The Dartmouth Aires is an

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

a cappella group from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

. The group rose to fame in the third season of the

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musical competition ''

The Sing-Off ''The Sing-Off'' was an American television singing competition featuring a cappella groups. It debuted on NBC on December 14, 2009, and was produced by Sony Pictures Television and Outlaw Productions, with Mark Burnett's One Three Media (for a ...

'', placing runner-up behind international a cappella sensation Pentatonix.

History

Dartmouth College's oldest a cappella singing group, the Aires were originally formed as the ''Injunaires'' in 1946 as an offshoot of the college Glee Club. After changing the group name in 1972, the Aires became independent of the Glee Club in the late 1970s.The Dartmouth Aires: A Little History
Although the Aires usually have around eighteen members, group numbers vary on a term-to-term basis. Auditions are held at the beginning of every fall term. Upon joining, each member receives a nickname consisting of two syllables and ending in "o." Members of the Aires pick songs to arrange based on the group's tastes, singing a variety of styles as a result. According to their website, the group's repertoire features "a wide mix of contemporary favorites, traditional Ivy League tunes, sketch comedy, and the occasional piece of opera." Most of the group's arrangements consist of a soloist, background singers, and a

vocal percussion Vocal percussion is the art of creating sounds with one's mouth that approximate, imitate, or otherwise serve the same purpose as a percussion instrument, whether in a group of singers, an instrumental ensemble, or solo. In Western music Recent ...

ist. The Aires perform at numerous events each term at Dartmouth and locally in the Upper Valley. They frequently take weekend road-trips, singing and reveling at other colleges, performing for schools and private events, and entertaining at Dartmouth alumni clubs. Every winter break, the Aires tour the Eastern Seaboard, while traveling further afield every spring. Recent spring tours have taken them to Aruba, Costa Rica,

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Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, a few of the Hawaiian Islands,

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, and Hong Kong. Recent Aires accolades include winning the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award (CARA) for Best All-Male Collegiate Album for both their 2003 ("Black Tie Affaire") and 2005 ("Impaired") album releases, as well as selection for Varsity Vocals' Best Of Collegiate A Cappella compilation albums in 2003, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2015, and 2021 and selection for the Voices Only compilation CD in 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2011. Their most recent album, ''On Aire'', was released in December 2017. In 2011, they competed in

season 3 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In tempera ...

The Sing Off ''The Sing-Off'' was an American television singing competition featuring a cappella groups. It debuted on NBC on December 14, 2009, and was produced by Sony Pictures Television and Outlaw Productions, with Mark Burnett's One Three Media (for a ...

, a national reality show. The group performing on the show included 16 Aires from the classes of 2010 through 2014. Out of 16 original contestants, they finished as first runner-up behind Pentatonix, whose rise to stardom was catalyzed by the show.

''The Sing-Off'' Performances

The Dartmouth Aires made the following performances. Note that they did not perform in Episodes 1 and 3: *Episode 2: Signature Songs ** Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder *Episode 4: Current Hits and 1960s Favorites **

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** Pinball Wizard by

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

*Episode 5: Guilty Pleasures **

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*Episode 6: Hip Hop **

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by Flo Rida *Episode 7: Superstar Medleys **

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and Somebody to Love by

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*Episode 8: Rock and Country ** We're Not Gonna Take It by

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** Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy by

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*Episode 9: R&B ** Ignition (Remix) by

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** Midnight Train to Georgia by

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*Episode 10: Mastermix Medleys and Judges' Choice **

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/ Born This Way by

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** Shout by

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**Won in a "Sing Off Battle" with

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where they sang "Somebody to Love" by

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*Episode 11: Live Finale **

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(with Amy Whitcomb of

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) ** Not the Same by Ben Folds (with Judge Ben Folds) ** Somewhere from ''

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'' (swan song)

Albums

*On Aire (2017) *Truth or Daire (2014) *Fresh Aire (2011) *Extraordinaire (2008) *Impaired (2004) *Dartmouth Undying (2002) *Black Tie Affaire (2002) *Numerous older albums and records (1950-1990s)

Notable alumni

* Mahlon "Sandy" Apgar (1962), housing, infrastructure, and real estate consultant *Marc "Dojo" Bruni (1999), Tony-, Grammy-, and Olivier-winning director of '' Beautiful: The Carole King Musical'' * Paul "Lazo" Lazarus (1976), director, producer and writer of film, television, and theatre * Clark "Gelo" Moore (2013), actor and writer * Michael "Nemo" Odokara-Okigbo (2012), musician and philanthropist

References

External links

Dartmouth Aires Official websiteVarsity VocalsDartmouth Aires' repertoireContemporary A Cappella Recording Award (CARA)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dartmouth Aires American vocal groups Collegiate a cappella groups Dartmouth College student organizations Musical groups from New Hampshire Musical groups established in 1946