-------> HISTORY

The Haverford Outskirts was originally thought up in late 2001 by then creatively frustrated sophomore Karel Chan '04, who thought that there was adequate room for another a cappella group on campus. (At the time, Haverford had two men's groups, the Humtones and the S-chords, one women's group, the Oxford Blues, and one co-ed group, the Looney Tunes. A bi-co women's group, the Extreme Keys existed as well but was not as quite in the limelight.)

When faced with the tough choice of starting a women's or co-ed group, Karel decided that she wanted the challenge of creating a sound that was unique to women, but different from the women's groups on Haverford's and Bryn Mawr's campuses. Dubbing the yet-to-be-formed group the Outskirts (courtesy of her childhood friend Miin), she set out on a mission to establish a core group of singers.

The original original Outskirts were: Alice Cartwright '04, Karel Chan '04, Jackie Corley '04, Ariel Emmett '04, Fran Knechel '04, Emily Nietrzeba '04, Sarah Lowry '05, and Megan Roscioli '05. With a rudimentary arrangement of Hanson's Runaway Run, the group embarked on their very first a cappella project. Not far along they realized that they needed more voices and thus, the first slew of auditions came about and brought the roster to 14.

At the beginning of the Spring 2002 semester, however, Karel - still a creatively frustrated sophomore, but also a freaking-out-about-her-major sophomore - realized that she just didn't have the chops to lead a fledgling group to stardom from scratch. Heavy hearted, she bowed out of the group, leaving the option of taking over to anyone in the group who so desired. No one rose to the occasion, however, and with that, the Outskirts were put on hold undeterminably.

Fast forward to Spring 2003 semester. Karel, now a much more academically stable and leadership skilled junior, had met quite a number of vocally talented, impressionable young freshmen, some of whom were quite interested in singing on campus but not sure which direction to take. A good friend of Karel's, Rich Carthas '05, suggested that she consider starting the Outskirts up again. After much deliberation and encouragement from her freshman friends and former members of the group, she sent out a few emails and did some networking, and the Haverford Outskirts rose again into existence.

With considerable help from the S-Chords, who debutted them at their spring senior concert, the Outskirts asserted their presence at the end of the 2002-2003 school year. After heartily performing their one song (Runaway Run!) at the Customs Concert in August 2003 and spending the rest of the semester working on building a repertoire, the group appeared onstage with the Humtones in December 2003 for the Humtones' winter concert and finally established themselves as the newest tour de force on Haverford's campus.

The group is young, but vivacious and vibrant, and looks forward to years of music to come.

-written February 2004, Karel Chan.