By Allison Lozada —
When you walk on to campus you can usually spot the fraternities. They wear their letters, their jackets, or you can hear them clapping their hands when they are stepping, but have you heard of a musical frat? Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is a fraternity that is made up of men who specialize in music.
“When I was first approached about joining I was like ‘eh a frat’ and I thought ‘yeah it’s just drinking and stupid,’” said Will Sapanaro, 24, current Brother, “but then I started to read up on it [PMA] and started talking to these cats and then I realized this is great.”
If you missed them at this year’s Meet The Greeks, NJCU’s Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia colony was revived again in 2009 after being absent since 2001 due to low interest. They became recognized as a fully fledged chapter when they had their Crossing Ceremony on November 12, 2011.
“2009 to 2010 was spent holding just interest meetings,” said Chris Messina, 24 and current Brother. Dave Yule, 21, President of the local chapter added, “We went to an event at William Patterson and we handed in paper work for colony status, which is basically the beginning of creating a chapter.”
Bernard Mathews, Adjunct Professor who teaches guitar class at NJCU is one of the founding fathers of NJCU’s chapter who encouraged music students to revive it again. He was the orchestra director at Leonia High School where Vice President of PMA Zach Seely, 23, went to high school along with Will Sapanaro. Not only did Mathews encourage the two in college but encouraged them to go to NJCU after high school.
Ossian E. Mills is the founding father of this musical frat and was established on October 6, 1898 at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is the largest and longest running musical frat in the nation.
Seely now a NJCU Alumnus was responsible for making announcements in class and encouraging music students to join after becoming inspired by Mathews.
Before you assume you must be a music major think again. “We are a social frat first, but we have a common interest in music,” said Yule.
They do not require anyone who is interested to take a music class, just be friendly. However, this doesn’t change the fact majority of the fraternity are music majors.
“It’s all about the fraternity amongst us, brotherhood amongst the rest of the musical students, advancing music in America and a loyalty to the school,” Yule added.
They plan on having some events in the near future such as a fundraiser to raise money to attend their National Convention, which is every three years. Another plan they hope to succeed in is an event for a charity that donates instrument strings to third world countries. In February they will be doing a “Singing Valentine.”
Yule explains, “You get a wooden rose and a song from the brothers,” and Sapanaro adds, “We do it to anyone or anything as long as you pay.”
They did this last year to several students and Vice President of NJCU, Dr. Bruno.
The brothers also mentioned the Mills Music Mission created by Ossian Mills. The purpose of this mission is to sing/perform for people. Recently the brothers have gone to Waterford Towers in Edgewater to perform for senior citizens, along with A. Harry Moore School for children, and have done community service in their own music department.
The community service consisted of them bringing dishes of food the Wednesday before last year’s Thanksgiving Feast and this year for music students who must stay on campus during the break. Among these they have also helped at Open house and audition days for incoming freshman/transfers.
This fraternity is only for men but there is another female frat – not a sorority – similar to this musical group: Sigma Alpha Iota. They have been around campus since 1997 as well and their President is Crystal Santiago.
If you are interested in checking Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia out you can either go to their office in Grossnickle 244, their facebook PhiMuAlphaSinfonia, or e-mail them [email protected].
Just keep in mind, you don’t need to be a music major or know how to play an instrument. If you can vibe with the “friendly frat” chances are they will work with you. “We’re the cool kids,” said Sapanaro, “we’re not about wasting people’s time; we are about building each other up and helping each other out.”