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The University of Michigan Dicks and Janes Homepage Information on the group's current events, membership, performances, and recordings. |
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Group Pictures Includes select photos from performances, retreats, tours, parties, weddings, and more. |
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Pages about Individual Members Includes individual dedications to Marc Smollin, Erin Satchell Yuen, Michael Yuen, Rachele Cooper, Chris Dwan, Melinda Wenner, Clark Haynes, Rick Davies, Karen Emick Davies, Shirley Bartov, Andy Sievers, Josh Bueller, Travis Atkinson, Christy Lombardi, Roel van Lanen, and Trey Harris. |
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Fall 2001 Retreat Clip of "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" A VERY rough clip...if you'd like to hear the official recorded version, e-mail me (aaustria@umich.edu) or buy Show-N-Tell from The University of Michigan Dicks and Janes Website. |
Originally sung by Nina Gordon Arranged by Melinda Wenner Solo by Aimee Austria |
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Dicks and Janes is a coed collegiate a cappella group at The University of Michigan. It was started in the Spring of 1998, when a University of Michigan Musical Theatre student, Marc Smollin, auditioned over 100 students for a brand new coed a cappella group, which then did not even have a name! With the help of friends Jessica Murphy and Heidi Powers, Smollin chose a group of 14 young, inexperienced students who simply loved a cappella music and enjoyed singing together. During that summer, the group members went back and forth between several different names for the group, such as "Pop Culture," the "Nudie Toons," and "Rollicking Crew," a reference to the University of Michigan alma mater. However, the final choice for the name "Dicks and Janes" (suggested by Erin Satchell) stemmed from what the group truly represented to each other and what each member wanted the public to see: just a variety of guys and gals coming together in a group to make great a cappella music and have tons of fun singing together. Dicks and Janes has come a long way since then. We have participated in numerous concerts and gigs all over the U.S. and have toured many universities along the East Coast and West Coast. Some of our performances include opening for Rockapella during Summer 2002 in Ann Arbor, singing at Northwestern's "Best of the Midwest" in Fall 1999 (hosted by NW's Purple Haze), and hosting Acappellooza in Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater every fall. We also have had the honor of competing in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella quarter finals since Fall 1999, and have won awards for "Best Soloist" (Josh Bueller, "Everything You Want," 2001), Best Choreography ("Oops, I Did It Again," 2001), and Best Arrangment (Trey Harris and Josh Bueller, "Lady Marmalade," 2002). To learn more about the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, click here. The artform of a cappella is like no other. It is completely different from singing songs with the church organist at weddings, giving a monologue in a tragic play, sweating tears with your fellow band members at a concert, or performing in musical theatre. A group of 13 young men and women learn so much singing in a small, coed a cappella group. While we continue to work hard on our own individual parts and performances, we are constantly interacting with each other, aiming for a sound as close to musical perfection as possible, and continually modifying our group dynamic. We depend on each other so much...maybe we are more like a "rollicking crew." But what sets Dicks and Janes apart from some collegiate a cappella ensembles is the unique contributions by every single member of the group, which only serve to unite us further and give DJs its own sense of style. I have had the honor of growing and performing with some of the most talented, intelligent, and warm-hearted people I have ever met in my college career, the type of people you would never forget, no matter how old you are. My experiences in Dicks and Janes are filled with meaningful memories of achieving that special musical "high" during a performance, personally developing a great deal as a musician, learning some painful lessons about myself and other people, and many wonderful times spent with some of the best people on the face of this earth. Dicks and Janes has been one of the biggest sources of "family" to me in the midst of a big college campus, and I will carry with me some of the friendships I have made through DJs for the rest of my life. | |