A cappella groups turn up the volume on campus

Alex Palmer
Published: Monday, June 23, 2003

A cappella singing is gaining a stronger voice at UCLA. In the last several years, a handful of new a cappella groups and music events have sprouted up on campus, offering more and more students a chance to create music using only their voice.

ScatterTones is the newest a cappella group at UCLA, having been formed in the beginning of fall 2002. But while the co-ed group is relatively new to UCLA, it has been very active on campus since its first concert in November of last year, performing at a number of events and festivals throughout the year.

Performing mostly contemporary rock and pop songs, the group was created because its founders felt UCLA should have more outlets for a cappella music.

“On a campus with as many people as UCLA’s, we should have more than just one or two a cappella groups,” said Mark Chen, ScatterTones’s co-founder and musical director. “Students here aren’t experiencing the same (musical) opportunities their peers are getting on the other side of the country.”

Chen, who is originally from the East Coast, says that an a cappella tradition is much more established among eastern schools like Brown or Tufts universities. According to Chen, East Coast schools can have as many as 15 or 20 vocal groups on campus, and the tradition is a significant part of the university’s culture and identity. But not so on the West Coast, says Chen, where a cappella tends to be treated as a fringe interest among students.

However, Chen is optimistic about where a cappella is going in the West. He sees the rise in new campus a cappella groups, along with events like this year’s California A Cappella Festival, as signs that the West Coast is beginning to catch up.

Peter Musante, president of the co-ed group Awaken A Cappella, also believes a cappella music is becoming more popular at UCLA.

“A cappella is definitely growing, especially if you consider that a few years ago there was basically one group on campus and now we’ve already got three or four,” Musante said.

Now beginning its 11th year, Awaken is the oldest a cappella group at UCLA. The group has become a staple at campus events like Spring Sing, has been featured on national CD compilations of collegiate a cappella music, and had its performance of the national anthem broadcast during a UCLA basketball game.

Having been the only a cappella group on campus for several years, the members of Awaken are glad to finally have some company and to see a real a cappella community developing at UCLA.

Besides ScatterTones, another significant a cappella group to form in the last few years is Random Voices, an all-female ensemble formed in 1999. Molly Jones, the group’s founder, was looking to give UCLA’s female singers more opportunities to show their talents. Now in its fourth year, Random Voices has firmly established itself both on campus and throughout the area, with members of Random Voices winning awards at last year’s International Competition of Collegiate A Cappella.

Random Voices has also contributed to expanding a cappella music’s visibility on campus by founding the California A Cappella Festival, held at UCLA every March. Already a two-year tradition, the festival is not a competition between a cappella groups or even focused particularly on the performance of a cappella music. Instead, Random Voices established the festival to give groups a chance to hang out with each other and get a sense of what other West Coast groups are doing.

“It’s exciting to have all these groups come out,” said Tina Lin, the musical director for Random Voices. “It’s making a cappella music become more established at UCLA.”

But as more a cappella groups pop up on campus, more students are needed to fill the ensembles. All of the groups are looking for new voices, and they will be holding auditions early during fall quarter. But students who are considering getting involved in UCLA’s a cappella scene should not feel discouraged if they have not had extensive experience.

“Our members are really diverse as far as experience,” said Lin. “A couple of (Random Voices’) singers came in with absolutely no official singing experience.”

Contact Chen for ScatterTones at scatts@ucla.edu, Lin for Random Voices at cleobuggie@yahoo.com, Musante for Awaken at pmusante@ucla.edu.