Music, brotherhood form foundation of Buffalo Chips

The idea developed by chance, after a talent show.

Now, 20 years later, the Buffalo Chips, UB’s male a cappella group, is a campus mainstay. The student-run group performs at a wide range of functions all over Western New York, from school assemblies and fundraisers to elegant dinners and workshops. The Chips sang the national anthem — along with the Royal Pitches, UB’s female a cappella group — during President Barack Obama’s visit to UB in August 2013 and before former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Distinguished Speakers Series lecture two months later.

The group also has competed numerous times in the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella (ICCAs), winning back-to-back Mid-Atlantic Championships in 2011 and 2012, and competing those years in the ICCA finals in New York City.  

The Chips will mark this milestone anniversary next week with a special program during their annual Valentine’s Day show, to take place at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.

Tickets are $10 and are available at the Center for the Arts box office, online at Tickets.com and at the door on the day of the show.

As part of the concert — the Chips’ first in the Mainstage in 10 years — the current Chips will be joined on stage by alumni members representing every year since the group’s founding in 1995.

“Words cannot express how excited the alumni base is to see that something we started on a whim after a talent show my freshman year has not just lasted the test of time, but has grown to become part of the student life experience at UB,” says Ron Veiders, BA ’99 & MBA 2001, a founding member of the Chips and a board member of the group’s alumni association.

The idea for the Chips grew out of a fundraiser held by members of the UB Choir to fund a trip to Italy, Veiders recalls. “The men’s sections got together to sing two songs: ‘The Longest Time’ by Billy Joel and ‘Goodnight Sweetheart.’ It was after that when one of the men — Erich Kraus — asked if this would be something we could do more frequently in the next year.”

The Buffalo Chips were born in the fall of 1995 under the name of Cadence. The group, composed primarily of UB Choir members, performed at area schools and other events. The local chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America “took us under their wing and helped us with technique, etc.,” Veiders says. “They also allowed us to sing at their events.”

That, he adds, “got us thinking about what more we could be.”

The group dropped the name Cadence the following spring — it was, Veiders says, “too professional and not true to our more contemporary style that was evolving” — in favor of The Buffalo Chips.

The “Chips” debuted at UB at the Gala Scholarship Prism Concert in March 1996, performing “Ave Maria” by Franz Biebl and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen. The Queen song was one of the first arrangements by Chip Michael Burrows and has become a staple of the group’s concerts.

While the early Chips were mostly members of the UB Choir and heavily involved in the Department of Music — many were music education majors, according to Veiders — over the years the group has “become a microcosm of the student body, from all different backgrounds and majors.” In fact, the current roster includes accounting, electrical and biomedical engineering, and biomedical sciences majors.

Business manager Zach Carr, who received a BA in communication from UB in 2013 and currently is pursuing an MA at the university, has been a member of the Chips for four years.

“I have been around music my entire life, but never had been part of a group of singers,” Carr says. “The ideas of the Chips appealed to me because we are never concerned with just one person. Every member must do his part in order for a song to have a high-quality sound, and this appealed to me. We cannot rely on instruments for backup, just each other and it is the ultimate demonstration of ‘team singing’” he says.

Singing with the Chips “is unlike any other musical venture,” Carr explains. “Our voices must blend together, which means listening to each other. We must connect with one another, which means respecting each other. Very few things operate this way, but a cappella is dependent upon group cohesion. It is a musical brotherhood of the highest caliber.”

And it’s this brotherhood that ultimately defines the Chips.

“There are many members that stay in touch with one another all the time,” Veiders says. “I can tell you personally that my closest friends are those that I met through this group. They have superseded any of those I have from my school days before college, and are the strongest ties I have from UB,” he says.

“Most of us have stood up at each other’s weddings, become godparents to each other’s children and have become support members when any of us are in a time of need.

“What started as a simple organization,” he says, “quickly turned into a fraternal organization dedicated to each other.”

Both Carr and Veiders say their involvement with the Chips was the highpoint of their time at UB.

“I cannot find it in my heart to separate school from the Chips; school, in essence, was the Chips and everything else filled in the gaps between rehearsals, gigs and gatherings,” Veiders says. “It formed friendships and bonds that will last a lifetime.”

Adds Carr: “My time as a Chip is one that I shall never forget. I have learned so much, not only musically, but professionally as well.

“Being a graduate student is incredibly demanding on top of being a Chip,” he says, “but it is my love for music and loyalty to the guys in this group that has kept me a member.”

For more information about the Chips, including booking information, visit the group’s website or call 716-510-3097.

The Chips have recorded 10 full-length studio albums and one live recording. The most recent album, “Blue & White,” was released in February 2013.

Albums are available for purchase in both CD and downloadable formats. To download albums, visit iTunes, Loudr or Amazon. CDs may purchased at performances.