RUSH ANNOUNCEMENTS for 2009 may be viewed here. If you're interested in rushing Shades in the fall of 2009, you can contact our friendly rush managers (shadesrush@panlists.yale.edu) for the 2009-2010 season: Chelsea Allen, Amy Rosenblum, and Taylor Lasley.

Rush is the process by which Yale's many a cappella groups audition, get to know, and tap new members every September. This page is intended to serve as a guide to the rush process, specifically as it pertains to Shades.

So why should somebody rush? People rush for all kinds of reasons—because they love to sing, because they love to perform, because they want to meet new people. Shades sings music of the African American tradition—jazz, R&B, pop, gospel, and traditional songs. The group writes its own arrangements, puts together its own choreography, travels the world, and, has a LOT of fun doing it.

 

Shades' Tap Nights 2007 and 2008

Some of the group's members grew up listening to the Shades' musical tradition, while others were not familiar with it at all before coming to Yale. The group's members have previously sung in church choirs and school musicals, community choruses, their own bands, and some did not start singing until coming to Yale! Some members are studying classical voice at Yale; some are pre-med (and some are both!). Ultimately, all of the group's members joined Shades because they liked the group's sound, its mission, and the Shades members who they met during rush. The most important thing during the rush process is to find a group whose sound speaks to you—a group in which you would be excited to sing.

So how exactly are you supposed to do that when there are 15 a cappella groups AND you're trying to figure out what course to take to fulfill your Sc distributional requirement, whether to join the YDN, the YPU or the YGC, how to install your printer, and how to make your parents stop calling you three times a day?