About the Amateurs
WHO WE ARE
Sometimes, the best way to get a feel for a group’s dynamic is to catch a glimpse of who the members become when they’re alone together. With a performing group, it can be hard to tell whether the smiles you stay or change once the audience has gone—whether the fun itself is part of the performance.
New members, though, figure out every year that there’s something different about the Amateurs. Somewhere between the retreats, the practices, the parties, and the performances we do together, there comes a moment for every Amateur where the stage changes from the goal of our work to another place where we have fun together. The smiles we show on stage aren’t produced or forced; they’re spilling over from backstage and from laughs that began in the first moments of our year together. We look like a co–ed a cappella group. We feel like friends who happen to sing together. Look through our pictures, listen to our music: when you love what you do, something amazing happens. Without that love, no one can make the jump from good to great. Our credo marks both our music and our members alike: do it because you love it.
WHAT WE DO
Living out this motto has made the Amateurs an integral group on Washington University’s vibrant a cappella scene. Each year, we bring a fresh repertoire to the stage as we perform at events from a cappella showcases (such as our annual concert, Goin' Pro) to university–sponsored events, from international competitions to private birthday parties. Our love for great music has not only brought us together as a group, but it has also won us acclaim both at the university and within the competitive sphere. Every year, the Amateurs sing for Washington University’s alumni reunions and commencement ceremonies. We have qualified for the International Championship for Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), and won awards there for individual and group excellence. We have recently finished the recording process for our fifth full–length studio album, mmm... Pie! Despite all of this, the Amateurs consider our sense of commitment to each other and love for what we do to be our crowning achievement. We believe that a cappella music should be fun, and we hold that the best way to create enjoyable music is first to enjoy it ourselves, and then to invite those who watch and listen to join in the fun.
OUR PAST
Formed in the fall of 1991, the Amateurs started as an accompanied choir sporting no fewer than 30 members. Back then, collegiate a cappella was in its infancy, and the Amateurs endeavored to bring something new, exciting, and different to Washington University’s musical scene. Our founders — Bob McKelvey and David Cooperstein — envisioned a group of singers who would operate under a single credo: do it because you love it.
Over the next six years, the Amateurs did just that. The group began using instruments less and less frequently, making their first forays into the pure a cappella form. Auditions brought incredible new singers every year, and members began to arrange modern rock, pop, and R&B music for strictly vocal performance. The Amateurs became less like a student organization and more like a tightly-knit group of musicians. Successful concerts and our debut album in 1997 established the Amateurs as a force on campus.
Recently, the Amateurs have taken their campus notoriety to the international competition scene with great success, while recording three critically-acclaimed albums over the past two years and performing on tour in Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and everywhere humanly possible along the way. The group’s new musical leadership has introduced fresh arrangements, exciting technique, and original composition into the mix. As a result of this, unique performance oppurtunities are constantly coming the group's way. In 2008, the Amateurs even performed their arrangement of "Love Song" for Sara Bareilles herself (check out the picture on our home page)! These days, “The Amateurs” is a familiar name on campus and in the international collegiate a cappella scene.
And today, just as in the fall of 1991, we hold fast to the original goals of our founders; we truly do it because we love it.
OUR FUTURE
As each year passes, the Amateurs become steadily stronger. Leaders graduate and new members make their mark on the group’s history, while each of us passes on ideas, music, traditions, and experience. Each time we perform, we learn more about our own voices and our collective sound, and we use that knowledge in rehearsal to make each show better than the one before it.
As the group tours the country, we build relationships with other groups, studios, producers, and colleges, making new fans and new friends wherever we go. For instance, the group we open for in Los Angeles on tour might become the opening act for our own concert the same year; similarly, the studio where we lay down new tracks in Boston might produce the next album we record in St. Louis.
As you might have guessed, our audition process keeps this whole thing going. Each fall, we have the opportunity to hear scores of amazing singers, most of whom are freshmen, newly-arrived on campus. From our audition pool each fall, we select our newest members. Those new members will select the next year’s new members, passing on their collective experiences and making their mark.
Now, it’s your turn to get in on the fun.