From 5,000 Nationwide Groups, 4 Semi-Finalists Remain in 64 Team Bracket for $10K and Social Justice Charities in “Pitch Perfect Meets March Madness”* Biggest College A Cappella Championship in History!
Penn
Masala vs. Harvard
Opportunes BYU Vocal Point vs.
Vanderbilt Melodores
Results
Jan. 12th, 8:00 P.M. EST (GMT –5) on Broadway
On Demand
NEW YORK, NY —
In a brave
new virtual world, from 5,000+ College A Cappella groups, 64 of the nation’s most acclaimed and award
winning groups
were invited to compete in the unprecedented “UpStagedAID:
One World, Every Student Voice™” NCPA A Cappella Championships for $10,000+
in cash prizes for teams and their chosen Social Justice Charity.
Penn Masala is one of five South
Asian College groups who fought their way to the top of this NCPA Competition. Formed in 1996, all-male Penn Masala is renowned as the
world’s first and leading South Asian A Cappella group,
having performed worldwide for celebrity audiences from the White House to the
Bollywood Music Awards. Penn Masala is featured in the Hollywood
blockbuster Pitch
Perfect 2. Their cover of “Any Way You Want It” was part of the Best Soundtrack
Winner at the 2015 American Music Awards.
Broadway On Demand, the industry-leading livestream platform in performing arts, will showcase the announcement with Ringling Bros.’ Last
Ringmaster,
Johnathan Lee Iverson, hosting and Tony
Award-winning show Hamilton’s, actor extraordinaire Jared Dixon (Aaron Burr) congratulating the finalists.
NPR’s Peabody Award-winning Morning Edition recently announced the semi-finalists:
To reach the Closing Quartet, NCPA
Mid-Atlantic Champion Penn Masala dominated fellow NCPA A Cappella All-American, Midwest Region Champion,
and Big 10 A Cappella powerhouse Illinois No Comment after stunning last
minute come-from-behind victories over NBC’s The Sing-Off competitors Howard
Afro Blue and Ivy League rival Princeton
Footnotes.
A Penn Masala spokesperson said, “We are delighted to be in these
Upstaged Championships. We perform a mashup song of Castle on the Hill and the
Hindi song Ilahi. It’s a perfect representation of both Western culture and our
South Asian roots. We are supporting Black Men Heal, a local NGO here that
works towards mental health.”
Teams
are competing for the NCPA A Cappella Championship, NCPA A Cappella All-American
status, and $10,000 for teams and their Social Justice Charities. Nearly 150K votes were cast in
head-to-head matches to reach the Closing Quartet. UpStaged Entertainment Group’s Director of
Talent, and former Elite
Model Management International talent/model executive Victoria Duruh,
commented:
“Legendary
Penn Masala’s popularity across ethnic,
racial and cultural boundaries is absolutely remarkable. Their ‘Pitch Perfect’
fame is only a part. Penn Masala led a remarkable dominance of South
Asian A cappella Groups in these UpStaged NCPA Championships, one of 5 South
Asian Groups, out of 5,000+ Nationwide, that made it to UpStaged’s Round of 32
Notables, and 2 to the Octet Eight. No other A Cappella genre came close to as
many representatives, and Penn Masala led
with a successful formula of Brains, Beauty and Harmony!”
The Closing
Quartet A Cappella Finalists were determined by a panel of esteemed judges:
Emmy-winning television choral contest Sing That Thing! (PBS)
judge/vocal consultant and Berklee Music Professor Annette Philip; acclaimed vocalist,
songwriter, producer, and co-founder of international touring group, The
Exchange, Christopher Diaz;
and global talent scout, formerly with Elite Model Management, Karen
Lee Grybowski (discovered Cindy Crawford, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Gisele
Bundchen).
In
the Closing Quartet, Penn Masala faces NCPA New
England Champion and NCPA All-Americans Harvard Opportunes (competing for
the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund) who held off NCPA Northeast
Region and South Asian National Champion Rutgers RAAG after
defeating decorated Ivy nemesis Doox of Yale and top-ranked
Berklee
Pitch Slapped.
*Pitch Perfect™ and
March Madness® are trademarks of the respective owners. UpStaged Entertainment
Group is not affiliated with, endorsed, or sponsored by either trademark owner.
Entertainment Group
Broadway On Demand is the
industry-leading livestream platform housing performance and theatre education
programming, & the preferred choice of top Broadway artists, producers,
educators, and professionals. Broadway On Demand has streamed over 2500 events
and live productions – from Broadway shows to concert series, performance
venues to individual artists and original content. Broadway On Demand's
proprietary ShowShare™ licensing interface enables professional,
community, college, and high school theatre productions to stream globally.
UpStaged Entertainment Group is a
NYC-based diversified performing arts platform empowering the world’s student
performers to compete for live/digital national championships, like student
athletes, across 20+ genres (e.g. step, comedy, DJ) in premier
venues and on virtual platforms (from Lincoln Center to Zoom). Operating under
the NCPA™ and National High School Performing Arts (NHSPA)™ brands to bring
successful sports models to performing arts, UpStaged creates the structure to
bring cohesiveness to historically siloed performing arts communities.
SOUTH ASIAN A CAPPELLA
TEAMS DOMINATE . . .
In addition
to Penn
Masala, a remarkable 4 other South Asian groups were selected, from
5,000+ nationwide, in this historic Collegiate championships: Rutgers RAAG, University of Miami’s Tufaan, University of Texas’ Hum,
and Texas A&M’s Swaram.
RAAG was founded in 2002 as the
Nation’s first all-gender South Asian fusion A Cappella group, blending
classical Indian elements with Western composition techniques. RAAG has won
multiple Asian Fusion national titles and recently released their first album Mosaic. The name is derived from ancient
Sanskrit describing a classical music genre and emphasizing passion and beauty
in composing music. NCPA Northeast
Region #2 Seed RAAG became NCPA A Cappella All-Americans and Region Champions making
it to the NCPA Octet Eight after defeating Northeast #1 seed University of Rochester Midnight
Ramblers and #3 seed Hofstra Sigma’Cappella.
As one of the Nation’s premiere
award-winning Hindi-American fusion A Cappella groups, Tufaan is among the
University of Miami’s most diverse campus organizations. On the South Asian
Fusion competition circuit, the group swept up awards across the country in
winning the University of Pittsburgh’s Steel City Sapna and University of
Iowa’s Gathe Raho, taking second at UNC’s Sangeet Saagar before claiming a
National Championship at the Awaaz. Tufaan
was the NCPA Southeast Region #4 Seed, and made it to the Round of 32 Notables.
Hum is a South Asian fusion A Cappella group that
uses their amazing voices to create a blend of South Asian and American musical
culture. Hum has evolved into a group of diverse vocalists who love to share
their love of music through performances, national competitions and studio
album recordings. Hum blends cultures and puts a unique spin on both Hindi and
English songs. They are a group of highly dynamic vocalists who arrange all of
their songs by themselves. Hum was the NCPA Southwest Region #4 Seed, and made
it to the Round of 32 & the All-American Encore round.
Swaram – Texas A&M
University
Founded in 2007, Swaram is a
South Asian fusion all-gender group fusing Indian and Western musical styles. Swaram is the two-time reigning
champion of the South Asian A Cappella Championship, Awaaz All-American, and
has released multiple albums and EPs on Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. In addition to competing,
Swaram performs for philanthropy groups, seeking to communicate a message that
their audience can relate to. Swaram
qualified for the All-American finals, competing for one of the last 4 NCPA A Cappella
All-American spots to be announced on Thursday at 8 pm on
Broadway on Demand.
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