Unlabeled Music Festival

Four Stages - One Epic Festival
The Unlabeled Music Festival is produced by the Popular Music Collective in RIT's School of Performing Arts. This year's event features 40+ acts with 200+ student performers. 

The Sklarsky Glass Box Theater

Obsidian Star is a rock band hailing from Rochester, New York. The band formed in the late Fall of 2023 out of a collection of friends and members of the RIT Jam Club. The current band lineup consists of lead vocalist Parker “Iron Rings” Bassel, guitarist and backing vocalist Shane Raab, bassist Thomas Elhers, and drummer Bradley Wilkinson. Our sound consists of a mix of hard rock, alternative rock, and metal, with influences of psychedelia and pop. This style is exemplified by the covers we chose to perform and by our originals. Our originals explore the in-between of the heavy, the ethereal, and the catchy.  Our performing experience up to this point has been largely limited due to the recency of the band’s formation, but we have still managed to perform at a number of open mic nights. The band is very excited to have the opportunity to play at the RIT Unlabeled Music Festival and hope to see everyone there!

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Ahoy there! Climb aboard the musical ship of shenanigans with The Gray Seas! With Nic's bass booming like a kraken's roar and Sam's drums crashing like a tidal wave, Raiyan and Eli shred guitar riffs that could make a parrot squawk. And at the helm, Noga's buzz cut commands attention like a pirate captain on a treasure hunt.

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The indie-funk band SweaterVest Arrest is new to campus this year, playing a completely original set written in the short time they've been together. With Kas Gaviola on vocals, Anna Fontaine and Jaydon Thompson on Guitar, and Liam Myerow on the drums. SweaterVest Arrest graciously welcomes Nik Bratton to the stage as our fill in bassist to perform our first ever show, RITs Unlabeled Music Festival!

Members:
Kas Gaviola- vocals

Anna Fontaine- guitar

Jaydon Thompson- guitar

Liam Myerow- Drums

Nik Bratton- Bass

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Funken Stupor is an amateur funk band focused on bringing lesser known or original funk tunes into the spotlight. With many of the members having played together before the group’s inception, they can promise you some musical chemistry that’s truly funken awesome.

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One Lomb Drive is a Rochester-based metal band formed in 2023 with roots in metalcore,  hardcore, and grunge. The band features Ian Dolfi on vocals, Jack Ramin on guitar, Ben  Mulligan on guitar, Katie Osias on bass, and Nick Sobczak on drums. Updates on live  performances, recordings, and music releases can be found on the band's Instagram page:  @onelombdrive.

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Playing a variety of covers from a variety of musical genres, Plus One (@plusonetheband), a funk pop band, pulls its members from different majors and colleges at RIT to form a truly unique collective.  Comprised of ten members, this innovative ensemble enjoys reinterpreting the classics, and iconic tunes from the 60s through present day, infusing their music with a maturity beyond their years and musicianship of the highest standards.  

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Hi! We’re Public Decency! We like to play all kinds of rock music ranging from pop to alt to indie and even punk. We’re all about getting people to dance and groove no matter what we’re playin’. As long as you’re havin’ a good time then so are we! Stay Decent!

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Indecision formed in Spring 2022 as a part of Tiger A-Team Bands, a previous RIT popular music organization, and has continued through the development of the Popular Music Collective! Ben Sultzer is on drums, Calvin Samuelson is on bass, Shane Raab is on lead guitar, Lucas Diamond is on rhythm guitar, and Gerrit Wissink is on vocals! We mostly play grunge, metal, and hard rock covers, which is where we take inspiration for our originals, but when writing music, we like to take a humorous approach to lyrics and song structure. This makes our originals mostly heavy and intense throughout, but are really somewhat of a joke underneath… We’ve played at many Jam Club open mics, Popular Music Collective concerts, and are trying to expand to off-campus venues. Our personal favorite original song, “Red Bird Funk”, has been played at nearly every concert since its creation, and we’re hoping to make it a fan favorite too! We’re very excited to play at the RIT Unlabeled Music Festival and appreciate the invitation!

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Retrograde is an ongoing passion project that has evolved into one of the most Rock N’ Roll bands RIT has ever seen. Featuring Quinn Freidenburg on vocals, Zach Adams on lead guitar, Liam Lynch on rythm guitar, and most recent additions Stevie Skvarek on drums and Micky Fitzpatrick on bass, the group has seen new successes from the renewed lineup and energy. With an overarching goal of recording a studio album, the group is primarily a songwriting endeavor, with covers mixed in that mesh closely with the original music produced. Recently, the group has played two landmark shows, including a performance at RIT’s ovation, as the previous years winners, and a show at Montage Music Hall in downtown Rochester. In the works are a fully produced single, and a Live EP both recorded by Wicked Squid Studios. Along with this, as many shows as we can fit in before we graduate! As such, we are psyched to perform at this festival, and thank RIT for the opportunity!

*Influences include Guns and Roses, Black Sabbath, and Slash’s solo career.


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SHED Atrium

Enter the realm of Blvir, an electrifying force in the realm of melodic rap and hyperpop. With a fusion of infectious beats, melodic hooks, and razor-sharp lyricism, Blvir carves out a distinct sonic space that captivates audiences with its unique blend of melody and rhythm. Driven by a relentless pursuit of innovation, they push the boundaries of traditional rap with a fearless exploration of new sonic territories. From the dreamy atmospherics of melodic rap to the frenetic energy of hyperpop, they fearlessly navigate the diverse landscape of contemporary music, carving out a niche that is distinctly their own.

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Dan Qiao is an amateur Chinese musician active on NetEase Cloud Music and Tencent Music, with the stage name of 狇舟 or 木舟. His main genre of music is electronic music, but he is exploring more into the beatmaking area these days. He is good at combining traditional instruments with electronic music and writing beautiful melodies. He has been making music since he was in high school, and took Electronic Music Production classes at RIT as well. He was a member of Future Spirit Records in high school. It was a student-run Chinese nation-wide music organization, which is no more. That is where he fell in love with electronic music. 

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kayd. is a music producer from Pennsylvania. He produces, mixes, and masters all of his music independently. The genre of edm music that he creates is truly a blend of many bass genres and many other sub-genres within the world of electronic dance music. Oftentimes, his music features energetic melodies, soulful chord progressions, and many other elements that present the listener with a positive, up-beat, and high energy form of dance music. kayd's love and passion for music has been overwhelming since he was born. He grew his foundation of music by practicing and learning in multiple music creation software's. He is also currently expanding his knowledge of music while he is at college at Rochester Institute of technology. There are many original pieces as well as remixes on the way. kayd. is just getting started with his music career. He stated "Creating music is a lifestyle for me, I use it as motivation, therapy, and happiness. I will continue creating music that gives other people the feelings it gives me.”

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Introducing RIT’s Retro Rhythm Big Band, led by Miles Davenport! Dive into the sounds of video game music like never before, presented in an electrifying big band style. Join us for thrilling renditions of Toad’s Factory from Mario Kart Wii, Metro Kingdom New Donk City from Super Mario Odyssey, and the iconic Five Nights at Freddy's theme by the Living Tombstone, arranged by the 8BitBigBand. 

Alto 1 - Diego Velez 

Alto 2 - Hannah Clapp 

Tenor 1 - Miles Davenport
Tenor 2 - Erik Olafson 

Baritone - Everett Gianni 

Trombone 1 - James Mikus 

Trombone 2 - Tyler Remphrey

Trombone 3 -  Vidhra Singh

Trombone 4 - Angel Paz

Trumpet 1 - Connor Knott

Trumpet 2 - Anthony Lioce

Trumpet 3 - Sean Guyon

Trumpet 4 - William Boylin

Singer - Jordan

Bass - 1 - Julia Vieira Reis

Piano - Roman Barnes 

Drums - Nick Gouldin


Popping Fresh
Also known as Desire Chiruza is a Finance student who will be graduating with a MIS degree as well. Freshh has been featured as a finalist 3 times at the RIT Ovation, Street Beat semifinalist on multiple occasions.He was the main performance director of his high school dance show for black history month and won a recognition of Princeton Prize in Race Relations for his effort to use dance to bridge cultural gaps when he was still in high school

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Urban Boys
Urban Boys is a dance crew that emerged in Rochester before the 2020 world disaster. The family was made up of a few gentlemen who attended Rochester City School District who all graduated in 2020 and separated to pursue college and career. Its been 4 years since now will be the first time we will perform together on stage again.

Team Vision
Team Vision is a crew led by Najee Brantley featured in Hip Hop performances around Rochester on stage with rappers such as Kevin Gates, Yella Beezy etc. Najee Brantley has been dancing since the age of 5 self-taught and has been focusing on spreading hip-hop freestyle influence around Rochester. 

Nova
Nova Dance Crew is a performing arts organization that promotes awareness and provides an understanding of Asian heritage to the Rochester community. We perform dances from several different Asian cultures like K-pop, C-pop, J-pop, traditional dances, and more. Through performing arts, students from all ethnicities can join us in learning and performing dances in appreciation of the aforementioned cultural dance styles.

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Hailing from Rochester Institute of Technology, Eight Beat Measure is the original Tenor-Baritone-Bass A Cappella group on campus. Established in 1987 as the RIT Men’s Octet, the group has evolved over the years. Initially faculty-led and an extension of the RIT Singers, the ensemble quickly embraced contemporary a cappella, expanding beyond its original eight members and transcending its original form to become the Eight Beat Measure of today, boasting a diverse repertoire of music that spans from hip-hip to Irish folk, ensuring there’s something for everyone within their performances.

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Bringing the tropical vibes to frozen Rochester since 1999, the RIT Brick City Singers (lovingly referred to as BCS) have been defying borders, crossing genres, and pushing the limits on stage, with entertaining performances that leave everyone looking for more. With a broad repertoire, wacky antics, amusing skits, and just a bit of class, BCS is a force to be reckoned with. They’ve become known for their creativity on stage, as they bring a new sound to classic as well as “radio hit” pieces. They wear Hawaiian shirts and look totally handsome doing it!

Members:
Tenor 1

Sean Bowler

Matt Klimek

Adam Schultzer

Tiger Young

Tenor 2
Jordan Dias

Thomas Fuller

Jamie Howard
Atria Schofield

Rowan Weislogel


Baritone

Will Buxton

Alec Eisert

Charlie Solari

Brandon Stevens


Bass 

Neil Cañedo

Adrian Chan
Jung Choi

Caleb Nuss


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Kaminari is an all-gender SATB a cappella group at Rochester Institute of Technology. Formed in 2015, they sing Japanese music in all genres ranging from city pop to J-rock to anything in between. You can find them on Twitter and TikTok @RITKaminari, on Instagram @rit_kaminari,and on YouTube as Kaminari A Cappella.

Members:
Aemilia Blais

Nusrah Chowdhury

Ryan Hoyle

Kelly Scattergood

Manon Immerzeel

Leo Richmond

Erica Smart

Brendan Dow

Natalie Patrick

Katelyn Kosek

Logan Alexander

Ivy Lin

James Hanby

Kelly Chen

Jabrecia Washington

Jayden Galli

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Hi we are Proof of Purchase (POP), Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT’s) original all-gender inclusive acapella group! We were founded in 2009 when RIT only had SA and TB groups. The goal was to give students at RIT an opportunity to sing with all voice types. Many of our members find that SATB groups offer a wider range of options when it comes to arrangements and song choices. We also love the full sound that is unique to SATB groups! Despite what our name might imply, we are a diverse group of musicians that love to delve into all genres of music, not just pop! We have sung country, R&B, funk, and so many more that we can't fit into this short bio! You can find us on Instagram and YouTube as @ritpop, on TikTok as @ritproofofpurchase, and on Facebook as “RIT’s Proof of Purchase”

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Bleeve is a drum and bass producer from New York. His obsessions with heavy electronic and pop music make him wish to bridge the gap between the two and inspire a new generation of artists to follow.

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Jacob Marcus, a 20-year-old DJ/Producer from Rochester, New York, is on a mission to bring joy to the world through Electronic Dance Music (EDM). Despite having little to no musical background before college, Jacobs' fiery passion motivated him to work hard and learn as much as possible about music, its  production, DJing, and audio engineering. 

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LURV is the musical alias of Jacob Lurvey, a bass player turned bass producer with a focus on both heavy and melodic EDM music. Since first releasing music in 2022, LURV has explored many genres such as Chiptune, Riddim, Orchestral and Color Bass, and he isn't afraid to have fun along the way. As a part of the RIT EDM Club, LURV has dipped into live DJing and has recently closed for the school president at the Munson Rave that had an audience of over 100 people.

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Munson Music Loft

2% Pilk is a fairly recent student band, but in the short amount of time that we’ve been around, we’ve managed to gain a decent following that we deeply appreciate. The band’s lineup consists of Gabi Benayoun as the band’s vocalist, Greg Abad as lead guitarist, Daniel Railic as rhythm guitarist, Sam Owen as bassist, and Ricardo Chapa as the band’s drummer. The band has a lot of appreciation for and draws inspiration from the genre of indie rock, which is shown through their covers of bands such as The Strokes, Cage The Elephant, Peach Pit, and more. Due to the more recent formation of the band, and one of our members being away on a co-op, we don’t currently have any fully fleshed out original songs, but we are hard at work on making original music for our fans to enjoy. We love playing songs and performing for our fans and hope to continue to do so for as long as we can! Thanks for all your support, loyal pilkers!

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FREAQ! is a band formed at the Rochester Institute of Technology in late 2023. Formed by 6 friends, each with their own differing music tastes, the music of FREAQ! is as eclectic and wild as the name suggests.

Members
Jung - Vocals
Marcy - Drums

Ary - Bass

Marc - Guitar

Garden - Guitar

Brandon - Production


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Members
Chris Losardo

Matt Wilt

Anthony Wilcox

Takumi Fukuzawa

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Tzars of NY are a rock outfit conceived in the deepest bowels of the COVID pandemic. Even after a few lineup changes, they have remained sick to this very day. With their lead guitarist and token blond bombshell currently banished to the depths of Ohio, the rest of the group will be looking to shake things up for this performance.

Josh Matthews - Vocals, Guitar

Nhat Van - Bass, Drums

Anthony Roberts - Keyboard, Drums

Stefan Rogowski - Saxophone


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Slick Mick and the Novatones follow up their own influences of funk, rock, blues, and R&B to create a new spectrum of tracks ranging from heartfelt to heavy, but never losing the groove and the passion. Marc, Zak, Nick, and Mike all have a love for what they do, and it shows in their energetic, playful, and interpersonal live performances…especially when the bass player slaps that thang.

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Rats in Training is an indie rock band with a focus on rodent rock.  They came together this year to make music and change the public perception of rats.  One day they hope to live in a world where a rat can come on stage and jam out without the haters making a big fuss about it.

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One night, our guitarist and saxophonist decided to jam out in the courtyard outside Sol Heumann. Our soon to be pianist and drummer decided to join and play with us that night, and thus, Courtyard formed, in the courtyard. We are a six piece indie group, sometimes labeled “Sunday brunch jazz”. We like to jam, write music, and have a good time!

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SKITZO is made up of 5 main members: Ethan(3rd Year) sings lead, followed up by lead guitarist Nate(1st Year) and rhythm guitarist Maya(1st Year). With DJ(1st Year) on drums and Sam(1st Year) on bass, please welcome God's most sane band to the RIT stage, any other details are merely salad dressing.

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Ear Piercings is a Rochester music-core band that has won every award. Its current members are Raucous Cacophony, Phobia Nightingale, Miles Dastardly, Pontifex Arcadia, Levi Excalibur, and DJ Clawjob. Their songs vary between corrosive and fevered noise-pop and euthanistic folk-punk. They were category winners in RIT's 2023 Ovation Performing Arts Contest, back when they still played lo-fi hip hop. They love graph theory, handcrafted physical media, and tomfoolery.

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Artesano 

More information coming soon!

Julie is an amateur performer who has had a love for singing and playing instruments since she was a kid in chorus and orchestra. She has been self-teaching guitar for just over a year, learning through playing her favorite songs and singing along for her own enjoyment. Now, she’s bringing it to the stage!

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My music shares my faith and convictions. It also tries to encourage and strengthen people who listen to it. I find inspiration In everything God made.

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Hailing from diverse musical backgrounds but united by a shared passion for the majestic sounds of recorder, ReCordially Yours explores repertoire spanning a wide range of genres on the most beautiful instrument known to humankind. ReCordially Yours is world renowned for their sublime sound and impeccable intonation– an exceptionally remarkable feat for a group of musicians who peaked in elementary school. Recorder is life, recorder is liberty, recorder is the pursuit of happiness. Live recorder. Laugh recorder. Love recorder. 

Grace Bloom, Recorder
Tommy Desjardins, Recorder

Brandon Faunce, Recorder
Katelyn McDade, Recorder

Gavin Palmer, Recorder

Rachael Tobey, Recorder

Audrey Thompson, Recorder

William Walker, Recorder

Allison Young, Recorder

Alex Negrini is a 4th year Human Center Computing major with experience in a variety of different forms of percussion.  He is involved in a multitude of percussion clubs, groups, and ensembles at RIT ranging from a more strict drumline to a relaxed steelband.  With a specialty in mallet percussion, he attempts to explore as many styles of percussion as possible and is currently finding his own style in the form of expressive solos and original compositions.

Kassidy Orbaker is a 20 year old English major at Rochester Institute of Technology. In her spare time if she is not writing or singing in her room, You can find her at cheer practice or on the sidelines of the RIT basketball games. In addition to this you can also find her drawing on her iPad and learning to play her guitar in her room. She often posts videos of music covers on her tiktok, instagram and YouTube channel. She also has started to vlog cheerleading events on her YouTube.

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Ryan Ladd is a 21 year old singer songwriter studying industrial engineering at RIT. He performs a mixture of his own songs as well as various covers, most of which being John Mayer songs, who he is heavily influenced by. The genre is best described as singer songwriter with a blues inspiration, with improvisations and acoustic soloing.

Hello, my name is Danell Francs, and I am an upcoming artist from Harlem, NY. With roots from Jamaica, WI, I've developed a deep love for singing. Every day, I see it grow into my passion. I love the sounds that I can create and the way it makes me feel. Others enjoy hearing my voice and the serenity it brings them. I am eager to share my gift with the world, and this is how I will do so.

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More information coming soon!

Contact

Karl Stabnau
Visiting Lecturer
Director of Jazz Ensembles
Popular Music Collective
School of Performing Arts
College of Liberal Arts
Matias Homar
Visiting Assistant Professor
Popular Music Collective
Applied Music Instructor (Guitar)
School of Performing Arts
College of Liberal Arts