Schola Cantorum Goes Viral With Creative Cover of 80's Pop Anthem

Courtesy of Schola Cantorum

Schola Cantorum performs homage to the 1980's pop anthem, "Take On Me."

Schola Cantorum, the university's flagship vocal ensemble, released a new video and immediately went viral with more than 10,000 views across their media platforms.

The video is a cover of the 1980's pop anthem "Take On Me" by the Norwegian band A-ha. Paying homage to the original music video, the Schola Cantorum enters a world of pencil sketch animation. 

"It was a tricky project in that we only were able to sing together about 30 minutes each week," commented Stephen Caldwell, director of the Schola Cantorum. "We had to learn, rehearse and record the music in small pieces and stitch it all together bit by bit."

Students recorded individual "overdubs" in a studio format over top of the choral parts recorded in the Faulkner Performing Arts Center, and the instruments came last. The pencil sketch animation was done in Adobe Premiere Pro from video recorded at the Chi Omega Greek Theatre. 

Caldwell went on to say, "In such a difficult year for college students, it was great to do a project just for the fun of it. 'Take On Me' is one of those songs that everyone just loves, and it has been great to see the smiles come back to our singers and our audience."

You can view the full video on the official YouTube channel for the U of A Choral Studies program.