The musical quartet Sons of Serendip had performed together in front of an audience only once before they auditioned for the television show America’s Got Talent—in front of 3,000 people at Madison Square Garden. The group—lead vocalist Micah Christian (STH’13), harpist Mason Morton (CFA’12), cellist and vocalist Kendall Ramseur (CFA’12), and pianist and guitarist Cordaro Rodriguez (LAW’12)—performed a soulful, understated rendition of “Somewhere Only We Know,” taking the audience by storm and wowing judges and viewers alike.

After 15 weeks of stiff competition, the group made it to the September 16 season finale, when they were one of six acts competing for $1 million. “You always win us over, because you have pure, raw talent,” Howard Stern (CGS’74, COM’76), a judge on the show, told them. Judge Howie Mandel hailed the quartet as “the most talented people we have in this contest.”

In the end, a magician won the prize. But Sons of Serendip came away with something else, according to judge Mel B: “You now have a platform to do whatever you want.”

“We never imagined we’d be here and finish in fourth place,” Christian said follow­ing the quartet’s elimination.

Sons of Serendip is a quartet of BU alums: (from left) cellist and vocalist Kendall Ramseur (CFA’12), pianist and guitarist Cordaro Rodriguez (LAW’12), lead vocalist Micah Christian (STH’13), and harpist Mason Morton (CFA’12). Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

The band’s name is a reference to the serendipitous circumstances that brought each member to Boston University as a graduate student. Ramseur wasn’t even sure he’d go to graduate school, but once on campus, he reunited with Rodriguez, a childhood friend he grew up with in Charlotte, N.C. Christian almost decided to forgo his acceptance to the School of Theology in favor of taking a job with Teach for America, but changed his mind at the last minute. He met Rodriguez and Ramseur when he hired them to accompany him at a choral concert. Morton, who earned an undergraduate degree in harp from Rice University, says the first person he met in Boston was Ramseur and he wound up living with him and Rodriguez.

“Our story helps us to feel that in some way we belong together,” Christian says.

The friends hadn’t planned on forming a musical group. Christian and Rodriguez were pursuing careers outside of music, Morton was teaching harp at the James P. Timilty Middle School in Roxbury, Mass., and Ramseur was honing a solo career as a cellist.

The band’s name is a reference to the serendipitous circumstances that brought each member to Boston University as a graduate student. Photo courtesy of Sons of Serendip

Last spring, Christian suggested that they audition for America’s Got Talent. They faced long odds. Before that, their only perfor­mance had been a concert at Sim­mons College in front of a group of about 20. They were one of 100,000 acts trying out for the hit reality show.

Ramseur describes the quartet’s style as a fusion of R&B, hip­hop, and classical. Their musical in­fluences are equally eclectic, and range from Yanni and film composer Hans Zimmer to India Arie and Amos Lee—all making for a distinctive sound that defies genre, and as Morton puts it, “feeds the soul more than entertains.”