will perform at Disney retail stores around Shanghai.
Interested in learning more about NYU Shanghai’s choral program? Send an email to Professor Girvin directly at kag9625@nyu.edu.