Thomas Stephens (Musical Director) Hugh Blayney (President) Louis Sharrock (Treasurer) Matthew Guy (Publicity Officer) Tom Briggs (Equipment Officer) Theo Barfoot Arran Bayliss-Chalmers Arun O’Sullivan Jonathan Hedley Alexander MacLaren Shanil Panara Cornelius Carlsson Paul Monaghan Charlie Houseago Roshani Abbey (Choreographer)
The Techtonics are an all-male a cappella group from Imperial College London. The group was formed in 2008, and has since risen to prominence in the world a cappella scene.
Formed in 2008 by Edward Brightman and Christian Carter [4] the group is composed solely of STEM students from Imperial College London. The Techtonics performed their first gig at 'ArtsFest' (an annual celebration of arts at Imperial) in February 2009. They went on to perform at their first full concert in December 2009 in the Imperial College Christmas concert, which has since become an annual fixture for the group.
In 2010, The Techtonics competed in their first competition, The Voice Festival UK (VFUK), and won the award for outstanding arrangement, awarded to Christian Carter for the arrangement 'Come Undone'.[5]
The Techtonics after their ICCA win in 2016.
In August 2010, the group performed for the first time at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.
In 2015, the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) began hosting annual live competition rounds in the UK. Imperial College A Cappella Society hosted the semi-finals from 2015 to 2016, which The Techtonics competed in both times. In 2016, the group placed first in the UK, and went on to win the ICCA world championships in New York.[6]
The following summer, the group performed for a second time at the Edinburgh Fringe festival with their show Don’t Push the Button,[7] which was awarded 5 star reviews.[8]
From March - April 2017 the group went on tour to Hong Kong to perform as a part of the Hong Kong International A Cappella Festival.[9]
The Techtonics at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium for the Hong Kong A Cappella Festival
Voice Festival UK Awards:
Outstanding Soloist: Peter Noden, March 2014
Outstanding Soloist: David Maguire, Outstanding Vocal Percussion: Max Hunter, March 2013
Outstanding Performance, Outstanding Soloist: David Verhoeven, Feb 2012
Outstanding Performance, March 2011
Outstanding Arrangement: Christian Carter for 'Come Undone', Feb 2010 (2nd Year of VFUK)
International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA):
2016
World Champions of Collegiate A Cappella 2016
Outstanding Choreography: UK Quarter Finals (overall performance) and Semi Finals (Bicycle Race by Queen)
Outstanding Arrangement: Bicycle Race (Arranged by Conrad Godfrey and Alex Moore) UK Quarter Final
2015
Competed in 2015 UK Semi-final, did not place.
Tours
Every year the group embarks on a self-managed tour, normally international, providing the opportunity to perform in many unique venues as well as meet other groups from around the world.
The Techtonics recorded a collaboration with Matt Mulholland, a popular YouTube musician,[11] in 2015, of a cover of Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud.
Many live recordings of The Techtonics busking on Portobello Road are found on Youtube.
Alumni and Current Members
Name
Joined
Left
Voice Part
Course
Ed Brightman
2008
2011
Tenor I/II, Vocal Percussion
PhD Fuel Cells
Christian Carter
2008
2011
Tenor I/II, Vocal Percussion
Mechanical Engineering
Joe Illingworth
2008
2010
Tenor II, Baritone
Biochemistry
Jacob Brady
2008
2010
Tenor II, Baritone
Biochemistry
Eugene Chang
2008
2012
Tenor I/II
PhD Bioengineering
Jonathan Silver
2008
2009
Tenor II
Bioengineering
Ryan Dee
2008
2013
Bass, Baritone
Physics
Ben Krikler (BenK)
2008
2010
Bass
Physics
Nic Church
2008
2009
Tenor I
Civil Engineering
Attakorn (Ohm) Saiyasombat
2008
2010
Bass
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Abdul (Aziz) Kamara
2008
2009
Bass
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Reuben Rowe
2008
2011
Tenor I/II
PhD Computer Science
Steve Garland
2008
2009
Tenor I
Physics
Tom Horner
2009
2010
Bass, Baritone, Vocal Percussion
MSc Science Communication
Jamie Wasley
2009
2010
Tenor II
Visiting US
Niall Smith
2009
2010
Bass
Mathematics
Zain Khawaja
2009
2012
Tenor I/II, Vocal Percussion
Chemistry
Luke Johnston
2009
2012
Baritone, Vocal Percussion
Chemical Engineering
Ayman Osman
2009
2011
Tenor I
Mechanical Engineering
Ben Chadwick (BenCh)
2010
2012
Baritone
Mathematics
James Hayward
2010
2014
Tenor I
Chemistry
Ed McDonald
2010
2012
Tenor II
Medicine
Guy Needham
2010
2011
Bass
Biochemistry
Chandra (AK) Kaza
2010
2012
Tenor II
Chemical Engineering
Tom Stokes
2010
2012
Bass
Medicine
Peter Scott
2011
2015
Tenor II
Medicine
Philip de Grouchy
2011
2011
Bass
PhD Physics
Max Hunter
2011
2013
Bass, Sound Engineer
Physics
David Maguire
2011
2013
Bass
Civil Engineer
Alex Moore
2011
2016
Bass
Physics
Mike Ronan
2011
2014
Bass
Chemical Engineering
David Verhoeven
2011
2012
Tenor I
MSc Civil Engineering
Chris Witham
2011
2015
Tenor I
Physics
Will de Renzy-Martin
2012
2012
Bass
Computer Science
Conrad Godfrey
2012
2014
Tenor I
Computer Science
Akash Mehta
2012
2013
Tenor II
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Peter Noden
2012
2016
Baritone
Geology
Chris Pellew
2012
2015
Tenor II
Biochemistry
Theo Barfoot
2013
2018
Vocal Percussion
Biomedical Engineering
Freddie Barker
2013
2014
Baritone
Mathematics
James Hay
2013
2014
Tenor I
Computer Science
Will O'Reilly
2013
2016
Tenor I
Medicine
Ehsaan Shivarani
2013
2017
Tenor I, Countertenor
Geophysics
Alex Wedderburn
2013
2014
Tenor II
Earth Sciences
Henry Harrod
2014
2016
Baritone
Mechanical Engineering
Arran Bayliss-Chalmers
2014
2018
Tenor I
Earth Sciences
Nick Bradley
2014
2017
Baritone
Theoretical Physics
Ezra Kitson
2014
2015
Tenor I
Natural Sciences
Arun O'Sullivan
2014
2018
Countertenor, Tenor I/II, Baritone
Medicine
Laurence Pallant
2014
2015
Baritone
Medicine
Edric Ramirez-Valdez
2014
2017
Tenor II, Vocal Percussion
Biological Sciences
James Cunningham
2015
2016
Tenor II
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
David Smith
2015
2016
Tenor II
Petroleum Geoscience
Tom Stephens
2015
2018
Tenor II
Materials Science and Engineering
Hugh Blayney
2016
-
Baritone
Physics
Matthew Guy
2016
-
Tenor II
Materials Science and Engineering
Jonathan Hedley
2016
-
Bass
Chemistry with Molecular Physics
Alexander MacLaren
2016
-
Countertenor, Tenor I
Mechanical Engineering
Louis Sharrock
2016
-
Tenor II, Baritone
MSc Statistics
Dan Bartley
2017
2017
Baritone
Civil Engineering
Charlie Houseago
2017
2018
Tenor I/II
PhD Robotics
Benjamin Wu
2017
2017
Tenor II
MSc Computer Science
Thomas Briggs
2017
-
Baritone
Mechanical Engineering
Cornelius Carlsson
2017
-
Vocal Percussion
Materials Science and Engineering
Paul Monaghan
2017
-
Tenor I
Physics with Theoretical Physics
Shanil Panara
2017
-
Tenor II
Materials Science and Engineering
Imperial A Cappella Society
The Techtonics were ineligible to become a society of the Imperial College Union (ICU) because as a stand-alone group, it is too small in size and single gender. This led to members of the group starting the Imperial College A Cappella Society[12] of which The Techtonics would be part of, with the wider aim of making the activity of A Cappella open to all ICU members and to promote other groups to form.
Societies at Imperial are able to purchase pewter tankards for their society, and get them engraved with leading members - however due to the historical independence of The Techtonics (existing before the a cappella society), both a tankard for The Techtonics and Imperial A Cappella Society reside in the Union bar.[13]
As of 2016, 5 established groups are recorded as being within the society, making it one of the largest university a cappella societies in the UK:
The Techtonics
The Imperielles (all-female, formed in 2011)
The Scopes (mixed, formed in 2011)
Take Note (all-female, barbershop style)
Surcery (mixed, fusion style)
The Techtonics perform with the other a cappella groups at Imperial frequently, singing alongside them in Christmas concerts, Easter concerts, and a number of times at the annual Imperial Summer Ball.
References
^"Results". Varsity Vocals. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
