Nonsequitur
| Nonsequitur | |
| |
| Founded: | 2000 |
| Recognition: | ABC |
| Membership: | 13 |
| Executive Board: | Poonam Pai, president; Matthew Thier, business manager; Anne Epstein, treasurer; Zeena Audi and Rick Betita, musical directors |
| Category: | Performance |
| Website: | {{{Website}}} |
| Contact: | {{{Contact}}} |
Nonsequitur is a co-ed a cappella group.
Contents
History
Nonsequitur was conceived in 2000 during a callback audition for the Uptown Vocal. Auditions for Uptown Vocal had progressed until they had narrowed their selection to six male singers. One of the six auditioning, Max L. Rosenberg, a student from Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, met with the other five singers, while the Uptown Vocal deliberated on whom they would select. He passed around a piece of paper, making his contact information known to the small group and requested they add their names and information to the paper. He explained that should none of them gain admittance to Uptown Vocal, they should create a new a cappella group in a different style.
The following day Rosenberg sent an email to the group of five inviting them to meet him at the student center by the piano to begin a new group.
All but the one singer who gained admittance appeared, which included Joshua Diamant, Andrew Lebwhol, Michael Marcus, and Jason Moss. Beginning with arrangements Rosenberg borrowed from an all male high school a cappella group, The Beachside Express, they began to meet and practice three times a week. Very shortly, Diamant and Marcus wrote their own arrangements and began to create the group's style.
Nonsequitur continued to maintain its intention of remaining all male; however, after several rounds of auditions and rehearsals, none of the new recruits worked out. The group became co-ed with its first woman, Rona Behar, approximately four months after its inception.
They had their first public performance that year in Westport, CT at the Java Jam at Greens Farms Academy hosted by The Beachside Express and Harbor Blues.
Over the next several years, Nonsequitur quickly grew to include all genders and genres, eventually becoming Columbia’s hippest group, with a popular following from College Walk to the Barnard Quad to the semitic halls of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
The members come from all four undergraduate schools at the University and from all different singing backgrounds and are all united by a shared commitment to making vocal harmonies, executing killer choreographies, and looking generally attractive.
Repertoire
Over the years, Nonsequitur's repertoire has widened to include all types of music. The songs range from today’s pop to yesterday’s classics, from The Four Seasons and Queen to Stevie Wonder and Michael Bublé, and they are coming up with new and original arrangements all the time. Nonsequitur draws from a repertoire of nearly a hundred songs that have been arranged almost exclusively by members of the group. Some of the songs arranged since the group's millennial inception have "fallen" from the active repertoire to make way for new arrangements. However, the most successful and well-arranged songs from each year remain with the group as it progresses forward, leaving the undergraduate group with a repertoire of songs representing all incarnations of Nonsequitur.
Performances and Tours
Nonsequitur sings regularly for private parties and charity functions primarily in the Northeast (NYC, Connecticut, Philadelphia, Boston). Once or twice a year, they sojourn on tours that take them to domestic locations (throughout the East Coast) and abroad touring in Canada and have performed with renowned a cappella groups from across the country, including Stanford’s Fleet Street, Tufts' Jackson Jills, and UC Berkeley’s Men’s Octet. In addition, they also graced the stage in an off-Broadway production, Toxic Audio, during the fall of 2004. Nonsequitur made it to the quarterfinals for the International Championship of College A Cappella for both 2007 and 2008.[1]
Attire
Nonseq performs at events ranging from the ultra-informal ("Arch sings" in the arches on Columbia's campus and the famous sundial) to the very formal. As a result, Nonsequitur has adopted several styles of performance attire, the most notable being "Blue/Black": blue shirt and black slacks or skirt or vice versa.
The name
Nonsequitur was named by a fan of the group, Sidney Vidaver, who would attend rehearsals. He commented to Max Rosenberg known as the "Captain", "Is everything out of your mouth a non sequitur? For example: What a beautiful song, lets go get pizza," to which the Captain replied, "Thats it!" "What?" "Let's go get pizza!" The rest is myth.
Living up to its name, the members of Nonsequitur pride themselves on their spontaneity, verve, and awesome musical abilities.
