The Chromatics

Who would expect that perfectly tuned harmonies and clever song writing and arranging would come from folks whose brains are occupied by rocket science every day? They were the group of performers at the Festival that, more than any other, received popular acclaim from the audience and generated demands that they be invited back.

Charlie Baum, Washington Folk Festival - .

By Stephen Snyder, Times Staff Writer March 17, 2002
Vocal ensemble croons about the wonders of science
The Chromatics are perhaps the smartest a cappella singing group ever.

Composed of two Ph.D. astrophysicists, four Goddard Space Flight Center employees, one Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab satellite engineer, an accountant, a computer specialist and a former furniture buyer; the Chromatics might do just as well on an episode of "Jeopardy" as "Star Search."

Competing voices

Each year a group out of San Francisco called Primarily A Cappella holds a contest called the Harmony Sweepstakes, the stated goal of which is to be "the premiere American showcase of vocal music."

Competitors for the Harmony Sweepstakes are chosen from eight regional competitions. For the past seven years the Mid-Atlantic regional has been in or around Washington, D.C.

This year's regional competition was on March 2 at the Birchmere Music Hall in Alexandria, Va., an intimate, dinner-theater venue that has hosted up-and-coming adult contemporary, rock and country acts like the Dixie Chicks, Lyle Lovett and Barenaked Ladies.

The Chromatics were set to go on first that night in front of a sold-out crowd. They had competed twice before in the Harmony Sweepstakes, once in 1996 and again in 1999, where they won third place.

Backstage, after running through their three-song set, which consisted of a song about the perils of television, a song describing the somewhat recent discovery that other stars besides the Sun have their own planetary systems, and a cover of "Synchronicity Part 1" by the Police, the Chromatics discussed, among other things, the latest space shuttle mission.

"There's a lot of work that goes into those missions," said member Padi Boyd, who, with a Ph.D. in physics from Drexel University, was in a position to know.

Comet chaser

Another member of the Chromatics is John Meyer, a Westminster resident who works on satellite power systems for Johns Hopkins University. His latest project, a satellite called Contour - for "Comet Nucleus Tour" because of its purpose: to run through a comet's wake and collect data - was due to be shipped to Goddard for environmental testing later that week.

Meyer found out about the Chromatics after singing with Karen and Alan Smale in an a cappella group at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. He had always been into music, having previously fronted his own classic rock band and written and performed in madrigal groups.

He got into satellite engineering by learning electronics in the Marines and later attending Catonsville Community College.

According to Meyer's girlfriend, Kim Denny, Meyer the engineer and Meyer the singer often come off as two very different people. On stage he's extroverted, a natural performer, but at work he's serious, intent, focused.

"He'd got a lot of different faces," said Denny.

There was also Alan Smale, an Oxford graduate with a cool British accent and ponytail who, along with fellow Chromatics member and wife, Karen Smale, works alongside Boyd at Goddard.

"They actually use high math on a daily basis," said Deb Nixon, soprano, computer consultant for a D.C. law firm, and main jokester of the group.

The group is rounded out by alto Lisa Kelleher, a budget analyst at Goddard, and tenor Paul Klob, a former furniture buyer with a caustic wit.

Complementary styles

Meyer and Boyd are the two main songwriters, though they have significantly different styles. Meyer's songs tend to be cynical satires of technology, elucidating the social dangers of television and the World Wide Web, whereas Boyd's songs are straight up science - and often quite advanced science at that.

In her song "Dance of the Planets," Boyd sings that our galaxy used to be thought of as "a random galactic anomaly."

The same can be said of the Chromatics themselves.

The group started out doing do-wop ("We're required by law to do 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight,' " cracked Nixon), but soon began writing their own songs, which covered such topics as black holes, nuclear fusion and the Hubble Space Telescope.

They have a song about the Doppler effect ("That always gets a really good response from the crowd," said Boyd) and one about comets called "A Little Bit of Rock," that Alan wrote - which was nominated for a Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award (CARA).

Together the Chromatics have released three recordings. In 1998 they received a NASA Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy (IDEA) grant to produce "Astrocappella," an educational album featuring six of the group's science related songs, which they then gave away free to schools all over the world.

In September the group released "Astrocappella 2.0," which added seven new songs to the original six along with games, movies, images and lesson plans in a CDROM format.

"We like to think of it like a 'Schoolhouse Rock' kind of thing," said Deb.

Tough contest

Backstage before the competition, voices from the other dressing rooms drifted out in the common area and meshed in an incomprehensible cacophonous swirl. The discordance had an unnerving effect. The Chromatics shifted nervously.

The competition this year was fierce.

"There always seems to be a group from Disney World competing," said Karen Smale, "and they're always very good."

To warm up, the group decided to sing their song "High Energy Groove," an upbeat tune about x-ray astronomy, gamma rays and black holes. Boyd sang lead, as she does on many of the songs, vocalizing the different forms of radiation on the light spectrum while the others "oo-ed" and "ahh-ed" or chanted phrases like, "Hot photons, those hot, hot photons."

"That was only half of it," Deb said when they finished. "We cut the stuff about pulsars."

The Chromatics performed well, but when the results were announced later that evening, they were not on the list. In first place were the Tone Rangers who, in their bio, referred to themselves as "policy wonks, computer geeks, and lawmen by day" and a "barely domesticated group of free-spirited a cappella songsters" by night.

A Disney World group called 4 Girls Only came in second.

When asked later if the Chromatics would enter the contest again next year Boyd said, "I doubt it actually. It's a lot of prep time for just 10 minutes. We'll probably just do more shows. We're a lot busier than most of the other groups."

Indeed, the group's next performance on March 23 has them singing in a planetarium accompanied by a laser light show.

Weeks after the competition, Meyer had a hard time deciding what was more difficult, satellite engineering or singing a cappella.

"It takes a lot of thinking to sing like that. It's very mathematical - working with the chords and with the intervals and how those intervals work with the tones and overtones," he said.

Then he added, "It's like a science thing. I guess that's why we like it so much."

Reach staff writer Stephen Snyder at 410-857-7862 or ssnyder@lcniofmd.com.

Upcoming concert The Chromatics perform live at 8 p.m., March 23, at Montgomery College's Planetarium at 1600 Takoma Avenue in Takoma. They will perform their original astronomy music accompanied by a laser light show. The performance is free and open to the public. For more information call 301-650-1463.

For more information about the Chromatics visit their Web site at www.thechromatics.com. For more information about their album Astrocappella 2.0 visit www.astrocappella.com.

©Carroll County Online 2002 - Carroll County Times

August 1, 2005
Group's songs help teach math and science

Annapolis Capital (MD):

Their work is truly out of this world, both musically and physically. They are The Chromatics, a unique a capella group whose members happen to be some of the greatest scientific and tech minds around. Karen and Alan Smale of Crofton are just two of this six-member vocal ensemble who have been performing for appreciative audiences both here and across the country since the early 1990s. "We have a more contemporary pop style," explained Mr. Smale. "We are nothing like a barbershop or madrigal style group." The group has an impressive repertoire, singing everything from the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" to the B-52's "Love Shack" and even patriotic pieces like "America the Beautiful."

But they are perhaps most well-known for their efforts in making the complexities of astronomy and physics more understandable and just plain entertaining for science students, their teachers and many appreciative fans. Their "Astrocapella" project began one day when Mr. Smale and fellow "Chromie" Padi Boyd, both astrophysicists for NASA, were discussing recent grant recipients of NASA's Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy program, or IDEA. "We knew of the research that proves a connection between music and memory," Mr. Smale said. "We also knew there is still a perception among some students that math and science are subjects to be feared and avoided."

Building on the concept of the old "Schoolhouse Rock" program - in which millions of kids learned grammar, mathematical, and historical facts through entertaining musical interludes on Saturday morning TV - the Chromatics developed "Astrocapella." It's a classroom-ready collection of upbeat pop songs, lesson plans and background information on subjects like the sun, the moon, X-rays and gamma rays, nuclear fusion, black holes and quasars for middle and high school classrooms.

With IDEA funding, group members went to work, writing their own songs and developing then field-testing their products with teachers across the country. The materials, released in 1998, are now in widespread use and the group uses the musical numbers often in performances for scientific and educational conventions, as well as their regular gigs at local festivals and concerts. Their efforts have been featured on CNN, PBS and National Public Radio. Catchy melodies and clever lyrics abound in songs such as "A Little Bit of Rock" (about meteors) and the "HST Bop" (about the Hubble Space Telescope) and have made fans out of scientists as well.

Astronaut John Grunsfeld even took a copy of their "AstroCappella" CD with him during his flight on the space shuttle Discovery in December of 1999.

Perhaps their success is related to the close-knit camaraderie of the six performers. Though none has a voice that has been classically trained, that is the reason their group is so vocally tight, according to Mr. Smale. "It wouldn't work if we had a voice that really stuck out," he said. The group has since released a second "Astrocapella 2.0" with songs about the planets for even younger students, and continues to perform at various local and national events and give educational workshops. And though they love what they do, they aren't quitting their day jobs. "Ideally we would love to be nationally famous," said Mr. Smale. "But we all have good jobs, some with kids, so that is not too feasible. Right now we just like to travel and perform, getting great responses from our audiences." - Annapolis Capital