welcome!

The Rip Chords is the premier women's a cappella group at the University of Illinois, est. 1993. Welcome to our website! We have recently released "Skinker Boulevard," our eighth album. It's available on our merchandise page, so go check it out! In the meantime, thanks for visiting and supporting the Rip Chords!

We had a blast at our Prospect and Suburb shows and would like to thank everyone who came out to see us! The shows were a great success. In other news, the Rip Chords are busy preparing for next year, working on all new arrangements. We'll keep you posted about our upcoming fall auditions, which will happen at the beginning of the school year! And as always, we'd love to sing at your next big event. :)

prospect and suburb shows

may 26, 2009

With High School Tours finished, the Rip Chords are gearing up for our next big shows: the Prospect Show on Thursday, May 28, and the Suburb Show on Saturday, May 30 at 7pm! Both shows will be a blast. Hope to see you there! For more information (such as locations, starting times) on these shows, please visit our Calendar page.

newest cd release!

may 13, 2009

After many hours of hard work, the Rip Chords are very proud to release our newest CD, Skinker Boulevard!

The album has already received rave reviews from friends, family, and fans -- sample tracks will soon be available here on the website. Songs include City (Sara Bareilles), Going Under (Evanescence), Stop (the Spice Girls) and Rocksteady (Marc Broussard). With styles ranging from dark rock to upbeat pop to soulful ballads, Skinker Boulevard has a song (or ten!) for every listener. A complete list of tracks, as well as other information about the CD, is available on on our Merchandise page. Take a look!

The Rippies are also very excited to embark on our Spring High School Tours in the Chicagoland area. Contact business manager Christina for information on which schools we'll be performing at, and when! We'd love for you to come out and see us!

And lastly, our website redesign is almost finished! Hope you love the new look as much as we do. :)

leadership award

march 14, 2009

The Rip Chords have some very exciting news! We were recently nominated for one of the University of Illinois' Student Leadership Awards--specifically the T.I.S. Outstanding Organization Award - and we won! In addition to this humbling recognition, we were given a monetary award, which is absolutely amazing! The Rip Chords, the other winning student organizations, and all of the other SLA recipients will be acknowledged for our accomplishments at a ceremony in April. All of the Rip Chords are SO INCREDIBLY excited and honored about this award! Thank you all for your love and support!

Aaannnddd... Happy birthday, Christine! We love you!

returning member, photos

february 16, 2009

Hi everyone! There are a few updates to let you all know about! The Rip Chords are so excited that Anna Bussing has come back for another semester with us! She's fantastic, and we all love her very much! Also, our CD will be released the weekend of our Spring Show, April 17th! We're so SO so excited about it, and we'll keep you informed with updates! Finally, there are new photos uploaded onto the site of the lovely Rip Chords! There's also been a little bit of reorganization of the older albums. It's much easier for you all to navigate, so go take a look. There are lots of fun pictures up from this year! Thanks :)

quarterfinals

january 30, 2009

Well, our ICCA Quarterfinal has come and gone, and even though we didn't place, we had a lot of fun! We performed Yesterday, City, and It's Rainin' Men, and we are definitely really proud of our performance. A huge thank you to the Xtension Chords for hosting the event -especially their brilliant Demi-didecathon (?) events like "best unique talent" and "pin the tail on Chrispy" during the judges' deliberations. Thanks as well to all of your support at competition! There were so many friends and family members in the audience, and it meant so much to all of us! Best of luck to Lake Effect, Beartones, and to the other groups moving on to Semi-Finals at Northwestern University!

Also, come next weekend, we will be completely done recording our 8th CD! We are SO excited about it. The name and release date will be made public very soon, so keep looking back at the website for more information.

winter updates

january 4, 2009

Happy New Year everyone! We had a great first semester, and performing at the "Cozy Up with A Cappella" show with No Comment and The Girls Next Door was a great way to end! Also, a huge thanks goes out to Christine's family for being so great and asking us to perform at their holiday party. It's always so much fun! If you'd like to come and watch us over break, we have our High School Tour this January 13-17th. We will be singing at OPRF, DGN, Waubonsie, NNHS, Hubble, Aux Sable, Maine South, and HPHS. Feel free to e-mail Christina (theripchords@gmail.com) to find out when we'll be at each school. Lastly, we're still recording and working on our next CD which will be released in the coming months. We haven't decided on a name for the CD yet, so if anyone has any creative suggestions we will consider your input! We can't wait to get back to good ol' Champaign-Urbana and compete! Thanks for all of your support!

new rippies

october 2, 2009

Congratulations to all of our new Rip Chords! With AMAZING additions to the group - Amanda, Ali, Chelsie, Lauren, Meg, and Sarah - we are starting the year off stronger than ever! We are so excited to start performing for everyone! We already have some awesome arrangements learned and others in the works. You can come and watch us this Saturday at "iHelp" on the Quad. We will be performing at the Union around 9:30am - right and early for all you morning people! We are also performing at "Aca-toberfest" coming up on October 18th at Greg Hall (7pm). It should be a great show!