Since their formation in 1997, The Ransom Notes, an all-gender a cappella group at the University of Chicago, have been striving for musical excellence and endeavoring to craft unique art through a cappella performance. In their 22 years of existence, the group has competed in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), has toured the country, and has released six studio albums. The album released two years ago, “Blueprint,” was even featured on a nationally recognized compilation album featuring the best of collegiate a cappella.  Within the past two years, the group has continued to grow to new heights, honing and revamping its sound and style.  This past year, for the first time in the group’s history, The Ransom Notes advanced to the semifinal round of the ICCA competition, with Music Director Corinne DiFrancesco winning a special award for Best Arrangement for the entire performance set. In order to capture this special moment in the group’s history, they have been hard at work recording their best tracks from 2018 and 2019 with the goal of releasing a new studio album.

The love they have for each other and the dedication and hard work they put towards their art continues to be an impactful and inspiring tradition. Because recording and producing a cappella tracks in the studio is expensive (approximately $12,000 to fund the creation of this album alone), we as alums (and friends!) of The Ransom Notes are hoping to help them make this a reality.

This album is slated to include eight tracks, six of which will be songs from the group’s 2018 and award-winning 2019 ICCA sets. The track list (not yet in order) is as follows:

• Cold (opb. Maroon 5; arranged by Corinne DiFrancesco)
• Pusher Love Girl (opb. Justin Timberlake; arranged by Corinne DiFrancesco)
• Last Dance (opb. Dua Lipa; arranged by Corinne DiFrancesco)
• The Road (opb. Zero 7; arranged by Corinne DiFrancesco)
• To Be Human (opb. Sia; arranged by Toshi Mori)
• One By One (opb. Rationale; arranged by Corinne DiFrancesco)
• The Chain (opb. Fleetwood Mac; arranged by Corinne DiFrancesco)
• Breathin / Last Hope (opb. Ariana Grande, Paramore; arranged by Corinne DiFrancesco)
We also intend to record a Halloween-themed bonus track to be dropped as a single in advance of the album’s release:
• Oops! … I Did It Again (opb. Britney Spears; arranged by Corinne DiFrancesco)

Performances of some of these songs are up on Youtube, which you can check out at https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRansomNotes/.

***DONOR REWARDS***

In order to thank the donors, The Ransom Notes have also created a rewards tier system for specific donation amounts (please note that anonymous donors will not be able to claim their rewards)! The rewards tiers are as follows:

• For all donations $5 and above, you will receive a Ransom Notes sticker and a social media shoutout.
• For donations that are between $20 and $50, you will receive a Ransom Notes water bottle in addition to a sticker and a shoutout.
• For donations that are between $50 and $100, you will receive a Ransom Notes t-shirt in addition to a sticker and a shoutout.
• For all donations $100 and above, you will receive a free download of the album when it is released in addition to a sticker and a shoutout.
• For all donations $150 and above, you will receive early access to a professionally-made video of our award-winning 2019 ICCA set in addition to a free download of the album, a sticker, and a shoutout.
• For all donations $200 and above, you will receive a premium package of our 2019 ICCA set video that includes early access AND behind-the-scenes footage of recording our album in addition to a free download of the album, a sticker, and a shoutout.
• For all donations $500 and above, we will arrange any song of your choosing and send you a recording of us performing it! Along with an arrangement, we will also include the premium package of our 2019 ICCA set video, a free download of the album, a sticker, and a shoutout.