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TOP TEN KAPI AWARDS: “Zoo Pal: A Gift” with SmartyPAL

The app “SmartyPAL-A Gift” was submitted to the Kapi Awards run by Children’s Technology Review – a top, influential publication.

The final winners will be announced in December. We’re currently in the TOP 10.

Please take a second and view our page by clicking here & ‘heart’ us.

The kids’ learning app, ZooPAL-A Gift, launched on August 5th and is available for the iPad in the App store! It is a personalized, interactive story in which your child solves a series of tasks to help retrieve a mysterious box and rescue a new animal. Developed with early childhood development experts, each task helps pre-schoolers build critical skills. With 160 different story lines possible, there’s always a new adventure for your child. I did sound design/music composition for the app suite.

Some highlights from the first week of launch:

– Reached top 100 rank in 7 different countries under the “educational games” category

– Downloads already in the 1000s in just a week and kids are returning to the app at a high rate day after day

– App featured by iTunes in the top 20 apps in 5 different categories/regions

Press: Here is an article about SmartyPAL from a couple of weeks back.

If you have kids in the 2-5 range (or know someone who does), please download the app here.

Dischord Retrospective: Four Years of A Cappella at Penn

Graduating, soon, I have been thinking a lot about my time at Penn, specifically acting as an arranger, conductor, music director, soprano/mezzo, studio producer, and board member of Dischord A Cappella. Dischord is a co-ed group that was founded at the University of Pennsylvania back in 1998. The group performs a cappella covers spanning all genres – pop, indie, rock, country, jazz, folk, world, and fusion. Under my direction, the group has featured many mash-ups and medleys in its covers.

You can read a full account of my arranging credits for the group, here: Sarah Van Sciver, ’13, Soprano

Solo performances at our semesterly concerts:

Alone by Heart (Fall 2009)
Halo by Beyoncé (Spring 2010)
Foolish Games by Jewel (Fall 2010)
Hold My Heart by Sara Bareilles (Spring 2011)
Someone Like You by Adele (Fall 2011), with Richard Thomson
Black Horse and the Cherry Tree by KT Tunstall (Spring 2012)
What Goes Around Comes Around by Justin Timberlake (Fall 2012)
Morning Song by Jewel (Spring 2013)

I am an arranger for hire! Professional or non-professional vocal groups of all experience levels — all-male, all-female, or co-ed — contact me if you are interested in having something arranged.