Most schools tend to have one big activity that is dominant on campus. For many colleges that activity is sports, for others it is theater, but for Brandeis it is a cappella. With 10 groups on campus (and the number expanding each year) there certainly is no shortage of instrument-free fun for performers and listeners alike to enjoy. Just like college football and basketball playoffs, there are opportunities for Brandeis' vocal groups to compete on a national level. For Starving Artists, getting picked to compete on such a high level was a huge honor, but to advance to the level they did was an even greater reward. Nicole Izbicky '11, a member of Starving Artists, recounts the group's experience, saying, "It all started with an application we sent in. We were required to send in a CD of three songs completely unedited. A month or so after sending in the application, we were informed that we had been picked to compete in the quarterfinals, and that this year had one of the highest number of applicants ever."

They performed in the quarterfinals at Wellesley College on Feb. 27 against six other schools and came in second place, with vocalist Ross Brown '10 winning the Outstanding Vocal Percussion award for the song "Angels." Coming off this momentum, the group went to the semifinals at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to perform the same set that brought them to that round. While they did not reach the top three places required to advance, Izbicky said, "We are extremely proud of ourselves and we did reach our goal of advancing from quarterfinals to semifinals. . The whole thing was a great learning experience for us, [and] we were performing to our highest possible standard. That really brought us together as a group."

Starving Artists was not the only group to have a shot at national a cappella glory. VoiceMale, an all- male a cappella group, was recently honored with four nominations for the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards, including Best Male Collegiate Album, Best Male Scholastic Original Song, Best Male Collegiate Song (nominated for the second year in a row for the song "Where's the Love") and Best Male Collegiate Solo (also a second consecutive nomination). In each category, only five groups are nominated, so to be selected for multiple categories is testament to the group's talent. The group won Best Scholastic Original Song for their song "Time (Bring it On)" and runner-up for Adam Levine's '11 solo on "Lately" in the Best Male Collegiate Solo category-all the more impressive because the nomination is such a huge honor.

With so many groups, it is easy to get lost in the basses, altos and tenors, but it is great to see a school like Brandeis, which prides itself on its small size, continue to flourish on a nationally recognized level. While we will almost certainly never have a Division I football title, many students would prefer a strong placing in ICCAs and a great finish at the CARAs any day.