Founded in 1989 under the name ‘Unaccompanied Women’, Cadenza is the oldest a cappella group at the University of Chicago. We are an extremely close-knit group of students who study everything from Art History to Molecular Engineering and are brought together by our love of singing. As a high voices group, we pride ourselves on telling stories through our music and spreading our ‘Denza love every chance we get. 

All of our songs are arranged by members, past and present. As a group, we compete in the ICCA every other year and record music as often as possible. Most recently, we placed third at the 2024 ICCA Great Lakes Quarterfinals. We have released two full-length albums to date, I tried to love you in 2023 and Ampersand in 2017, as well as an EP, Let Me, in 2019. We perform at a variety of events, including Bar Mitzvahs and proposals, and we serenade our campus with singing valentines every February. Our music has been featured in the Best of Collegiate A Cappella (BOCA), Voices Only, and Women’s A Cappella Association (WACA) compilations. At the 2020 ICCA Great Lakes Quarterfinals, we were awarded “Outstanding Arrangement”. Also in 2020, we received two Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards (CARA); our song “Kamikazee” won Best Female Collegiate Song and was runner up for Best Female Collegiate Arrangement.