The Men of Last Call, a Cornell all-male a cappella group, was invited by alumni to perform at the Cornell Asia-Pacific Leadership Conference in Hong Kong during spring break.
The Asia-Pacific Leadership Conference, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, is a “momentous event [that brings] together the most involved and committed … current and emerging Cornell alumni leaders in the Asia-Pacific,” according to the conference website.
The president of the group, Michael W. Jeong ’19 said the experience of performing at this large-scale, high-end professional event made him experience first-hand how supportive the Cornell community is at a global level.
“There are people at the conference who have never heard of us. We didn’t exist when they went to Cornell. But the amount of support they gave and love expressed when we performed … was just amazing,” Jeong said.
According to Jeong, it was also very memorable to see how Last Call alumni, Gregory Yu ’99 and Jonathan Wong ’08, now a popstar in Hong Kong who also attended the show, still maintained the group’s values to this day.
“We always stress mutual respect, respect for everyone’s opinion … we are always loving of each other, caring of each other, no matter what happens,” Jeong said. “We really value friendship and love and apparently our alumni also value these. The tradition of this group has not died.”
Yu, co-president of the Cornell Club of Hong Kong and a Last Call alumni, invited the a cappella group to perform at the conference, where Cornell president Martha E. Pollack was a speaker and joined the group on stage.
“We got many pictures with her and she actually came on stage and danced while we were singing,” Jeong said.
Because Last Call has three Korean members, the group also organized a stop in Seoul, en route to attending the leadership conference in Hong Kong.
They hosted a sold-out live show featuring two guest a cappella groups, one from Seoul University and another one from Yonsei University. The show attracted more than 300 guests of friends, families as well as Cornell alumni and Cornell-associated people.
Jeong said they were very proud to use their own voices to put out a delightful show in spite of the language and cultural barriers.
“It’s like a very different genre, different type … so I think we brought something new to the audience … and it was proven by their reactions and what not that people really enjoyed it,” Jeong said.