The Dartmouth Aires
The Dartmouth Aires | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Hanover, New Hampshire |
| Genres | Collegiate a cappella |
| Years active | 1946–present |
| Website | www |
| Members | Edward "Nado" Allen '21 Mac "Turbo" Galinson '21 Jeffers "Zumo" Insley '21 Edward "Drako" Lu '21 Henry "Palo" Phipps '21 Zach “Flippo” Campbell ‘22 Joseph “Jago” Collum ‘22 Jacob “Aro” Donoghue ‘22 Kaj "Villo" Johnson '22 William “Piko” Reicher ‘22 Santosh “Phoeno” Sivakumar ‘22 Daniel "Cubo" Abate '23 Brendan "Disqo" Flewelling '23 Spencer "Pinto" Grimm '23 Patrick "Macko" Howard '23 Sheil "Kakto" Sharma '23 Teddy "Mango" Wavle '23 Eric "Töblo" Richardson '24 Zach "Loko" Martel '24 Luke "Modo" Miles '24 Musical Director: Henry "Palo" Phipps '21 Business Manager: Edward "Nado" Allen '21 Alumni Chair: Santosh "Phoeno" Sivakumar '22[1] |
The Dartmouth Aires is an Ivy League a cappella group from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The group rose to fame in the third season of the NBC musical competition The Sing-Off, placing runner-up behind international a cappella sensation Pentatonix.
History[]
Dartmouth College's oldest a cappella singing group, the Aires were originally formed as the Injunaires in 1946 as an offshoot of the college Glee Club; the Dartmouth Aires broke with the Glee Club in the late 1970s.[2]
Although the Aires usually have about eighteen members, group numbers vary on a term-to-term basis. Auditions are held at the beginning of every fall term. Members of the Aires pick what songs to arrange based on the group's tastes. Because the Aires are such a diverse group of people, they end up singing a lot of different styles. Currently, much of their repertoire consists of popular songs from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, but it also includes many traditional Dartmouth songs, a few 1950s and 1960s tunes, selected hip hop tracks, and the occasional musical theater piece.[2]
Most of the arrangements consist of a soloist, a dozen or so background singers, and a vocal percussionist. The background of arrangements consists of a series of complex "instrument-like" syllables that, when sung together, resemble the background of the original song.[2] Traditionally, each group member receives a nickname consisting of two syllables and ending in "o".[3]
The Aires perform an average of two or three times a term at Dartmouth. They frequently take weekend road-trips, singing and reveling at other colleges, performing for high school music festivals, and entertaining at Dartmouth alumni clubs. Every winter break, the Aires tour the Eastern Seaboard, while traveling further afield every spring. Recent spring tours have taken them to Aruba, Costa Rica, Paris, Italy, Colorado, a few of the Hawaiian Islands, Florida, California,[2] and Hong Kong.
Recent Aires accolades include winning the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award (CARA) for Best All-Male Collegiate Album for both their 2003 ("Black Tie Affaire") and 2005 ("Impaired") album releases, as well as selection for Varsity Vocals' Best Of Collegiate A Cappella compilation CD in 2003, 2005, 2008, 2012, and 2015 and selection for the Voices Only compilation CD in 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2011. Their most recent album, On Aire, was released in December 2017.
In 2011, they competed in season 3 of The Sing Off, a national reality show. The group performing on the show included 16 of the group's members from the classes of 2010 through 2014. Out of 16 original contestants, they made it to the top three and finished as first runner-up.[4]
The Sing-Off Performances[]
The Dartmouth Aires made the following performances. Note that they did not perform in Episodes 1 and 3:[5]
- Episode 2: Signature Songs
- Episode 4: Current Hits and 1960s Favorites
- Episode 5: Guilty Pleasures
- Episode 6: Hip Hop
- Episode 7: Superstar Medleys
- Episode 8: Rock and Country
- We're Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister
- Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy by Big & Rich
- Episode 9: R&B
- Episode 10: Mastermix Medleys and Judges' Choice
- Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones/Born This Way by Lady Gaga
- Shout by The Isley Brothers
- Won in a "Sing Off Battle" with Afro Blue where they sang "Somebody to Love" by Queen (band)
- Episode 11: Live Finale
- Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meat Loaf (with Amy Whitcomb of Delilah)
- Not the Same by Ben Folds (with Judge Ben Folds)
- Somewhere from West Side Story (swan song)
Albums[]
- On Aire (2017)
- Truth or Daire (2014)
- Fresh Aire (2011)
- Extraordinaire (2008)
- Impaired (2004)
- Dartmouth Undying (2002)
- Black Tie Affaire (2002)
- Various older albums and records (1960-1990s)
Notable alumni[]
Marc "Dojo" Bruni '99 - Tony-, Grammy-, and Olivier-winning director of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical on Broadway[6]
Michael "Nemo" Odokara-Okigbo '12 - Musician and philanthropist
References[]
- ^ "Members of Dartmouth Aires".
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d The Dartmouth Aires: A Little History Archived 2012-01-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Daystar Academy Welcomes Dartmouth Aires". Beijing Kids. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ The Sing Off- Official Site Archived 2011-11-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Sing Off - Music Archived 2011-11-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Marc Bruni Theatre Credits, News, Bio and Photos". www.broadwayworld.com. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
External links[]
- Dartmouth Aires Official website
- Varsity Vocals
- Dartmouth Aires' repertoire
- Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award (CARA)
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- American vocal groups
- Collegiate a cappella groups
- Dartmouth College student organizations
- Musical groups from New Hampshire
- Musical groups established in 1946