It's sort of difficult to write the about section for NARD anymore. I reread the ones I had written for freshman year, and then for sophomore and junior year (I didn't change it much) and while they were accurate then, they aren't now. NARD started as something in itself, it was its own entity, if that makes any sense - and over the years, NARD has really just turned into the four of us; to me, describing or explaining NARD to someone has really just been me talking about a few other guys that I hang out with and sing with... weird how that stuff happens without realizing it. Anyway, onto what you're probably looking for in this section.
What is NARD?
NARD is four guys at SUNY Geneseo - Nick Moran, Alex MacDonald, Rob Line, and myself, Dave Gordon. We hail from different parts of New York (Long Island, Long Island, Rochester, and Buffalo, respectively) and met randomly in the first week of freshman year. After finding out that Geneseo already had a barbershop quartet, we figured we'd give it a shot anyway, and started "rehearsing" weekday nights - often after midnight - and just goofing around together. We came up with the name "NARD" early freshman year during a brainstorming session. We feel it reflects our creativity and originality. Also, it rhymes with "yeoman of the guard", which is an officer in the ceremonial bodyguard of the British Monarch. NARD certainly loves those crazy Brits. Hell, Dave was even born there.
What sort of songs does NARD sing?
Though we like to think of ourselves as a barbershop quartet, dealing only with barbershop style songs, we've branched out as time has gone on and added a variety of music to our repertoire, including contemporary, traditional, barbershop-style jazz, showtunes, video game music, and others. In fact, we believe we're the only barbershop quartet to practice barbershop minimalism; we may have invented the genre. Additionally, all four of us love being on stage, and most of our shows employ various (sometime absurdly elaborate) skits and dances.
Where has NARD performed in the past?
NARD has had more official performances than I'm likely to remember, but if you can think of it, chances are good that we've done it. We've sung in the union at open mics multiple times, opened hockey and baseball games by singing the national anthem, performed at RA programs, hosted local a capella concerts, and more. Though we've sung overseas (really - we had many audiences on our trip to Italy) and for audiences exceeding 13,000, our favorite performance venue is really just anyone who wants to hear us sing - even (read: especially) if it's just a few people. If you see us and want a song, don't hesitate to ask.
Where do you get your music?
Though we've obtained some of it from "official" song books and the like, the majority of our music is arranged and/or transcribed by our lead, Rob Line. Rob's got an extremely good ear and is often able to transcribe complex arrangements with little difficulty. Honestly, we owe him big time for this - you wouldn't hear cool stuff like NARDtendo or the Simon and Garfunkle Medley if it weren't for Rob.
NARD would like to thank the following people:
This section used to have a big listing of names of people who have helped or encouraged us throughout the years, but honestly, there's really too many to list. So many of our friends, family, and even complete strangers have been vital to make us what we are, and without them, we'd be lost. If you've helped us - ever - thank you. You know who you are.
Who designs the website?
I (Dave) created the website around November of our freshman year, and I've been maintaining, updating, and redesigning it ever since. Though I initially used Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft Frontpage for the first version of the site, subsequent revisions (and they're hardly revisions - I've redesigned each part from scratch each time) have really just been with a simple text editor. The site makes use of XHTML/DHTML, CSS, Javascript, AJAX, PHP, and SQLite. Though I initially designed it to be most compatible with Firefox, it should work in nearly all browsers with little trouble.