Serendipity: A term derived from the old Persian tale of three princes from Serendip who took an accidental journey through the Far East whilst searching for a lost camel. Now, add a fourth prince, change the setting to Cambridge and substitute the camel with the coveted title of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”, and you have the 2014 revision.
“None of us tried to make this happen. We didn’t have any big, lofty dreams,” said Kendall Ramseur, the cellist for Sons of Serendip, a musical ensemble comprised of four Boston University alumni who happened to stumble across one another and, recently, some well-deserved fame after they auditioned for “America’s Got Talent” and made it to the Top 12 round.
“We’re rehearsing like crazy to prepare for Tuesday,” said Micah Christian, referring to the Top 12 performances on Tuesday night. “And we usually rehearse at least four hours a day.”
This comes as no surprise. The group was in the Top 12 acts, earning their place covering songs such as Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know,” and transforming the familiar ballads into some beautifully escapist listening.
After their performance of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World” on Tuesday, judge Howie Mandel called the Sons “the most musically talented group in the competition.”
And America seemed to agree.
On Wednesday night, the group was voted through to the finale next week, putting them in the Top 6 and bringing them one round closer to the million-dollar prize.
The group was officially formed in February, but Micah Christian, Cordaro Rodriguez, Mason Morton and Ramseur became comrades a couple of measures earlier than that.
“I met Kendall in 2010 when I just packed my bags and drove to Boston…We just became friends in that way,” said Morton, the group’s harpist and constant reminder that the more strings you have, the better.
“I just remember him [Morton] walking into the apartment one day and he asked if there was an extra room,” Ramseur said, laughing. “You would have never known that we would end up in a group together years down the road.”
Rodriguez, the group’s pianist and guitarist, knew Ramseur from an entirely different setting. The two grew up together in Charlotte, North Carolina, and happened to pursue their individual endeavors at the same Boston institution. Ramseur and Morton studied at BU’s College of Fine Arts, Rodriguez at BU’s School of Law and Christian at BU’s School of Theology.
The group of friends attempted small performances at first, one of which took place at Marsh Chapel in 2010.
“That recognition was there, but we didn’t do anything with it,” Ramseur said.
From about 2011 to 2013, the individual musicians dabbled in the fine art of playing music with one another. Over this period, a combination of casual playing and formal studying produced the string-infused buildup to the group America knows today.
Despite the implied limitations of playing with instruments usually associated with classical music, Morton said Sons of Serendip’s genres of influence are almost as diverse as their coincidentally crossed paths.
“Our music is a fusion of classical elements, neo-soul and this sort of rock, I would say,” he said. “And so all of that together, it should almost blend like maybe that of a soundtrack.”
And with this distinct musicality came a “carpe diem” mentality to match. When Christian, the group’s lead vocalist, brought up the idea of auditioning for “America’s Got Talent” in February, there were no second thoughts.
“I had heard about the auditions, and the first guys that popped into my mind were Cordaro and his roommates,” Christian said. “When this came up, I was like, ‘Well this could be a cool opportunity to see what could happen.’…I asked Cordaro if he could ask his roommates if they’d be interested.”
After a quick first concert at Simmons College, the Sons of Serendip were ready to make the conversion from an audience of 20 friends and family members to that of several million American viewers. And, despite the tremendous track record of the group’s fate, the Sons of Serendip have decided to take things into their own hands since their arrival in New York.
“The style that we aim for is anything that’s moving. So I guess it’s not necessarily limited to a genre,” Rodriguez said. “That mixture helps the group stay well-rounded.”
And it just keeps getting better for these BU Sons of Serendip as they celebrate the happenstance of their past with the heart and soul of their present. Although they were forged along Commonwealth Avenue, they’ve found their place among the bright lights of Sixth Avenue.
“When I’m on the Radio City Music Hall stage I feel at home playing in front of people,” Morton said. “It feels like this is where I belong.”
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