COMMONWEALTH NEWS FROM BU AND BEYOND

Alums on America’s Got Talent Quartet makes it to final round

Sons of Serendip is a quartet of BU alums: (from left) cellist and vocalist Kendall Ramseur (CFA’12), pianist and guitarist Cordaro Rodriguez (LAW’12), lead vocalist Micah Christian (STH’13), and harpist Mason Morton (CFA’12). JACKIE RICCIARDI JACKIE

The musical quartet Sons of After 15 weeks of stiff competition, have pure, raw talent,” Howard Stern Serendip had per formed together in the group made it to the September (CGS’74, COM’76), a judge on the front of an audience only once before 16 season finale, when they were one show, told them. Judge Howie Mandel they auditioned for the television of six acts competing for $1 million. hailed the quartet as “the most talented show America’s Got Talent—in front “You always win us over, because you people we have in this contest.” of 3,000 people at Madison Square In the end, a magician Garden. The group—lead vocalist won the prize. But Sons of Micah Christian (STH’13), harpist Serendip came away with Mason Morton (CFA’12), cellist and something else, according to vo calist Kendall Ramseur (CFA’12), judge Mel B: “You now have and pianist and guitarist Cordaro a platform to do whatever Rodriguez (LAW’12)—performed you want.”

a soulful, understated rendition of OF SONS SERENDIP COURTESY “We never imagined we’d “Somewhere Only We Know,” taking be here and finish in fourth the audience by storm and wowing place,” Christian said follow- judges and viewers alike. ing the quartet’s elimination.

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04-17_BostoniaFall2014_v2.indd 4 10/3/14 11:18 AM The band’s name is a ref erence to the seren dipitous circumstances that brought each member to Boston University as a graduate student. Ramseur wasn’t even sure he’d go to graduate school, but once on campus, he reunited with Rodriguez, a childhood friend Aaron Goldberg, BU’s he grew up with in Charlotte, director of Athletic Bands N.C. Christian almost decided to (inset), got a call from forgo his acceptance to the School a casting agency hoping to fill 100 uniforms for of Theology in favor of taking a parade scene. a job with Teach for America, CYDNEY SCOTT (2) SCOTT CYDNEY but changed his mind at the last minute. He met Rodriguez and Ramseur when he hired them to accompany him at a choral Faking It with Johnny Depp concert. Morton, who earned an BU Band in Whitey Bulger biopic Black Mass undergraduate degree in harp from Rice University, says the The musicians marched in ed with every way pos- first person he met in Boston their trademark scarlet- sible so we could be was Ramseur and he wound up and-white uniforms. The prepared for whatever living with him and Rodriguez. drum line kept rhythm. the movie people asked,” “Our story helps us to feel that The color guard twirled Goldberg says. in some way we belong together,” fl ags. A hundred students What band mem- Christian says. marched in perfect uni- bers hadn’t anticipated, The friends hadn’t planned on son down a city street. however, was that they forming a musical group. Christian Then someone yelled would simply pretend to and Rodriguez were pursuing “Cut!” and the scene for Owen March,’ which was play, so the audio could careers outside of music, Morton the fi lm Black Mass, with fairly simple thankfully, capture the actors’ lines. was teaching harp at the James P. Johnny Depp playing so we could get outside “I cannot tell you how hard Timilty Middle School in Roxbury, Boston mobster Whitey and practice marching, it is to get 100 students to Mass., and Ramseur was honing a Bulger, was done. because most of us had be perfectly in time going solo career as a cellist. Aaron Goldberg, BU’s never marched with each down the street in utter Last spring, Christian suggested director of Athletic Bands, other,” Goldberg says. silence,” Goldberg says. that they audition for America’s got the call last June from Although the real “The drummers had to Got Talent. They faced long odds. a local casting agency St. Patrick’s Day parade fake play without hitting Before that, their only perfor- hoping to fi ll 100 uniforms is held in South Boston, their drums.” In all, the mance had been for a St. Patrick’s Day pa- this one was shot in Lynn, band marched through 28 WEB EXTRA a concert at Sim- rade scene. “I was worried which was deemed to have takes between 6:30 a.m. Watch a mons College in because so many people the long-gone grittiness and 6:30 p.m., a 12-hour video of Sons front of a group of were off campus at that of Southie in Whitey gig for which they were of Serendip performing about 20. They point,” he says. “But with- Bulger’s day. paid nothing, although Leonard Cohen’s were one of in 14 hours, we had over Filming began at 6:30 they were given $2,500 “Hallelujah” 100,000 acts 200 interested people, a.m. “We simply marched for transportation costs at bu.edu trying out for the and there were almost up the street behind a and another $2,500 for /bostonia. hit reality show. 300 by the next day.” The fl oat,” says BU Pep Band dry-cleaning the uniforms. Ramseur describes the quartet’s band that appears in the manager Jennifer Gough The fi lm, scheduled style as a fusion of R&B, hip-hop, fi lm is actually a hybrid of (SAR’16). “We did the for release in September and classical. Their musical in- about 50 band members, same thing several times.” 2015, is based on the book flu ences are equally eclectic, 30 band alumni, and 20 Band members had Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, and range from Yanni and film students from other col- practiced marching dif- the FBI, and a Devil’s Deal, composer Hans Zimmer to India leges and high schools. ferent ways so they’d be cowritten by Dick Lehr, Arie and Amos Lee—all making The group had only one ready for whatever was a College of Communica- for a dis tinctive sound that defies rehearsal before the shoot. needed. “Turns to the left, tion journalism profes- genre, and as Morton puts it, “feeds “We rushed through mem- right, wide intervals from sor, and Gerard O’Neill the soul more than entertains.” orization of the piece, the student to student, short (COM’70). IRENE BERMAN- SAMANTHA PICKETTE (COM’15) Irish folk tune ‘The Garry intervals—we experiment- VAPORIS (COM’14)

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