What's new with AstroCappella

October 14, 2008
    The Chromatics and the Johannes Kepler Project are pleased to announce the release of the AstroCappella song "Shoulders of Giants". This song was commissioned by the Johannes Kepler Project, written and arranged by Padi Boyd, and performed by The Chromatics, specifically for the International Year of Astronomy 2009. "Shoulders of Giants", which celebrates Galileo's first glimpse of the heavens through his telescope -- and the astonishing pace of discovery ushered in by his observations -- will be used as part of the Johannes Kepler Project's 2009 Astronomy Music Video Contest.
July 5, 2008
    The Chromies are very pleased to have been able to perform at the Washington's Smithsonian Folklife Festival! We had a great time representing NASA on the Exploration Stage. Here's a review of the Festival from a Korean online newspaper and we're the only thing they mention about the NASA area!
April 25, 2007
    The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (better known as AIM) mission launched today. And while that's exciting to us, more exciting to most of you is that there's a new AstroCappella song about the mission and its goal of studying noctilucent clouds. Listen to the new song "Noctilucent Cloud" and read all about it, starting on our AIM page.
March 20, 2006
    We finally won something!!! (Those of you who know us well realize how funny those words are!) The Chromatics won the Greenbelt Arts Center Musical Production of the Year Award. It's an honor!
December 31, 2005
    Whew! What a year. We finished it off singing at the top of a big hill, under the colorful and tall pillars of the Masonic Temple in Alexandria, Virginia. A big THANK YOU to all our fans who came out throughout the year and especially to our December GAC concerts. You make the rehearsing and lugging of equipment all worthwhile!
October 3-9, 2005
    The Chromies headed to Shreveport, Louisiana, for 7 performances at the Red River Revel, a teachers-in-training workshop, a concert and two educational workshops at the Sci-Port museum and a black-tie fundraiser. All told, that comes to 12 performances in 5 days. Whew! We had a great time (though we're a bit short on sleep right now). We ate and drank, met some fantasitc people and had fun performing at the Red River Revel. More details to come, after some rest! Some images are available.
August 1, 2005
    The Annapolis Capital newspaper ran a feature article about the Chromatics in their "Neighborhoods" section. The photos in the actual paper copy are fun! This reprint in acappellanews.com is the only way to still read it!
July 13, 2005 March 2005
    The Chromatics are heading into the studio to work on the next CD. We've got a couple songs already "in the can": La La Land; Sunday Morning, Yellow Sky; and Science of Love. In March, we'll be working on Lost It, Cowboy Chant, and Reggae Time.
January 2005
    The BBC site links to the AstroCappella's Swift Song from their news story about the Swift launch, and we're highlighted in Nature magazine's news blog regarding our poster at the American Astronomical Society meeting.

    We've been nominated for two more WAMMIES (Washington Area Music Awards). They're for A Cappella Group and A Cappella Recording (Mixed Messages). Stay tuned for the results (though we're up against Sweet Honey in the Rock in both categories)!

November 2004 September 29, 2004
    Starting in mid-October, the Swift Song will be part of the gallery content at the National Space Centre, in Leicester, UK. Visitors will be able to access the song and other content via museum-provided PDAs.
September 9, 2004
    "Hotter Than Blue" is a new 45-minute planetarium program, currently being previewed at the Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta, and due for general release to planetaria nationwide in January 2005. This show about x-ray and gamma-ray astronomy is built around the music of "High Energy Groove" (our ode to the high energy universe) and is narrated by Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek fame!
May 26, 2004
    The BBC's Radio 4 strikes again! Thanks to an attentive listener, we found out that portions of our song "Habitable Zone" were featured on the show Venus Across the Sun in the days leading up to the Transit of Venus on June 8. Take a listen to the archived show to learn more about Venus. We're featured in Program 1 at about 4 minutes and 13 minutes into the show.
April 5, 2004
    We had a great time last night at the Mid-Atlantic Harmony Sweepstakes! We didn't win - the competition was very strong this year! We met and talked to a lot of the other groups, and we performed well, which is really all we can ask for! We'd like to thank all our fans who came out to see us and cheer us on. We really appreciate all of you, and are grateful for your encouragement and loyalty!!
February 17, 2004
    We're going to the Sweeps again! On April 4, we'll be competing with groups from all over the east coast (and Fargo ND) in the Mid-Atlantic Harmony Sweepstakes. Order your tickets now at the Birchmere web site!

    Our "Encounter at Farpoint! We had a great time singing and meeting all the folks at the Farpoint Con in Baltimore this past weekend. We really want to do it again!

November 19, 2003 June 21, 2003
    The NASA CONNECT program "Data Analysis and Measurement: Having a Solar Blast!", which features "The Sun Song" was awarded a regional Emmy award in the Children/Youth Program category. Read more...
June 12, 2003
    The Material World, a program on BBC Radio 4 played part of High Energy Groove on a program about SIRTF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, to be launched this August by NASA. Program presenter Quentin Cooper stated on the air that he'd like to devote an entire show to us! Email him, and in your best British accent, tell him "yes!"
May 13, 2003
    The Swift Song wrongly triggered an RIAA cease-and-desist letter at Penn State University. This article and similar ones appeared in cnet.news.com, businessweek.com, slashdot.org and others. This press caused a run on AstroCappella 2.0 CDs and a boat-load of press for us. The irony was that the editor at cnet decided that crediting the artists in the MP3 file (us), was outside the scope of the article! But we thank Declan McCullagh for perservering and getting our names out there.
February 9, 2003
    Well, we didn't win a Wammie Award, but (and repeat after me) "it was an honor to be nominated!" We had a good time at the awards ceremony, although there are so many awards, they can only present about 1/3 of them and none of the three we were nominated for were actually "presented" with the reading of the nominees. Congrats to our buddies in DaVinci's Notebook for winning both a cappella categories!
January 14, 2003
    The Chromatics have been nominated for 3 Wammie awards (the Washington Area Music Association's annual award) in the categories
    • A Cappella Group
    • A Cappella Recording
    • Children's Music Recording
    We're sharing the ballot with notables such as Da Vinci's Notebook, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Reverb, and Tom Paxton. Needless to say, we're very happy. Wish us well - the awards ceremony is Sunday February 9 at the State Theater (Falls Church, VA) and tickets are available via the WAMA site.
December 30, 2002 September 3, 2002
    Anne Raugh, cofounder and former member of the Chromatics (the group behind AstroCappella) has had an asteroid named after her: Asteroid (12527) Anneraugh = 1998 JE3. What an honor - congrats Anne!
August 4, 2002
    The Chromatics performed two sets of AstroCappella music at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore. The performances were in connection with the Webcast of a live question and answer session with astronaut Peggy Whitson aboard the International Space Station.
July 4, 2002
    This date marks Lisa Kelleher's last concert with the Chromatics. Lisa's leaving to have her second child, due in August. Lisa's been singing with us since way way back, holding down the alto part, doing her famous "little drummer girl" impression (the best female vocal percussionist we know), and acting as our accountant. She's been responsible for several AstroCappella songs, arranging and singing lead on "HST-Bop" and co-writing the music to "Habitable Zone." We'll all miss Lisa, her dry wit, her singing, percussion, and business skills.
May 2, 2002
    The Prince George's (MD) Gazette published a very nice article about us with some great pictures.
April 27, 2002
    Sad News: This date marks Paul Kolb's last gig with us. Paul is leaving the group because of a conflict between his job and rehearsals and gigs. He's got a night job! We will miss his voice and sense of humor.

    Happy News: This date also marks Barry Mahaffey's first gig with us. Meet Barry at an upcoming gig.

April 1, 2002 March 29, 2002
    Penn State PBS Public Broadcasting's "What's in the News" show featured AstroCappella and the Chromatics.

March 28, 2002 March 17, 2002
    The Carroll County Times (MD) published an article about the Chromatics. Read it and find out who has a caustic wit, who would do just as well on "Jeopardy" as on "Star Search" and who thinks a cappella singing is mathematical?
February 28, 2002 February 27, 2002
    Sky & Telescope features AstroCappella 2.0 in the "New Products Showcase" in the April 2002 issue. S&T describes AstroCappella 2.0 as "an astronomy class set to music."
January 29, 2002 January 2, 2002 December 20, 2001 November 3, 2001 September 20, 2001
    The Chromatics released their 4th CD, AstroCappella 2.0. This latest CD is also a CD-ROM. Not only does it have 13 rocking a cappella originals about the universe, it's got activities, lesson plans, lyrics, a glossary, and background reading material for each of those 13 songs. It also has music videos, slide shows, and loads of cool pictures relating to each song. The music covers the Universe from our Sun, the Earth, and the entire solar system, to planets around other stars, the Doppler shift, nearby star systems, the Hubble Space Telescope, black holes and all the way out to the distant and powerful gamma-ray bursts. Learn about science the fun way!
April 12, 2001
    The Chromies videotaped a Bowie (Maryland) Cable TV show, "Science, Science" to talk about our AstroCappella project. In addition to interviews, there's some live and taped music, and some beautiful images of the universe. The broadcast date is TBD.
April 3, 2001
    Some group members presented an expanded version of the "Gamma-Ray Bursts: How Far, How Powerful" teacher workshop at Gamma 2001 in Baltimore. This was a more in-depth version of the workshop we gave in Hawaii in November (see below).
March 20, 2001
    The Chromies recorded "Lunar Love," one of the last songs for the new AstroCappella CD to be recorded.
November 2000
    In November, several members of the Chromatics went to Hawaii to present a workshop about Gamma-ray Bursts, in conjunction with the High Energy Astrophysics Division meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Among other things, we showed the teachers how they could use a red-shifted spectrum of a gamma-ray burst to determine how far and how powerful gamma-ray bursts are.
August 2000
    On August 1, we were videotaped singing four new astronomy songs. The four songs are part of our astronomically-correct project called AstroCappella. The songs are about the Solar System and and were filmed by the wonderful folks at Passport To Knowledge, who bring interactive science education into classrooms.
June 2000
    The New York Times published a "Word for Word" column about "Singing Scientists" featuring the Chromatics and two other acts from California and Switzerland. Quotes from "High Energy Groove" and "The Sun Song" are highlighted.
April 2000
    We recently got to hang with the unearthly beauty Jeri Ryan (the recovering Borg, Seven of Nine, on Star Trek Voyager) while we were all entertaining young girls at NASA Goddard's Take Our Daughters to Work Day. The obligatory "picture with the famous person" can be found on the Chromatics' Images page. Jeri was very nice and friendly, down-to-Earth, sat in the front row for our set, and said we rocked.

    Also this month, NASA released a video called "The Multiwavelength Milky Way" which features some of our songs, and Alan and Padi as "talking head" experts on astronomy! Order one!

January 2000
    The Swift song was played during the end credits of a Soundprint broadcast, an award-winning weekly radio documentary series that airs on public stations across the country. The episode was titled "Gamma Ray Skies." There is a RealAudio file of the broadcast avilable for those who missed it.
December 1999 June 1999
    AstroCappella and the Chromatics recently received a writeup in the New Zealand Science Monthly Discovery section including a healthy quote from "Doppler Shifting".
April 1999
    Live from the Sun, part of the award-winning PBS/NASA Select "Passport to Knowledge" series, featured two AstroCappella songs in its broadcast on April 13, 1999 at 1:00 PM EST. This segment featured live action at the SOHO operations center at NASA's GSFC, as well as pre-recorded segments. They filmed us in the studio "recording" the Sun Song and Doppler Shifting. The Sun Song, an original composition by Karen Smale, was used as a review of some basic solar physics. Alan Smale's original composition, Doppler Shifting, was also included to demonstrate how scientists use the Doppler Effect. With over 150 local PBS affiliates airing the previous segment of this series, the fruits of some of our outreach labors may be getting a national audience. Check your local listings for future airings of this program!
    The Chromatics were featured in the April issue of The Contemporary A Cappella News. We have a full-page spread which deals mostly with the AstroCappella aspect of our lives.
March 1999
    The Chromatics are mentioned in Physics Today, the publication of the American Institute of Physics. A small blurb about the AstroCappella Web site appears in their "Web Watch" column.
February 29, 1999
    The Chromatics take 2nd Runner Up in the Atlantic Regional Harmony Sweepstakes. More info.
February 6, 1999
    The Chromatics are featured in the Letters section of New Scientist magazine, a British science magazine similar to Scientific American. The letter was a response to a short article that appeared in January, publicizing our performance at the holiday party for the DC Science Writers Association.
1998
    The Chromatics were selected as semi-finalists in Disc Makers Independent Music World Series. Of the 800 acts entered, we were selected by "an independent group of A&R reps, radio programmers, music managers, and other industry heavies" as being in the top 7%. Alas, we did not win the big prize.