By Daniela Perret and Sonora Taffa

Calling themselves the Downtown Serenade, Austin Berry’14, Michael Gloer’13, Chris Nguyen’13, David Maize’13 and Sam Buatti’13, were one of the highlights last Saturday, December 3 at the 4th Ave Jazz Co. Winter Show performing the song Silver Bells.

“I think we performed awesomely,” Maize’13 said. “We all spent enough time on it to the point that we didn’t have to think about it.”

The whole performance was enjoyed by all, from Chris Nguyen’s beat boxing to Austin Berry’s baritone. The group itself had a lot of fun working and performing.

“It was a whole bunch of fun to perform with my friends.” Buatti’13 said. “The song went really well, especially since we had been out till three in the morning the night before.”

The name Downtown Serenade was created one Friday night while hanging out at a friend’s house, when they spontaneously decided to go downtown and sing to people.

“We were just hanging out at Logan Duffy’s house and Sam came up with the idea, ‘What if we went downtown and just sang to people?'” Maize’13 said. “So we thought about this for a good five seconds and were just like ‘Wait, yeah lets go downtown.’”

Once they were downtown, the group of boys started singing a few songs that they knew, and ended up catching the attention of many people including a National Best Buddies event. They decided to join in to help raise money for Best Buddies and spent the rest of the night serenading people all around downtown.

“It was so fun,” Berry’14 said. “Performing in front of peers and other members of the choir.”

The group is very excited about The Downtown Serenade and hopes to perform more songs soon. An upcoming performance will be at the Spring Show on March 4, 2012.