Our male a cappella group, A Cappella Nuance, sent its love to Northeast Ohio on Valentine's Day, singing love songs Thursday, Feb. 14, on the Fox 8 morning show. The following evening, Feb. 15, the group will perform its first-ever Valentine’s Day concert at 8 p.m. in Zook Hall 110. The show is free.
Hear the group:
Fox 8 Jukebox: Nuance
The set list of 11 songs includes classic and contemporary hits, such as "My Girl" by the Temptations, "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis Presley, "Accidentally in Love" by the Counting Crows and "Mine" by Taylor Swift, according to senior English and education major Brandon Crites, the group's president.
Tunes from many eras
"I’m very happy with the songs we've chosen," he says. "We always try to have a mix of songs that will please everyone in the audience, which means we include songs from different times, upbeat and slower songs, happy and sad songs, and anything else that can give the show variety."
A Cappella Nuance has two concerts per year, one at the end of each semester in Leigh Hall auditorium. Junior communications major and Nuance tenor Jay Jackman says the group plans to add the Valentine's Day concert to its annual schedule.
"We wanted to add this extra concert not only to challenge ourselves, but because our fans hate waiting so long between the two performances," Jackman says.
Jackman originally contacted Fox 8 in the hopes of "getting our name out there."
However, the group does not seem to have had trouble getting its name "out there." Since its inception in 2004, A Cappella Nuance has performed at a variety of venues and earned local and international acclaim.
Welcome at home and abroad
Its premier performance was alongside the UA concert and Chamber Choirs at the spring choral concert in spring 2004. Crites mentions that, since then, the group "has grown to be much larger than we ever believed possible," adding that its members have performed at Cleveland Cavaliers games and in Italy.
In 2006, A Cappella Nuance placed first in the jazz/pop category in the 45th Concorso Internazionale di Canto Corale Seghizzi competition in Gorizia, Italy.
For now, though, members are focused on winning hearts at home. A recent post on the A Cappella Nuance Facebook page reads: "We're gonna sweep you off your feet and into the land of love."
Story by Nicholas Nussen
Media contact: Laura Massie, 330-972-6476 or massie1@uakron.edu.