Hollywood in Hopewell: Dartmouth Aires Come to Town

It’s not every day that Toll Gate Grammar School physical education teacher Linda Gardner has a nationally-known singing group of 16 young men serenade her in front of the entire student body.

But that’s just what happened on December 13, when the Dartmouth Aires, the college a cappella group who took second place on NBC’s all-vocal competition series The Sing-Off, visited Toll Gate on their winter tour, bringing a bit of Hollywood to Hopewell Valley.

Claiming they’d just written a special song a few minutes before in the hallway, the acclaimed group sang to Ms. Gardner to the delight of her students, who howled with appreciation.

The song was one of a set that thrilled Toll Gate students, who were particularly excited to welcome back Aires member Robbie Hoffman, who grew up in Pennington and attended the school.

“I’m not the kind of person who likes to be in the spotlight, but they took care of me,” laughed Ms. Gardner, who has taught at Toll Gate for 21 years and, by no small coincidence, was Robbie Hoffman’s teacher.

A few hours later, the Aires appeared at Hopewell Elementary School, where they had sung last year before their star-turn on NBC.

In a live season finale of The Sing-Off on November 28, the group came within inches of taking the grand prize of $200,000 and a recording contract, losing out to the five-member, co-ed group Pentatonix. Throughout the season, the Aires wowed the Sing-Off judges with their performances ranging from pop tunes to country to rhythm and blues.

At Toll Gate, Robbie, whose parents Penny and Rob still live in Pennington, recalled his time at the school.

“See that shark up there?” he asked the students, pointing to a sea-life mural that hung in the gym where they were performing. “I painted that shark!” he said, beaming.

At Hopewell Elementary, the Aires were greeted with a panel of three 'judges,' students imitating the Sing-Off judges, who commented after each Aires number. Hopewell Elementary fifth graders also serenaded the group at concert’s end with a song called “You’re the Most Wonderful Choir, Dartmouth Aires!” sung to the tune of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” HES students presented the Aires with a $1,000 check, culled from piggy banks and snack money, for the charity Saving Strokes, which aids stroke survivors. The Aires did a fundraiser for the group while competing in The Sing-Off last summer.

Robbie, who also went to Timberlane Middle School and the Lawrenceville School, and is currently a junior at Dartmouth, said his whirlwind exposure to Hollywood was grueling. The group, which auditioned and then taped the competition over 10 weeks working 10- to 12-hour days arranging and rehearsing their numbers for the show, had almost no downtime.

“It wasn’t until after the competition was over and we could sit back and watch the show that we were able to think about the experience,” he said. “We learned so much as a group about music, performing, and rehearsing, from each other and from the other groups.”

In between taping the competition last summer and returning to Los Angeles at the end of November to appear in the live finale and a Sing-Off Christmas special, Robbie managed to squeeze in a semester abroad in Barcelona, Spain.

“It’s been a crazy year,” said Robbie, who planned the Barcelona semester well before The Sing-Off. “We never really expected to make it to the finale. We didn’t have high expectations; it was a week-to-week thing. I really tried not to think about Barcelona too much, I just wanted to soak up the Sing-Off experience.”

Now, says Robbie, being on national television is just starting to sink in. “People talk so much about the show to us on this tour, and think we’re famous.” The last stop may be the one that reinforces that newfound notoriety the most: the Aires will sing at the White House on Friday.

In the spring, Robbie will balance his other passion, a position on Dartmouth’s varsity lacrosse team, with his Aires schedule. And while he doesn’t think he’ll pursue performing as a career, he’ll always have The Sing-Off.

“This really is not an experience that I’m ever going to forget,” he noted.