November 2024 - Dhamakapella Releases 9th EP, Junoon!

On November 22nd, Dhamakapella released its ninth EP, Junoon, on all streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube (with music videos!), and Soundcloud. The album consists of the three songs from our award-winning 2024 competition set: Like I Would/Tere Hoke Rahenge, Red Desert/Vaseegara, and Past Lives/Mitwa, taking you through a musical journey of determination, mystery, and passion. It was incredibly fun to record this album in a professional studio again last spring. Creating Junoon has been a labor of love and we are excited to finally share our 2024 season’s set with you all!

A HUGE thank you to Anne Schulte for helping us to create such a beautiful EP cover!

We would also like to send our gratitude to our platinum sponsors, Dr. Harithsa Asuri, MD and Dr. Aparna Bhat, MD. Our wonderful community is such a vital part of our success in releasing music every year!

Editing, Mixing by Justin Crichfield.
Mastering by Bill Hare.

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April 2024 - Dhamakapella Earns 3rd Consecutive National Champion Title at A3

For the 🏆🏆🏆 THIRD 🏆🏆🏆 time in a row, Dhamakapella is your All-American Awaaz National Champion! On Saturday, April 13th, Dhamakapella traveled to Chicago to compete in All-American Awaaz, the National Championship of the Association of South-Asian A Cappella (ASA). We are so happy to announce that we placed first out of the top eight teams in the nation, earning our third national title in three years. Dhamakapella is the only team to have achieved this accomplishment in ASA history!

A huge congratulations to Illini Awaaz and Rutgers Raag for their second and third place wins, as well as to all the teams who won individual awards. It was such a pleasure to watch you all perform — every group was truly incredible!

We would like to thank the entire All-American Awaaz board, as well as our amazing liaisons, Ranjani Hariharan & Anjali Sindhuvalli for making our A3 experience so wonderful. This competition was so special and it would not have been so without all your hard work!


Another huge thank you and so much love to all the Dhamaka alums and family members who came to support our team. We are so grateful to you for cheering us on!

And finally, shoutout to our incredible graduated seniors. Reina, Bhavya, Logan, Juniper, Sashvat, Jenn, and Vanessa — without your guidance, friendship, and talent, this season would not have been nearly as memorable. We love you and miss you so so much!

January & February 2024 - Dhamakapella Brings Home First from Two Competitions!

On January 27th, Dhamakapella had an amazing start to our competition season by placing FIRST at Spartan Sitara, held at Michigan State University! We secured a total of🏆 🏆 FOUR 🏆 🏆 individual awards, with Juniper Duncan winning Outstanding Arrangement for “Past Lives / Mitwa,” Jennifer Huang, Rachel Gopalani, and Harry Ganz winning Outstanding Visual Performance, Sashvat Iyer winning Outstanding Vocal Percussion, and Harshini Somisetty winning Outstanding Solo in a Non-South Asian Song for “Past Lives” in “Past Lives / Mitwa.” Huge congrats to USC Asli Baat for placing second and Illini Awaaz for placing third alongside us! The biggest thank you to the entire board of Spartan Sitara and our incredible liaisons, Kalan Patel and Aaron Manne, for taking great care of us this entire weekend!

On February 10th, Dhamakapella competed at our second bid competition for All-American Awaaz at Davis Dhwani, hosted by UC Davis in sunny Davis, California, bringing home 🥇DHA GOLD🥇 once again! Our amazing choreographers, Jennifer Huang, Rachel Gopalani, and Harry Ganz, won Outstanding Visual Performance and our supremely talented bass, Juniper Duncan, won Outstanding Arrangement for “Like I Would / Tere Hoke Rahenge.” Many congratulations to Hum A Cappella and USC Asli Baat for placing second and third; we loved watching you light up the stage! Thank you to the entire board of Dhwani for planning a great inaugural comp and to our awesome group of liasons, Shree Srikant, Pranava Parasa, and Atmaja Patil, for helping our weekend run so smoothly!

Thank you to all our alumni who supported us by watching virtually and in person at both competitions. We’ve been working so hard this semester and can’t wait for what’s in store for the rest of competition season! #dhamakaordhie

December 2023 - Dhamakapella Releases 8th EP, Azira!

On December 8th, Dhamakapella released its eighth EP, Azira, on all streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube (with music videos!), and Soundcloud. The album consists of the three songs from our award-winning 2023 competition set: Adiye/Youth, All For Us/Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, and Jiya Re, taking you through a musical journey of love, loss, and joy. It was a new, exciting experience for us to record this album in a professional studio in the spring semester. Creating Azira has truly been a labor of love and we hope all of you and your loved ones enjoy listening to it over this holiday season and beyond!

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April 2023 - Dhamakapella Earns National Champion Title at A3

Dhamakapella competed one last time in Spring 2023 at All-American Awaaz (A3), the National South Asian A cappella Championships, in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, April 8th, and we earned the title of reining National Champions for the second year! On top of this team award, our own members earned individual awards: Anusha Mudigonda won Outstanding South Asian Soloist with her performance of “Jiya Re,” while Juniper Duncan won Outstanding Arrangement with her arrangement of “All for Us / Ae Dil Hai Mushkil!” We could not be more proud of our team members for ending our long and incredible competition season with a bang.

Huge congratulations to not only UCLA Naya Zamana and Hum A Cappella for their respective second and third places but also every team that competed alongside us. You all inspired us every second you were on stage. Thank you to Suga Saravanan and Nikhita Pendekanti for being such selfless liaisons throughout the weekend, running around to accommodate for our needs and busy schedule, and of course, thank you so much to the entire All-American Awaaz Board for running a tight show and ensuring that every single one of us felt safe and welcome the entire night!

Lastly, we are endlessly grateful to our alumni, family, and friends, who cheered on from home and in the venue! We could not have gotten to where we are without you this year, and we hope you will continue to stick by us to see what we will accomplish next. #dhamakaordhie

February 2022 - Dhamakapella Wins Steel City Sapna!

Dhamakapella competed at Steel City Sapna in Pittsburgh, PA on Saturday, February 5, and we were honored to take home FIRST PLACE! Huge shoutout to our very own co-music director, Anusha Mudigonda, for winning Outstanding Arrangement for Bhare Naina/Light em Up, and our beatboxer, Vivek Kapur, for winning Outstanding Vocal Percussion! We are so so proud of our amazing team.

Huge congratulations to VU Spectrum and Rutgers Raag on placing as well, you all were absolutely incredible (and shoutout to BSB for taking home the gold in the fusion dance portion of the comp!). Thank you to Jahnavi Patel and Isabel Silwal for being such amazing liaisons, especially with our crazy schedule and accommodations. And of course, thank you to the entire Steel City Sapna board, especially directors Ishani Patel and Ritika Segireddy, for putting on such an amazing competition!

Finally, we are so grateful for our amazing alumni who came out to support us at our first comp of the season, and gave us invaluable feedback that helped us take home the gold! #dhamakaordhie

August 2021 - Audition for Dhamakapella!

Hey everyone! We are looking for new SINGERS and BEATBOXERS to join the Dhamakafam, and are super excited to release audition information for the Fall 2021 semester!

WHEN: August 24 OR August 26, arrive anytime between 6 pm - 8 pm (please only come on one of these days!)

WHERE: Thwing Room 101

WHAT TO PREPARE: a 30-60 second solo of whatever song you’d like, or if auditioning as a beatboxer, a 30-60 second beatboxing routine.

Following your solo, we will also run through some scales and vocal warm-ups with those auditioning! Those will any music experience (even shower singing!) are encouraged to audition.

If you have any questions, email dhamakaexec@case.edu. Also, be sure to check us out at the Student Activities Fair happening at KSL Oval on August 22nd from 11:30am - 1:30 pm! We can’t wait to hear your auditons!

August 2020 - Fall Virtual Auditions!

The Covid-19 pandemic will make every university’s fall semester out of the ordinary. Many members of our current team will not be returning to Cleveland this fall. Nevertheless, the music continues, and we are seeking new members to join the Dhamakafam!

While our auditions are typically in person, our first phase of auditions will be based on your video submissions. Fill out our Google Form (https://forms.gle/LjqXduw2xwqTgLWb7) using your CWRU email (abc123@case.edu) in order to submit! The vocal audition consists of two video submissions: A 60 second portion of a solo (sung a cappella), and a video following along with our range exercises. The vocal percussion audition consists of one video (following along to a backtrack/beat or a cappella) showing off your very own beatboxing freestyle and talents. The vocal percussion portion of our audition is highly encouraged for those who have experience but entirely optional. More details are described within the form.

Audition submissions are due Friday, August 28 at midnight EDT (Cleveland time). We plan to follow-up with students that weekend and host virtual callbacks with opportunities to meet you the following week! Any questions? Feel free to email Dhamakapella at dhamakaexec@case.edu, or visit us via a Zoom link during the Virtual Student Activities Fair Sunday, August 23rd, 11:30-2:00 EDT. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for additional updates!

We look forward to creating new virtual choirs, recording new songs, and writing new arrangements this semester with new members to our team. We can't wait to hear your voices in action!

September 2019 - Meet the New Team!

After our auditions taking place at the end of August, Dhamakapella has gained a whopping EIGHT NEW MEMBERS for this school year! Our new Dhamakans come from all across the country and even different grade levels. Congratulations to Wayne Hou (Junior, Tenor 2), Suga Saravanan (Sophomore, Alto 2), Tara Dickinson (Soprano), Sahana Kannan (Freshman, Alto 1), Vivek Kapur (Freshman, Beatboxer), Anusha Mudigonda (Freshman, Alto 2), Oliver Shumacher (Freshman, Bass), and Jessica Suratkal (Freshman, Alto 1) for becoming new members of the Dhamaka family! Returning again this school year are juniors Komal Keerthy, Kevin Mallady, and Aashna Shah; and sophomores Divyam Agrawal, Eric Chang, Pavani Nukala and Kasey Pukys.

We already had our first performance this semester at the Farm Harvest Festival on September 14, and will additionally be performing at the Inamori Ethics Prize Event (Sept. 19) and Night Market Cleveland (Sept. 27) this month.

October has even more Dhamakapella events and performance in store. We are so excited to share these experiences with our “dhamazing” newbies!

August 2019 - Beginning of the School Year

Classes resume at CWRU August 26, and Dhamakapella is so excited to begin its 15th season! After 15 years of Dhamakapella, we hope that this competition season is successful and propels the South Asian Fusion A Cappella community forward. But first, we have many events taking place in the month of August that are important for upcoming First Year Students at CWRU.

First, Dhamakapella will be performing at the Diversity 360 Celebration during Discover Week on Wednesday, August 21. Although there will only be five of us on campus and performing, this is a great opportunity for First Year students to get a taste of Dhamaka’s talent and arrangement style! Second, First Year students will get the chance to meet with us and collect information at the Activities Fair Sunday, August 25. Be sure to find us at the table playing our recorded music!

Most importantly, auditions for ALL GRADES will take place August 27 and 29 from 6-8 PM, locations pending. Those auditioning only need to prepare 30 seconds of a song of their choice, and we will then go through some of our warm-ups to test your range. Announcements for callbacks will take place later that week!

Although school is just starting, Dhamakapella events will be happening fast! Check out our Facebook page for regular updates at the beginning of the school year. We can’t wait for our 15th year of Dhamakapella to begin, and additionally, we are so excited to meet our new members soon!