Reverse Osmosis A Cappella

Reverse Osmosis is a sixteen-person mixed a cappella group at the University of Southern California founded in January 2001. Reverse Osmosis (RO) routinely performs on the USC campus, but has also toured the East and West Coast, performing in Times Square in NYC and Ghirardelli Square on San Francisco Bay. RO is a perennial competitor in the annual International Championship of College A Cappella competition.

In the 2005-2006 ICCA competition, RO took first place overall in the Quarterfinal round held at USC's Bovard Auditorium. They also received special awards that night for best soloist (Jordan Koppelman for "Fix You") best arrangement (David Stal for "Fix You") best vocal percussion (Baraka May for "Fix You") and best choreography (Joey Payo and Melissa Joseph).

At the West Seminfal round, held at Stanford University on March 18, 2006, RO placed 2nd overall. Due to a timing error, however, the judges missed a significant portion of Reverse Osmosis' performance. RO was then invited to the final round so that they could have a fair chance to perform their set in full for the ICCA judges, thus becoming the first group from USC to reach the ICCA Finals.

On April 29, 2006, RO performed their award-winning set at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in New York City. Once again, they were awarded best vocal percussion.cite web|url=http://www.varsityvocals.com/icca/results.shtml|title=ICCA|work=2006 Results|accessdate=2006-08-30]

A documentary, "Rock and R.O.", was filmed about the group and has been screened at the Newport Beach and Westwood Film Festival in Southern California. The feature-length movie was shown most recently at Florida's Delray Beach Film Festival, where it was named Official Selection and won the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary.cite web|url=http://www.dbff.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=50|title=Delray Beach Film Festival|work=2006 Winners|accessdate=2006-08-30]

CDs and Tracks

Reverse Osmosis has released 3 CDs: "Aural Pleasure" in 2002, "50 Million Reverse Osmosis Fans Can't Be Wrong" in 2003, and "Purity Guaranteed" in 2005. A fourth full-length CD, "Reverse Osmosis", was released in September 2006.

"Aural Pleasure"

*Beautiful Day (U2)
*Love Song For No One (John Mayer)
*Hard To Say I'm Sorry (Chicago)
*Breakfast At Tiffany's (Deep Blue Something)
*Stay (Lisa Loeb)
*Good Souls (Starsailor)
*Everlasting Love (Robert Knight)
*Head Over Feet (Alanis Morissette)
*Runaround Sue (Dion DiMucci)
*Creep (Radiohead)
*Thriller (Michael Jackson)
*MLK (U2)

"Fifty Million Reverse Osmosis Fans Can't Be Wrong"

*Livin' On A Prayer (Bon Jovi)
*I Believe She's Lying (Jon Brion)
*Ugly Girl (Fleming & John)
*I Can't Make You Love Me (Bonnie Raitt)
*A Little Respect (Erasure)
*Nintendapella (Nintendo video game medley)
*Say It Ain't So (Weezer)
*Your Body is a Wonderland (John Mayer)
*Table for Glasses (Jimmy Eat World)
*Groove Is In the Heart (Deee-Lite)

"Purity Guaranteed"

*Bring Me To Life (Evanescence)
*Swing Swing (All American Rejects)
*The Distance (Cake)
*Missing The War (Ben Folds Five)
*Tropicalia (Beck)
*California (Phantom Planet)
*Black Or White (Michael Jackson)
*Impermanent (Jon King)
*Lighted Up (Gabriel Mann)

"Reverse Osmosis"

*Sugar, We're Going Down (Fall Out Boy)
*I Would Do Anything For Love (Meat Loaf)
*Someone To Fall Back On (Jason Robert Brown)
*One Angry Dwarf (Ben Folds Five)
*Climb On (Shawn Colvin)
*Separate Ways (Journey)
*Proud Mary/Jetliner (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steve Miller Band)
*Fix You (Coldplay)
*Sweetness (Jimmy Eat World)
*The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (The Postal Service)

External links

* [http://www.uscreverseosmosis.com Official Reverse Osmosis Site]
* [http://www.rockandro.com The "Rock and R.O." Documentary Site]
* [http://www.rarb.org/reviews/group-212.html CD Reviews from rarb.org]
* [http://www.usc.edu University of Southern California]

References