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Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Cambridge Chamber Singers rehearse

The Cambridge Chamber Singers rehearse over the summer.

The Cambridge Chamber Singers and Mass Whole Notes out of Cambridge and Somerville are among 24 amateur singing groups from across New England selected to compete in the second season of “Sing That Thing!” from Boston public broadcaster WGBH.

The inaugural year of the televised singing competition also featured two local groups: Syncopasian, a student group from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Musica Sacra, a nonprofit choral ensemble.

The coming year’s teams were chosen from more than 81 submissions, a 40 percent increase in applications from across the Northeast, said Liz Cheng, WGBH’s general manager for television and co-executive producer of the show.

The Cambridge and Somerville singers face five other competitors as well in the adult small group category, including Bostonality, of Brookline; Boston Jazz Voices, of Waltham; the Boston Skyline Chorus, of Lexington; The Copley Cats, of Boston; and Vocal Revolution, of Lexington.

There are also high school and college categories, with eight competitors each. The teams come from as far away as Hollis, N.H., Lewiston, Maine, and New Haven, Conn.

122315i-The-Mass-Whole-Notes

The Mass Whole Notes out of Cambridge and Somerville are a 15-member choral group with a looser vibe.

The groups will perform during eight episodes, including a live-to-tape semifinal and finale featuring the top group from each category performing a pop favorite.

Preliminary round tapings will take place Jan. 12-14 at the station’s studios in Brighton. The semifinal and final groups will be taped in February in front of a studio audience, and the season  shows on WGBH 2 on Friday evenings starting April 1.

“‘Sing That Thing!’ was a joy to create and present in its inaugural season, and I am excited to bring the fierce passion of local singing groups back to the screen,” co-executive producer Patricia Alvarado Nuñez said in a press release. “The coaches and experts will bring their supportive and colorful touch to the competition that will educate both competing groups and fans.”

The roughly 30-member Cambridge Chamber Singers, known as the Cambridge Madrigal Singers until 2007, has been performing for more than three decades, with a repertoire ranging from traditional masters of the 15th century to contemporary composers.

Mass Whole Notes, at 15 members, has a looser vibe, describing itself as “a hip-hoppin’, be-boppin’, not stoppin’ contemporary a cappella group,” and as “an eclectic group with a modern sound that can rock.”