Some UR students are willing to stand outside in the bitter cold for an hour prior to a Midnight Ramblers concert, just to get a decent seat to one of their sold-out concerts.
Fans are often willing to make the trek to the Eastman School to hear the girls of Vocal Point perform. The singers in UR’s a cappella groups do not go unnoticed by students, and on Feb. 1, the rest of the a cappella world took notice of UR’s talent too.
Both Midnight Ramblers and Vocal Point received multiple nominations in the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards (CARA) for 2010.
The Contemporary A Cappella Society (CASA), a non-profit organization, posted on its Web site the nominees for the 2010 CARAs. Each category contains five nominations. Since 1992 CARA has looked at hundreds of albums with the aim of promoting the innovation and creativity fostered in college a cappella.
The Midnight Ramblers were nominated for their album ‘Ca C’est Bon” in the category of Best Male Collegiate album, the song ‘Knights of Cydonia” in the category of Best Male Collegiate Song and Musical Director and sophomore Noah Berg received the nomination in the category of Best Male Collegiate Arrangement for his arrangement of ‘Hallelujah.”
“I’m so humbled by the three nominations that the Ramblers were awarded, and it just goes to show what good focus, drive and positive energy can produce,” Berg said of the honor. ‘These nominations will just serve as fodder for us to spur us toward new goals, which include ground never before walked in the a cappella world and a new album in the very near future.”
Vocal Point also held their ground with nominations for the song ‘The Walk” in the category of Best Female Collegiate Song, and former Musical Director Bonnie Jarrett ’09 for ‘Stay” in the category of Best Female Collegiate Solo.
‘It is such an honor to be recognized by CASA twice … and a great reflection of why we put in so much work on this project,” Vocal Point Musical Director Amanda Averack said.
‘I really want to use this as a springboard to get wider recognition for our CD and to get the girls pumped for more exciting projects down the road.”
The members of the Midnight Ramblers and Vocal Point will have to wait until April 1 to hear the winners of the CASA awards.
The coordinators of CASA chose 41 individuals with diverse musical backgrounds to determine nominees for the awards.
CASA endows grants, awards and recordings to musicians in the contemporary a cappella scene. In addition, it sponsors different workshops, instructional videos and other events to help them improve and increase awareness about their groups.
The selection process is very lengthy and detailed, beginning in November with the search for nominators and judges through a selective application process. Once the committee is chosen, a cappella groups must submit their albums by December for consideration in the awards.
If anyone had any doubts about the Midnight Ramblers or Vocal Point, their consideration for these awards should certainly silence those doubts and validate the caliber of the music.
Among the awards that the Midnight Ramblers and Vocal Point qualified for were Best Collegiate Album, Best Collegiate Song, Best Collegiate Solo and Best Collegiate Arrangement.
If you have yet to see either of these groups perform live and want to see what all the fuss is about, the Midnight Ramblers and Vocal Point will both be performing later this semester.
The Ramblers’ concert is scheduled for April 10, and Vocal Point’s show is on April 17.
Dickerson is a member of the class of 2012.
