Photo by: Ryan Lumpkin

About six years ago, a group of talented and passionate student singers found each other and instantly formed a tight-knit family. They shared an enthusiasm for singing, a determination to be successful, and a diversity of talents and personalities that constructed the a cappella IdioSINGcrasies.

IdioSINGcrasies performed Friday night in Davis Auditorium for their last performance of the year. They are also releasing an album titled DUly Noted.

IdioSINGcrasies currently consists of four freshmen, one sophomore, six juniors and three seniors.

“It’s nice we are all so versatile,” said junior April Martz. “If we had to, each member could sing anything needed.”

During the first year, the developing group of singers only performed at small, on-campus events, trying to make a presence in the DU community. However, after the members decided to make their a cappella group more commonly known and build an elite reputation at DU and around the Denver area.

They continued their appearances for DU events, but also performed on the Channel 9 news, fundraiser events in Colorado Springs and Aspen, and competed in vocal competitions such as the Mile High Vocal Jam in the fall of each year, which is known as their sectionals competition.

“During the first couple years of competing, a group from Boulder has won the Mile High Vocal Jam, but this fall we took first with our ‘Broken Hearts Medley,'” said freshman Marcus Yetter. “This competition has many professional judges and elite, [competitive] groups, so it was a really big honor to perform there.”

In the fall, during the competition, the IdioSINGcrasies were short six of their members while they were abroad, and still managed to capture a first place finish. From the Mile High Vocal Jam, the IdioSINGcrasies moved onto the regional competition where they competed against more schools around Colorado and neighboring states. During regionals, they placed third, preventing them from moving onto the national competition in California.

The original, now alumni members, of IdioSINGcrasies took the initiative to begin archiving their voices by recording an album.

“The founding members recorded ‘Thriller’ [by Michael Jackson] in the basement of a guy’s house,” said junior member and president Michelle Fox. “The recording artist grew as we grew. He moved from his basement with the founding members, to having his own recording studio, where we worked with him and recorded the rest of the album.”

Although being a member of the IdioSINGcrasies is a large commitment, and they spend about seven hours a week practicing, they have a blast performing, rehearsing, recording, and spending time with each other because singing is their passion and they all get along so well.

“Our life is like ‘Glee,’ except way better!” said Martz.