Music performed a cappella, less commonly a capella, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term a cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato musical styles. In the 19th century, a renewed interest in Renaissance polyphony, coupled with an ignorance of the fact that vocal parts were often doubled by instrumentalists, led to the term coming to mean unaccompanied vocal music. The term is also used, rarely, as a synonym for alla breve.
Collegiate a cappella ensembles are college-affiliated singing groups, primarily in the United States, and, increasingly, the United Kingdom and Ireland, that perform entirely without musical instruments. The groups are typically composed of, operated by, and directed by students. In the context of collegiate a cappella, the term a cappella typically also refers to the music genre performed by pop-centric student singing groups. Consequently, an ensemble that sings unaccompanied classical music may not be considered an a cappella group, even though technically it is performing a cappella.
The International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), originally the National Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, is an international competition run by Varsity Vocals, that attracts hundreds of college a cappella groups each year.
The MSU Accafellas are a Tenor-Bass, collegiate a cappella group from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Founded in 1996, the group typically has between eight and eleven singers. The Accafellas have released 8 albums to date. Their arrangement of Jason Mraz's You and I Both appeared on the Best of College A Capella (BOCA) compilation in 2006. In 2010, The Accafellas performed their arrangements of Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn and Would You Go With Me in Nashville, Tennessee before the CMA Music Festival with Josh Turner.
This article contains detailed information on a number of student groups at Dartmouth College. For more information on athletic teams, please see Dartmouth College athletic teams. For more information on college publications, please see Dartmouth College publications.
Stepping or step-dancing is a form of percussive dance in African-American culture. The performer's entire body is used as an instrument to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word, and hand claps. Though stepping may be performed by an individual, it is generally performed by groups of three or more, often in arrangements that resemble military formations.
The Princeton Nassoons are a ten to twenty-member low-voice a cappella group at Princeton University. The group has been officially self-selecting since 1941, although the original group is known to have sung together as early as 1939. The Nassoons are the oldest a cappella group at Princeton University.
Out of the Blue (OOTB) is an all-male a cappella group from the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England. The student-run group sings an eclectic mix of songs, focusing on covers of modern rock and pop hits.
BYU Vocal Point, or simply Vocal Point, is a seven to nine-member, male a cappella group at Brigham Young University (BYU). Founded by two students, Bob Ahlander & Dave Boyce, in 1991, Vocal Point is under the direction of former member Carson Trautman.
Washington University in St. Louis has varied programs and events for students.
Spring Sing is an annual music competition held in May at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. Touted as "UCLA's oldest and greatest musical tradition," the competition brings together UCLA students to perform as solo artists, duets, bands, and a cappella groups in front of an audience of over 8,000 UCLA students, alumni, faculty, staff and celebrity judges.
The traditions and student activities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology encompass hundreds of student activities, organizations, and athletics that contribute to MIT's distinct culture.
Stanford Talisman is a student a cappella group at Stanford University, dedicated to sharing stories through music. Started in 1990 by Stanford student Joseph Pigato, their roots are in music from South Africa and the African diaspora, but they have since broadened their horizons to include music from all over the world. They perform not only locally in the greater San Francisco Bay Area but also around the world. Their most recent tour was to Mumbai and Udaipur, India, in spring of 2019. The group has also traveled to South Africa (2016) and Hawai'i (2018). The group won the 1997 ICCA competition and notable performances include the 1996 Olympic Games, the White House, with 10-time Grammy award winner Bobby McFerrin in 2005 and 2019, with Seal in 2009, with Joan Baez in 2019, annually at Stanford Graduation Baccalaureate, and their sold-out 25th Anniversary Show in Bing Concert Hall in 2015.
The Trojan Men is an a cappella group at the University of Southern California. Founded in 2005, the group has participated in and earned numerous awards from competitions such as the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella and USC's Absolut A Cappella contest. The group currently performs around USC, Los Angeles, and the Long Beach area.
DJs A Cappella (formerly known as the Dicks and Janes) is one of the 15 officially recognized a cappella groups of the University of Michigan, according to the Michigan A Cappella Council. Created in 1998, the group continues to perform a cappella music in Ann Arbor, MI and around the country, as well as in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. The group is notable for being featured on three Best of Collegiate A Cappella recordings, as well as hosting Acappellooza, a well-known annual invitational concert. The group is coed and entirely self-run and self-funded.
The SoCal VoCals are the first of nine a cappella groups from the University of Southern California. Founded in 1996, the group's signature achievement is being the only a cappella group to win five titles in ICCA, which it accomplished in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2018. In 2020, The A Cappella Archive ranked The SoCal VoCals at #1 out of all ICCA-competing groups.
The Brown Derbies is an a cappella group at Brown University. They were founded by Darryl Shrock in 1982 and have released fourteen albums. They sing a variety of different genres, ranging from Rock, to Pop, to R&B and are known in the a cappella community for their unique use of syllables in the background vocals. They have toured throughout the United States and internationally, with recent performances in Beijing, China, Shanghai, China, and New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1997, the group performed for President Bill Clinton at the White House. In November 2007, they were featured on the CBS Early Show in a segment about the rising popularity of a cappella groups on college campuses, and in July 2011 they were featured on the Gospel Music Channel reality show America Sings. In January 2012, they performed in the London A Cappella Festival.
The Virginia Sil'hooettes are a student-run, all-female identifying a cappella group at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. Once just the vision of four UVA students in the winter of 1988, the Sil'hooettes are now the most award-winning a cappella group at UVA. They have performed for thousands of people at venues including the Kennedy Center, The White House, John Paul Jones Arena, Baltimore Orioles home baseball games, and Boston Red Sox home baseball games.
The Stanford Fleet Street Singers is a comedy a cappella group from Stanford University. The group performs original songs and sketch comedy, and wears a uniform of black vests and red bow ties. Fleet Street is perhaps best known for having published the first collegiate a cappella album composed entirely of original music. In total, Fleet Street has released 13 studio albums and has received a dozen national awards.
