As past members of Shir Madness join current members onstage to sing their signature song “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper, the a cappella group builds on the long and elaborate history of Shir Madness that dates back to 1994.

Jewish text teacher Paul Blank founded Shir Madness in 1994 when he noticed that out of all the extracurricular offerings at CESJDS, there was no a cappella group. In response, Blank put together a small choir to sing Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikva,” for an assembly.

Blank was enthusiastic to take the lead in starting an a cappella club. He had previous experience with vocal performance, since he was a member of Columbia University’s a cappella group.

At that time, he named the group of five original student members the “JDS A Cappella Group.” Almost immediately after starting the club, he faced many challenges regarding practices.

“Rehearsal time is always complicated, because everyone has different schedules,” Blank said. “… It’s also really hard trying to come up with new songs to perform because you need to be really creative to find a powerful song.”

The JDS A Cappella Group sang during every school assembly. They also had special performances at venues such as Capi- tal One Area, Arlington National Cemetery and various local synagogues. In 1998, as a way of commemorating the departure of key seniors who helped start the club, the JDS A Cappella Group released an album called “How Are You,” which was composed of 20 differ- ent a cappella songs.

Blank stopped leading the group in 1998 once the five original singers graduated. Two of them, Eric Feder ‘98 and Jordana Ravick ‘98 ended up getting married, having become close friends through their shared interest in the cappella group. A few years later, current co-director and high school math teacher Karen Pang took over as adviser for the group. Pang was very excited about leading the JDS A Cappella group because of her own singing roots.

“I love to sing,” Pang said. “I sang in choirs my entire life growing up, and when I started teaching here, I was like, ‘where’s the choir?’ So that made me inspired to build back up the JDS A Cappella Group.”

The introduction of the name “Shir Madness” came in 2009 when members thought a rebrand from the generic name was necessary. In Hebrew, Shir means song, which relates to the idea of the group to be singing in harmony. Since then, the name Shir Madness, a play on the term “sheer madness,” has stuck.

During every JDS Spring Concert, Shir Madness performs “True Colors.” This tradition dates back to 2000 when Pang and Shir Madness performed “True Colors” for the spring concert. After that spring concert, Pang found the song so heartwarming and charming that she decided Shir Madness would perform “True Colors” as a tradition during every spring concert. Former Shir Madness singers and graduated seniors return to JDS just to sing “True Colors” with their old friends.

Pang temporarily took a break from the school in 2013, which led to several different directors over the following years. In 2023, JDS hired music teacher and Musical Director Sammy Grob, who now directs Shir Madness alongside Pang. Pang was glad that the school kept the choir alive during the years she was absent.

“It’s really exciting to know that when I left the school there would be someone to keep the tradition going,” Pang said. “… To know that Shir Madness kept going shows that it’s a significant institution by itself.”

Junior and student leader of Shir Madness Maya Greenblum has been a member for three years and has noticed that the club has recently become more inclusive by accepting more members in auditions. At one point, two additional groups, Choral and Harmonia, were created to include more singers, though those groups have since folded.

Choral was a choir that included both Shir Madness members and younger high school singers who wanted the opportunity to be a part of a choir with more experienced singers. Founded by former Shir Madness director Aaron Dunn, Harmonia was a choir made up of students who were not selected to be a part of Shir Madness, but still wanted to join a choir.  Middle school students are not allowed to try out for Shir Madness. The criteria to make Shir Madness includes being able to maintain harmony alone and read sheet music.

Shir Madness’ repertoire is broad, as members perform songs that span from low-tempo Jewish prayers to upbeat pop songs. Some more modern songs that they have performed include “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay and “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson. Some Hebrew and Jewish songs they have sung include “Al HaNissim” and “Nachamu.”

Over the years, Shir Madness has continued to perform at events outside of school, including a Baltimore Orioles game, the Shloshim Oct. 7 Memorial Ceremony and the Kolot HaYam Music Festival in New York. Greenblum thinks that the members’ commitment to Shir Madness makes the club especially unique. She is also very glad that the club encourages members to be confident when singing.

“Every kid in the group is seriously committed to learning the music even though they don’t actually know about the technicalities,” Greenblum said. “They’re so committed that when it comes to performance time, we put our best out there … It makes me proud to be in a group where we can be in the best spot we can be in because of our hard work.”