The University’s newest coed student a capella group, Minor Problem, features 12 members who have a passion for music and a desire to share their talents with the Villanova community. One of seven student-run a capella groups on campus and one of the two coed a capella groups, Minor Problem is a unique pop and choral group that performs varying genres of music simply for the love of music.

The idea for the group was launched when the co-Founder and current president Nina Trovato got together regularly with friends for musical evenings.

“We were a bunch of musical people and thought that there was a lot of untapped talent on campus,” Trovato says. “We thought we could contribute to the arts community here at Villanova by creating a coed music group.”

Auditions were held last spring semester and this fall, with six new members added this fall. More auditions are to follow in the coming spring semester.

“It’s been a lot of work since we started from scratch,” Co-Musical Director Amanda Mathew says. “It’s an issue of figuring out the dynamic of our group since we’re introducing, not one or two, but 12 new people to the music. We [the music directors] arrange all the music, which for me has been a whole new realm coming from a band and orchestra background. We can hopefully expect our upcoming concert to be a good example of how serious, yet also how creative, we are as musicians, and hopefully we can grow from here.”

The group is not currently performing any one particular genre of music. However, Mathew says that members hope that as they solidify as a group, they can incorporate more classical influences into their repertoire.

“The auditions process was interesting since we were the gamble,” Mathew says. “I think we were seen as a group of underdogs, and therefore weren’t attracting all the all-stars. But we were attracting entrepreneurs, people who were willing to take the risk of joining a group that could easily have failed, in hopes of being a part of something new and different. We were looking for potential, for people who really had music in them.”

Director of Publicity Erica Forgione also sees the group dynamic as an asset to the group’s future.

“Our members have a lot of very different backgrounds,” Forgione says. We have two basses, two tenors, including a drummer who has never sung before, one senior, one junior and several sophomores and freshmen, all with varying musical experience. Our attitude is really laid back though. Later this month we will be singing carols at a local soup kitchen, and we’re already planning in participating in Acapellapalooza in the spring. It’s amazing to see that we’ve come this far since we were only founded at the end of last year.”

Minor Problem will pair up with Haveners on Monday, Dec. 6 at 8:30 p.m. in Driscoll Hall 134. The concert will consist of a variety of songs, including Christmas and non-Christmas songs.

“This is a great stepping-stone,” Mathew says. “We are excited to be moving forward and are looking forward to the support of the campus community.”