Raag On!

There's something about a cappella music that just can't be explained. Be it the intricate harmonies in perfect pitch or the utmost precision with which it has to be sung or the sheer dexterity and diversity of the human voice…a cappella music is truly unique in nature and scope.

You combine this pure form of a cappella with some Bollywood pop, traditional cultural music, and fusion pieces and lo and behold you've got…Raagapella! Raagapella is an all-male South Asian focus a cappella group from Stanford University, California – USA, which have sung in venues ranging from dormitories to stadiums such as the Hollywood Bowl. Here, we get a sneak peak into the lives and inner workings of this two-time A Cappella Championship winning outfit!

Q: How did you all meet and when was your first official/unofficial performance together? How long has the group been together?

A: Well…in November 2002, two freshmen, Jay Pandit and Sudeep Roy, and two sophomores, Bobby Ghosh and Mehul Trivedi, came together to perform an a cappella act for Stanford's South Asian cultural show. At the time, they were just a group of friends with a shared love for music. However, little did they know that their simple rendition of "Oh! Carol," an upbeat mix of Hindi, Punjabi, and English, would be the start of Stanford's newest a cappella ensemble – Raagapella.

Even though some members leave and more new members join every year, the group has kept evolving and has been around since 2002. So I guess you could say we're on the brink of our sixth year together as an official group.

A: We went through many name revisions before settling with Raagapella. The first couple were 'Brown Town' and 'Brownies with Nuts.' However, as Raag is the basic scale in Indian classical music, we decided to fuse it with the word "a cappella," thus symbolising our efforts in singing fusion music.

A: Usually we do a lot of fusion covers of popular Hindi, Tamil, Panjabi and English songs. Of late, we've been able to write up a few more originals which have added to our three existing numbers – "Without You," "Road to Enlightenment" and "First Love." We also hope to compose more originals in the future.

A: In crux, we are all ardent lovers of music, who come from diverse academic disciplines from engineering to psychiatry. Our musical experiences range from choir shows to simple bathroom singing. One aspect that unites us all is the thirst to share our music with the world. We rarely stop singing when we are together as the music can get quite infectious!

A: Since that first performance in 2002, Raagapella has grown tremendously and has expanded its membership to include singers with diverse musical interests and skills. We have performed all over the Bay Area, including many awards banquets, international policy seminars, and cultural shows both on campus and at other universities. The reigning two-time winners of the 'National South Asian A Cappella Championship,' Raagapella also bagged first place at Anahat, the 'National South Asian A Cappella Competition' held at the University of California, Berkeley in 2005/06. They were also placed second at the quarter finals of the International Championship for Collegiate A Cappella, which was the first time a South Asian a cappella group had made it through to the semi-finals of this competition.

In December 2005, we released our debut album 'Raags to Riches' to critical acclaim, including two perfect scores from the 'Recorded A Cappella Review Board.' We also toured Southern California during the winter of 2006 and eight schools in the east coast during the spring of 2007. We shared the stage with Indian Superstar Composer A.R. Rahman many times and even toured with him in 2006. Currently we're working on our second album and making plans for our Indian tour.

A: We meet three times a week for about two hours and focus mainly on blend, dynamics and choreography. Many of our members contribute with varied music arrangements and everyone's encouraged to learn their music outside rehearsal time. Practices are a lot of fun even though we concentrate hard while singing. At the end of the day we are all close friends and end up hanging out after practice and singing some more. This fraternal atmosphere has been one of the most attractive features of our group.

A: Yes. We only sing a cappella as a group, but some of our members are accomplished instrumentalists. They sometimes get together and form a band for smaller events like Diwali shows at Stanford etc., However, these events are generally one time acts.

A: We have a Music Director (currently Sunthar Premakumar) who leads practices and coaches the members. The older members help the director by taking some of the coaching burden on to their own shoulders, however, most of the group are fast learners and so, this process has never been painful.

A: Not really. Some of us get invited to sing at events once in a while, nothing too serious. Our Music Director from last year, Vivek Agrawal had the opportunity to intern with A.R. Rahman after he graduated but, most of us just sing for fun! Busy class schedules do not leave us with much free time.

A: We hope to spread appreciation for the rich musical culture of South Asia through performances at Stanford and across the country. As for touring, we're not very sure but, we just might, as we're planning on touring India this summer. So, if we're able to raise adequate funds, we just might be able to drop by in Sri Lanka too. Especially as both Sunthar another member of the group are from Sri Lanka and have a lot of family there, we are considering the idea for sure. However, funds might be the ultimate deciding factor.

A: Sunthar Premakumar – Music Director, Nikhil Kamat – President, Prasanna Vasudevan – Performance Manager, Ruka Sakurai – Marketing Director, Siddhartha Kasivajhula – Assistant Music Director, Conal Sathi – Album Director, Varun Sivaram, Sashendra Aponso, Hirav Gandhi, Manny Fassihi, Jayaram Srinivasan, Alex Ji, Vignan Pattamatta, Pratap Rao and Ronnie Tisdale. For more on Raagapella visit www.stanford.edu/group/raagapella