<p>Hah! Think again! Quidditch is played at more than 226 colleges, mostly in the U.S. but including some in Canada, the UK, Mexico Argentina, Iceland, France, Israel, and Australia—at least according to the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association (IQA). In October more than 20 teams participated in the Quidditch World Cup, held at Middlebury. I believe the home team won.</p>
<p>We just hosted four students at our house for a night from Doane College in Nebraska. Their choir gave a performance at our church and they were really good. I had never heard of this college before but the students were very enthusiastic about the school and made it sound really nice. The students on tour were in an auditioned choir but none of the ones we hosted were music majors. They said there were four choirs at the school including a mens group, a non-auditioned choir and a jazz choir. They said the school paid for all the expenses of the tour. The students were really nice and neat so were easy to host.</p>
<p>I realize I’ve arrived on the scene late for this conversation (!), but I wanted to mention Oberlin. Half of all the students are musicians! And they have remarkable performance opportunities for all, not just for the conservatory students.</p>
<p>Tufts is the epicenter of the collegiate a cappella scene, and other Boston-area schools each have multiple outstanding groups as well. The transition of collegiate a cappella in the '80s from traditional standards to covering current pop and rock releases was led by the music director of the Tufts Beelzebubs, who has since founded and become the CEO of the Contemporary A Cappella Association of America, and initiated the annual BOCA (“Best of Collegiate A Cappella”) CD compilations.</p>
<p>I just saw the Quidditch video from the link. Very dissapointed that they don’t actually fly on the brooms. Why hasn’t technology caught up with Harry Potter yet?</p>