Two Penn a cappella groups -- Off the Beat and Penn 6-5000 -- won national honors two weeks ago as the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards were announced. OTB and Counterparts, which despite not winning was nominated for all four awards for the second year in a row, were represented in the Best Mixed Collegiate categories, while Penn 6-5000 earned nominations in all three Best Male Collegiate categories. Jeff Marrazzo, OTB's musical director and a College and Engineering junior, explained the reason Penn excels on the a cappella scene is because "other schools don't do their own arrangements," causing them to lack a "certain creativity" that several Penn groups have. The Contemporary A Cappella Society of America -- which decides what groups win the CARAs -- accepts albums from a cappella groups nationwide. A committee of 10 to 13 people select the best album, song, arrangement and soloist for categories divided into male, female and mixed collegiate. Off the Beat won best album for its recent release Patio, best song with their cover of the Police hit "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and College senior Allison Deutermann was named best soloist. OTB's Sid Khosla, a 1998 College graduate, also won the award for best arrangement, with fellow group member and 1998 College graduate Dan Gross chosen as runner-up. OTB has won best arrangement for the past four years. Penn 6-5000's Ananda Sen, a 1998 College graduate, won best male collegiate soloist and the group was runner-up for the best song award with Lisa Loeb's "Stay," to which they changed the lyrics. They also earned a nomination for best album with Elixir and Scott Harris was nominated for Best Male Collegiate Arrangement. Even so, Scott Melker, a College senior and Penn-6 member, said the group has not received the recognition it deserved this year, whereas last year, the group won several awards. "We put out an album that was 10 times as good this year and we won nothing," he said. But regardless of the awards, Penn 6 is certainly in good company among its peers, as evidenced by the Best of Collegiate A Cappella album. In addition to the CARAs, BOCA -- put out each January by Smokin' Fish Records since 1994 -- also has a good representation of Penn groups. Counterparts President Gabriel Aherne, a College senior, said that no other school was better represented on the BOCA CD, featuring four Penn groups. "I thinks that is quite a testament to the depth of talent on this campus," he said. "Lots of schools have room for exactly one decent group, but I can't name another with room for as many as Penn has." According to Marrazzo, BOCA reviews between 200 and 250 albums, and just 19 tracks are chosen.
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