The Rak Blog
8/2/11: Auditions time! As the summer is slowly starting to wind down, it’s time to start thinking about school again, which means FALL AUDITIONS!! We’re looking for all voice parts, so come out and impress us! We have an UNBELIEVABLE semester coming up with more gigs then ever before. Auditons will be held Sunday/Monday September 4th and 5th in CSPAC. Look out for more info to come. See you there, - Rak
2/1/11: After two rounds of competetive auditions, Rak Shalom is proud to announce their 2 newest members!! Rebecca Goldstein and Jessica Rothfeld!
11/18/10: Hey Everyone! Although we’ve recently announced the great news about BOJAC featuring one of our songs on our latest album, we haven’t filled you in on goings-on since this semester has begun!
Well, after quite a restful summer, the 13 returning Rak members were ready for some new voices. We held some pretty competitive auditions, finally welcoming 4 new members into Rak Shalom! Welcome to: Robyn “RobJob” Kalwerisky, Avishai “Shai Shai” Schelsinger, Talia “T” Evans, and David “Lipsitz” Lipsitz. Since the inception of our newest members, we’ve had several gigs through out the course of this semester – we sung at the homecoming acapella show on campus, the Jewish heritage festival in downtown Baltimore, an army base in Virginia, and we were also lucky enough to participate in NYU’s acapella shabbat, hosted by Ani V’ata, NYU’s Jewish acapella group.
Another super exciting piece of news is that we’ve finished recording our THIRD ALBUM!! Watch here for more news on it’s progress, and look for it’s release in the Spring!
ALSO!! The Huffington Post has named Rak Shalom as the 5th best acapella group in the country, featuring our very own “Love the One You’re With!”
The semester has been hectic, fun, and rowdy – we’ve also debuted 3 new songs, including an original composition/arrangement of a medley of songs by Akon –> hence dubbed the “Akon Medley.”
Baby, we’re all trouble makers.
11/12/10: Rak Shalom is excited to announce that we been chosen to be featured on the album BOJAC (Best of Jewish A Cappella) 2. Parparim, one of Rak’s Hebrew tunes features soloists Eli Bilmes and Jordyn Smith. After a hard year’s work we are proud to be chosen as a part of a great community of Jewish a cappella. Check back later for more info on how to get a copy of BOJAC 2 which has yet to be released. MORE UPDATES ON THE GROUP COMING SOON!!
3/3/10: Whoa, it’s been a while, sorry we’ve been MIA on this here blog. Do you know what MIA is? Can I use that word? It’s not Russian guys (my home language), it just means “missing in action.”
So what then, have we been up to? Well, we just finished up a few big shows, most notably in NYC at JCFPA (I just loooove acronyms), the Jewish Collegiate Festival of Performing Arts. There were so many wonderful groups and we were honored to be a part of it. After that was the Census show (“Power Hour”) at the Chapel here at UMD, where we performed with Kol Sasson, PandemoniUM, Faux Paz, and the Treblemakers. The amount of talented individuals and, more specifically (and kind of weirdly), A Cappella groups at the University of Maryland is astounding. You can find some awesome live videos from our recent performances here.
That brings me to our most recent on-campus performance, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. We helped one of our own members, Sherry, finish off her Opera-driven college career when we sang as an encore for her final recital in the Gildenhorn theater. She was unbelievable!! We don’t typically get to see her sing Opera as our songs are modern pop and Israeli tunes, so this was such a delight. Her sound resonated throughout the building and the words really spoke to me….sigh. 
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And what say you about our future plans?? Well, Rak spring break starts in less than two weeks! We will be touring throughout the midwest and are even heading up to Canada – the first international Rak Shalom tour! I am so excited, and I know the rest of Rak is too. For those of you in Toronto, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Rochester and Cleveland, stay tuned and come see us! Feel free to contact us with specific dates here, or watch the homepage (at the bottom) for upcoming gigs.
For my homies, Вы – все прекрасные люди. Я отсутствую домой, но Rak Шалом является лучшим. Мы надеемся видеть Вас на наших показах, и мы любим Вас всех. До следующего раза!
And with that I bid you adieu.
Love,
Gerzh
12/15/09: Man… What a semester it’s been. Rak has had a lot of fun over the past few months- we’re sad to see it end! Looking back on everything, it’s been a pretty crazy/productive/surprising/lovely/smelly time (you can pick one… they all fit), and we’ll miss singing together over break. YOU don’t have to miss us, though! Visit our YouTube channel this winter break to view past Rak performances when you need a pick-me-up, or when you’re hanging out with your old high school friends and have nothing better to do.
As for Rak Shalom’s winter plans, we’re scattering across the country (and the world), doing fun things like skiing in Washington, bridesmaid-ing in Chicago, volunteering in Panama, chillaxin’ in Israel, and raising cheetahs in South Africa. We have one final gig of the decade on December 20, and then off we go to our own adventures… But don’t worry! We’ll see you again in 2010 (rhymes!), and we’ll be back with new songs, hot dance moves, and… tans. We hope you have a smooth finals week and an awesome break… it’s been great singing for you! Oh, and HAPPY CHANUKAH!
Rakin’ around the Chanukah bush,
Jordyn
10/23/09: Hey everyone! We’re performing tonight at Hillel for A Cappella Shabbat, and we’re so excited! Come check us out, along with Kol Sasson, Mezumenet, Shmacappella, Kol Ish, and Ani V’Ata (from NYU!)! We’ll see you there!
Anyone in the D.C. area can also catch us perform tomorrow night, October 24th, at the GWU Hillel. We’ll be there with Kol Sasson and Ani V’Ata.
This sunday, the 25th, Rak’s performing for a wedding in Baltimore; we cannot wait! Have a fabulous weekend and a wonderful Shabbat!
10/18/09: Hi guys! It’s me (Jordyn) again… just a little update about our latest gig and a few events Rak has coming up soon. This past Wednesday, Rak performed with several other a cappella groups from campus at a homecoming event in Memorial Chapel- our first show with the newbies! Yay! The performance went super well; all of the groups really brought it to the stage, and it was quite thrilling to see and hear each group’s unique style. It definitely got us pumped for the rest of the year!
As for our upcoming gigs, Rak will be hittin’ the stage again with Kol Sasson and some out of town groups this weekend for… *drumroll*… A Cappella Shabbat! That’s right – an entire Shabbat dedicated to a cappella music! After A Cappella Shabbat, Rak hits the road for two off-campus gigs – a performance at GWU, and then a wedding in Baltimore! Whew, busy weekend. We love it, though! And we’d love it even more if all of our fans and their friends could make it to Hillel for A Cappella Shabbat to hear us sing, and to give us the energy that will carry us through our long weekend. We love you guys! You can also support Rak Shalom by purchasing one of our shiny new CDs that just came in. Simply ask any Rak member about buying one (we’re very approachable… except for David Goldstein- he bites), or contact us about it right here on our website! Imagine that.
Okay, I’m out for now, but I’ll be back soon with more updates!
Peace, Love, and Rak ‘n’ Roll,
Jordyn
09/16/09: Hey everyone… Jordyn here! So, auditions are over and our family of Rak-ers has grown by five. We are super-duper excited to have Raisa Ostapenko, Neal Freyman, Abby Koplow, Sam Allen, and Josh Sauer join us as we “Rak” out this year at UMD. These dandy fellows made it through two cuts of auditions where they sang melodic solos, braved some vocal tests, tried out their sound with the group, and engaged in a heated game of Rak-Paper-Scissors. We even had a surprise guest appearance from Jessica’s parents, who auditioned for us Monday night with a new little ditty that Rak Shalom had never heard before. (We immediately accepted them into the group.) In the end, Rak was completely blown away by the caliber of talent that came out to audition this year, and we would like to send out a “Thank You!” to all of the people who conquered their nerves to share their voices with us. We’re looking forward to a glorious school year with our new members, new CD, new songs, new gigs, and high-fives all around.
