Our History
UNLV A Cappella history was made when its very first a cappella group was formed during the Fall 2018 semester. The group had just one member per voice part and would hang out in Dr. Svendsen’s office, the choir director. However, devoid of a group name and struggling to grow the wings it needed to take musical flight, the group disbanded. A semester later, in Spring 2019, they were reintroduced and named “Rebel Rousers” by Professor Weiller.
"Rebel Rousers" became an ensemble composed of anybody who was just willing to stay after school a few days a week to seriously work on music, which led to the group’s debut performances during the UNLV Choirs Spring tour around CCSD. With each school they visited, they felt each performance improve, and by the end of the Spring 2019 semester, they collectively came up with a new name for their group. Thus, “Scarlet Tones” was born!
Rebel Rousers, Spring 2019
TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: BREWSTER PHILLIPS, DRAKE PYATT, JOSH PRUITT, JULIUS DEL PRADO, MICAH SANDOVAL, JEREMY VALDEZ. BOTTOM ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: THOAIMI PHAN, ELIZABETH VILLASENOR, KAROL AVILA, CHENOA BETHARDS, ANALI MACIAS.
At the UNLV Choirs’ first annual Desert Rose Choral Festival, everything lined up perfectly, and from Fall 2019 to Spring 2020, the Scarlet Tones soared. They caught the attention of students around the community eagerly waiting to join the Scarlet Tones. They worked with a professional a cappella group when they were the artist-in-residence for CCSD’s Acapalooza. The new attention ultimately transformed the group from an “anybody willing into stay after school” group to an audition-based ensemble!
Just as the Scarlet Tones gained enough traction to start taking gig opportunities around town, a virus that caused a global pandemic put the entire world on pause, and Scarlet Tones was not immune to its effects. The group was forced to go on a hiatus from Fall 2020 (the era of widely-dreaded online classes) until Fall 2021.
Scarlet Tones, 2019-2020
TOP ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: FAITH JOSEPHINE BARTE, ASHLEY GONZALEZ, MINA FISHER, AARON GOLDEN, DRAKE PYATT, CHRISTIAN SHELTON, ANALI MACIAS. MIDDLE ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: KAELANI CALVEZ, JULIUS DEL PRADO, DANIEL NACH. BOTTOM ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: CONSTANDINOS PAPAS, KAROL AVILA, RACHEL GAMBERG.
Once COVID-19 receded and the mandate on masked-singing was lifted (hooray!), the Spring 2022 Scarlet Tones fulfilled their long-awaited goals of gigging around town, rebuilding their spirits and their music. As the first and flagship a cappella ensemble at UNLV, the Scarlet Tones continue to make history, one musical flight at a time!
The original Scarlet Tones logo, created in 2019:
Our Founding Purpose
Music Education student Julius Del Prado, now a UNLV graduate, and other dedicated musicians founded the Scarlet Tones to create more contemporary music ensembles at UNLV. As Del Prado states, “We wanted a place where we could hone in on the music that really spoke to us personally, so we made a group!” The Scarlet Tones was officially established in 2019.
