The University of Connecticut A Cappella Association kicked off the fall semester with their semiannual rush concert held at Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, Sept. 10.
For UCACA President Eva Dannison, now in her seventh semester with the association, the rush concert has always been more than a showcase.
“It’s my favorite night of the year, especially being in Jorgensen,” Dannison said. “It’s really electric, super high energy. So being able to just share our love and our energy with everyone in the audience is really awesome and very unique to UConn A Cappella.”
The concert featured all 10 of UCACA’s groups, each with different voices, purposes and members.
“We’re very lucky to have 10 really incredible, awesome groups, all of different vibes, genres, kinds of music,” Dannison said. “Being able to showcase that in Jorgensen at a rush concert every semester is really special to us.”
Rubyfruit, founded in 1999 as UConn’s oldest all treble group. It is built around themes of women’s empowerment which carried the group from local shows like Celebrate Mansfield all the way to an opening slot for Sammy Rae and the Friends in Boston.
A Completely Different Note, the university’s oldest lower voice ensemble, also founded in 1999, brought the energy of a group with six albums under its belt, the latest being 2024’s “Noteworthy.”
A Minor, born out of the Asian American Cultural Center in 2004, represented UConn’s oldest gender inclusive group, one that has reached the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella quarterfinals twice and taken home awards for choreography and percussion along the way.
Extreme Measures, another gender inclusive group formed in 2004, showed off their arrangements and high-energy style that has led to four full length albums and features on the “Voices Only” compilation series.
Every arrangement the group performs is written in house, Nick Jokl, the group’s president and a fifth-semester political science and communications student, wrote in a text message.
“We are a group that’s rooted in community and rooted in music,” Jokl wrote, describing an ensemble that has grown into writing increasingly complex and intricate arrangements since its founding.
Husky Hungama brought a different presentation entirely, fusing Western pop with traditional and modern South Asian music through five-part harmonies, a sound fans can also hear on their EP “Saffron.”
Notes Over Storrs, founded in 2009, mixes performance with tradition. They also carried home a third-place title and an award for outstanding choreography from this year’s ICCA quarterfinals.
Drop the Bass, founded in 2013 around the idea of female empowerment, sang “Where is My Husband?” by Raye — a song many know and love.
The Rolling Tones, a gender inclusive group dating back to 2005, leaned into everything, from pop to rock and indie.
The Conn Men, UConn’s all male-identifying group and one of the association’s most decorated, marked the run-up to their 25th anniversary, with a history that includes a 2008 performance at the White House and opening performances for Rockapella and Pentatonix.
Closing out the roster, the Hus-Keys, based in Storrs since 2022 after forming in Hartford in 2016, showed off the same skill that’s taken them to the CT Flower and Garden Show and holiday caroling at Bradley International Airport.
Dannison said the biggest draw isn’t any single group, but the sheer range that 10 of them performing together can offer.
“The second that you get into a group, you’re connected with your group, but also being connected with the wider community of UConn A Cappella is something that’s really unique to having 10 groups,” Dannison said. “You’re a part of your own group’s family, but you’re also connected with this massive community and network of really awesome people.”
That message can resonate with freshmen in the crowd, many of whom will audition for one of the association’s groups soon. Dannison’s advice to them was simple: don’t overthink it.
“Do everything,” she said. “Say yes to everything. We’ve all been in your shoes before.”
For a campus as large as UConn’s, she added that a cappella has a way of “making this massive campus feel a lot smaller.”
Jokl, who auditioned in the fall of his freshman year, called that the best decision he has made since coming to UConn and offered a similar message over text.
“Sing and be true to your voice,” he said. “Don’t sing like you think you should sound like, sing how you sound like, because I promise you, your voice is beautiful.”
He noted that members of Extreme Measures have joined with no experience beyond singing in the shower and that reading sheet music is not a prerequisite for auditioning.
In Jokl’s eyes, the rush concert does something for the groups that other performances can’t.
It is a night “about growing the community,” he wrote, and about finding more people to share music with.
“I think community is something that we’re lacking right now, and I think that music is a great way to spread that,” Jokl wrote.