About Us
Ethnobeat is a multilingual, multicultural a cappella group based at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Ethnobeat strives to showcase music from a variety of cultures. With these efforts, it hopes to spread tolerance and strengthen unity among people of different backgrounds. Ethnobeat's performances serve as both entertainment and education about several cultures, and its goal is to inspire its audiences to look past cultural barriers and embrace the diversity of all people.
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Ethnobeat had humble beginnings.
Founded in 2014, Ethnobeat was the brainchild of Avan Antia, its founder and first president. Dismayed by the absence of a multilingual/multicultural musical group on campus, Avan undertook an effort to attract members of all backgrounds to perform music from around the world. With this music, she hoped to celebrate her campus's rich diversity. Ethnobeat strives to bring people of all cultures and backgrounds together through a shared love of music.
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Originally, Ethnobeat was conceptualized as a spontaneous world music group, composed of group vocals and instrumentalists. The members of Ethnobeat would jam in the University of Maryland's Biosciences Research Building and campus stairwells - almost like a flash mob. However, the group soon dwindled to a core number of five. Although these five members were uncertain of the direction the group would take, they knew that they enjoyed singing together, and they were determined to share the music of all cultures. Thus, the group began to arrange a song (Tinkara Kovac's "Round and Round") from scratch, a cappella style.
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"Round and Round" was in a language unfamiliar to the members, but they loved its catchy chorus. From that point forward, Ethnobeat knew that it held something special and unique within campus. Today, Ethnobeat continues to be the University of Maryland, College Park's premier multilingual, multicultural a cappella group.