Gah!!! Arguably one of my favorite of their videos. Just fun to see them switching up from each style and make it somehow seem so damn seamlessssssss. LOVE!!!
Smiles, tears, regret, elation, sorrow, joy - music can certainly do it all. I can recommend their cover of Imagine, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, Can’t Hold Us, Come Along and absolutely any other title of theirs that catches your eye. They were a lockdown discovery for me and I have yet to find a song that isn’t just stellar. Loved your reaction, thanks. Peace …
Another pentaholic here. I was late to the party, only discovered them about 6 months ago. My husband died just over a year ago, and Pentatonix has made this truly horrid year more bearable. You're right about the nature of music, and how wonderful it is that we have hundreds of years of compositions still available to us. Music speaks to all of life - love, hatred, fear, courage, joy, sorrow, *everything* we go through. And it gives us one more way to process our feelings, and to think about what is happening in our lives, and how to deal with it. Of all the musicians currently making music for public consumption, Pentatonix seems to me to be the best at speaking to those deep places where we do our most important thinking. I can't tell you how grateful I am for them and to them.
I am a Pentaholic, and don't plan to recover. BUT - you obviously admire Kevin's skills - so I suggest you watch him solo, in his original - Kevin Olusola "Renegade"
Thank you for reacting to this evo. It really is fun and entertaining. Especially interesting to hear the first half of the 20th century and wonder who chose those songs.
Pentatonix They won The Sing Off in 2011. They made a guest starring appearance on America′s Got Talent as non−competitors a couple of years after that. The founding members are:- Scott Hoying (tall blond guy, natural baritone but has an impressive five−to−six octave range, can go all the way up to high tenor and down to bass, sings the bass lines when the usual bass singer takes the lead);
Kirstin "Kirstie" (Rhymes with "Thirsty") Maldonado (the only female member, natural mezzo soprano, but can go down to low alto and as high as upper soprano, also can sing in whistle notes that are off the scale); For a time in 2018 between the group’s tours, had the female lead on Broadway in the production of “Kinky Boots”. Mitch Grassi (a true contra−tenor, can hit high notes in his chest voice with ease and go WAY higher in his falsetto, also with ease); Avriel "Avi" Kaplan (dark beard and long hair, true basso profundo, trained as an opera singer, also can go up into the tenor range; and Kevin "KO" Olusola (beatboxer extraordinaire, also is a world−class cellist who plays cello on some of their songs, has a beautiful high tenor voice and gets occasional lead vocal solos as well, graduated pre−med from Yale and speaks several languages including Mandarin Chinese). Kirstie, Scott & Mitch grew up together in Arlington, Texas, and began performing together as children in local youth musical theater. They ended up in high school together and performed in the choir. While there, they formed an a cappella group called The Trio which had several performance videos go viral on UA-cam, most notably a cover of Lady Gaga′s "Telephone". The three of them are best friends and consider themselves to be almost siblings. Scott & Kirstie (who were a class year ahead of Mitch) both graduated high school in 2010 and went their separate ways to different colleges, Scott at USC and Kirstie at Oklahoma. While at USC, Scott joined a USC−based a cappella group called the SoCal VoCals, where he met alumnus Ben Bram, who was now an arranger and vocal coach for the NBC TV show The Sing Off, an a cappella competition show. Ben convinced Scott to get The Trio to audition for the show. The three reunited (Mitch had to skip high school graduation ceremonies to go) in Los Angeles for the audition. They found out that the rules had changed, so they needed at least five members to audition. Ben put them together with Avi (a native of Visalia, California), who he knew from Avi′s performing days at Mount San Antonio College in California. They found Kevin (from Kentucky) through one of his UA-cam videos that had gone viral featuring him playing the cello and beatboxing at the same time, a talent that Kevin coined as "Cello−Boxing". Kevin arrived in Los Angeles literally the day before the audition! Scott came up with the name "Pentatonix" after the pentatonic scale. They performed a re−arrangement of "The Telephone" for the audition and passed, despite having been together as a five−piece group for less that 24 hours! They won The Sing Off that season (all of the performances are available on UA-cam), in which they received a substantial cash prize AND a record contract with Epic Records. They pooled their prize winnings together and all moved to Los Angeles, and all got apartments right next door to each other in the same building. But just a week later, Epic dropped them because the marketing people didn′t think an a cappella group could sell records. Instead of giving up, they were determined and began recording their own songs on UA-cam, hiring Ben Bram as their producer and arranger. These usually consisted of the five of them sitting on a couch and performing cover songs live. Several of the videos went viral, and Sony (the parent company of Epic) decided to give them another chance by placing them on one of their smaller labels, Madison Gate. They released two secular EPs and one Christmas EP on Madison Gate, all of which were strong sellers. But when their cove r of a medley of songs by Daft Punk not only went super−viral, but also won them their first Grammy, they were promoted all the way up to RCA Records, Sony′s top label. They began writing and producing their own songs in addition to their covers, began putting out a Christmas album just about annually (which has become their best−selling genre), and have had multi−platinum album sales, sold−out world tours, and have won two additional Grammys. Avi began getting burned out with all of the touring and heavy recording schedule, was suffering from anxiety and personal problems, and learned that his mother had been diagnosed with cancer in 2017. He announced he was departing from the group and taking some time away from the music industry. Matt Sallee (from Baltimore) joined them in September 2017. He did only become official when they renewed their RCA contract in February 2018, but he recorded with them in September as a featured artist and went on their Christmas tour as a featured artist, as well. When he attended the audition for the group, he had already mastered the Bass part for most if not all their past catalogue. He was successful and has proved that he fits in well with the group. If you think there have been other changes to the line up - look again. This is the ONLY change. Kirstie and Mitch are like chameleons and change looks frequently. After a year away from music, Avi has now returned as a phenomenal solo artist in the Folk/Americana/Roots genre. Ben Bram has been in charge of their production, including arranging and directing from the beginning. He is often referred to as the sixth member. Scott and Kevin are major players in the arrangements, but every member contributes. good watch is "The Recording of Evergreen" where a camera was invited into the studio for the second week of recording/ Also, all members are songwriters for both Pentatonix and their own solo work. Ed Boyer who mixes everything of theirs (even the HWB Livestream) is the one who pulled Ben Bram into the sing off in the first place. They were nominated for a 4th Grammy for their album Evergreen, but didn't win. Kirstie became a new mum which caused a pause in touring after their Evergreen Christmas tour 2021. They have a star on the Hollywood walk of fame installed in February 2023. They are the only a capella group with a star! Things you need to know because if you get these wrong Pentaholics will come after you with pitch forks and torches! Ha Ha!! 1- There is NO Auto-Tune; what you hear is actually what they sing. They really are that good. One exception is the 90's Dance Medley where Cher used autotune as an effect - so they had to. 2- What produces everything that you hear in the video, you see in the official video. If there is an instrument used in the music, you see it on screen. In the 2022 Christmas album, there are some instruments not featured throughout the album. 3- They never release something on video they can’t reproduce with the exact same quality live on-stage.
I recommend "Kevin's Fifth": ua-cam.com/video/DbCasvcNx78/v-deo.html Scott begins with an introduction of Kevin and the story of how they found him and how he came to join them, which will give you at least a little bit of background, and then Kevin proceeds to demonstrate just how incredibly talented he is. I also recommend watching their performances on season three of _The Sing-Off,_ preferably in order. It's fascinating watching *them* evolve, over the span of just ten very intense weeks. When they auditioned for the show they'd had all of one day to rehearse together; by the end of it they were a family of choice, with all the tools they needed to make it on their own despite the record label reneging on the recording contract that they'd presumably won on _The Sing-Off._ Awesome is the word that springs to mind.
Great, and considered reaction. I'm such a huge Pentaholic! I've been a fan since their Sing-off contest days in 2011. It's dangerous to ask a Pentaholic for info on PTX as they will give you a novel! However, just for starters, Mitch (dark haired high counter tenor) and Scott (tall, blonde, Baritone) have been friends since they were 8 years old and Kirstie has also known Mitch since they were both 8 years old. She, Scott and Mitch grew up in Texas and sang together in high school. If you'd like to see them singing 'telephone' from Lady Gaga at a school concert when Mitch was 17 and Kirstie and Scott were 18, you can see it here ua-cam.com/video/t2XBMWRK4Mw/v-deo.html. This is the song they auditioned with for the Sing-off a year later. Both Scott and Mitch suffered from homophobic bullying when they were kids and Mitch, in particular, was teased for having a high voice. Huge, best-selling albums, 20 million UA-cam subscribers, sell-out arena world tours, three Grammys and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame later and who is laughing now?! Matt was a huge fan of Pentatonix and went to their concerts and workshops before he joined the group to replace Avi Kaplan as their bass in 2017. As well as singing and beatboxing, Kevin plays the cello, saxophone and piano. Watch his version of 'Down' in which he sings, beatboxes and plays the electric cello! He was an award winning classical musician and he speaks many languages. He did a celloboxing video that went viral which is how Scott found him. He studied at Yale and had done his pre-med training so had been going to study medicine when Scott approached him to join Pentatonix to enter the Sing-off competition. Pentatonix cover a wide range of different types of music including pop, rock, EDM, rap, musical theatre, world music and more. Their catalogue is huge and there really is something for everyone. They are best known for their covers and Christmas music but their originals are fantastic and much under-rated. My favourite is their EDM one, Love again, but I like them all, particularly Sing, Run to you, Can't sleep love, coffee in bed, be my eyes, water...
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Gah!!! Arguably one of my favorite of their videos. Just fun to see them switching up from each style and make it somehow seem so damn seamlessssssss. LOVE!!!
Smiles, tears, regret, elation, sorrow, joy - music can certainly do it all. I can recommend their cover of Imagine, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, Can’t Hold Us, Come Along and absolutely any other title of theirs that catches your eye. They were a lockdown discovery for me and I have yet to find a song that isn’t just stellar. Loved your reaction, thanks. Peace …
Another pentaholic here. I was late to the party, only discovered them about 6 months ago. My husband died just over a year ago, and Pentatonix has made this truly horrid year more bearable.
You're right about the nature of music, and how wonderful it is that we have hundreds of years of compositions still available to us. Music speaks to all of life - love, hatred, fear, courage, joy, sorrow, *everything* we go through. And it gives us one more way to process our feelings, and to think about what is happening in our lives, and how to deal with it.
Of all the musicians currently making music for public consumption, Pentatonix seems to me to be the best at speaking to those deep places where we do our most important thinking. I can't tell you how grateful I am for them and to them.
I am a Pentaholic, and don't plan to recover. BUT - you obviously admire Kevin's skills - so I suggest you watch him solo, in his original - Kevin Olusola "Renegade"
Recommend their 90s Dance Medley.
Thank you for reacting to this evo. It really is fun and entertaining. Especially interesting to hear the first half of the 20th century and wonder who chose those songs.
Pentatonix
They won The Sing Off in 2011. They made a guest starring appearance on America′s Got Talent as non−competitors a couple of years after that.
The founding members are:-
Scott Hoying (tall blond guy, natural baritone but has an impressive five−to−six octave range, can go all the way up to high tenor and down to bass, sings the bass lines when the usual bass singer takes the lead);
Kirstin "Kirstie" (Rhymes with "Thirsty") Maldonado (the only female member, natural mezzo soprano, but can go down to low alto and as high as upper soprano, also can sing in whistle notes that are off the scale); For a time in 2018 between the group’s tours, had the female lead on Broadway in the production of “Kinky Boots”.
Mitch Grassi (a true contra−tenor, can hit high notes in his chest voice with ease and go WAY higher in his falsetto, also with ease);
Avriel "Avi" Kaplan (dark beard and long hair, true basso profundo, trained as an opera singer, also can go up into the tenor range; and
Kevin "KO" Olusola (beatboxer extraordinaire, also is a world−class cellist who plays cello on some of their songs, has a beautiful high tenor voice and gets occasional lead vocal solos as well, graduated pre−med from Yale and speaks several languages including Mandarin Chinese).
Kirstie, Scott & Mitch grew up together in Arlington, Texas, and began performing together as children in local youth musical theater. They ended up in high school together and performed in the choir. While there, they formed an a cappella group called The Trio which had several performance videos go viral on UA-cam, most notably a cover of Lady Gaga′s "Telephone". The three of them are best friends and consider themselves to be almost siblings.
Scott & Kirstie (who were a class year ahead of Mitch) both graduated high school in 2010 and went their separate ways to different colleges, Scott at USC and Kirstie at Oklahoma.
While at USC, Scott joined a USC−based a cappella group called the SoCal VoCals, where he met alumnus Ben Bram, who was now an arranger and vocal coach for the NBC TV show The Sing Off, an a cappella competition show. Ben convinced Scott to get The Trio to audition for the show. The three reunited (Mitch had to skip high school graduation ceremonies to go) in Los Angeles for the audition.
They found out that the rules had changed, so they needed at least five members to audition. Ben put them together with Avi (a native of Visalia, California), who he knew from Avi′s performing days at Mount San Antonio College in California. They found Kevin (from Kentucky) through one of his UA-cam videos that had gone viral featuring him playing the cello and beatboxing at the same time, a talent that Kevin coined as "Cello−Boxing".
Kevin arrived in Los Angeles literally the day before the audition! Scott came up with the name "Pentatonix" after the pentatonic scale. They performed a re−arrangement of "The Telephone" for the audition and passed, despite having been together as a five−piece group for less that 24 hours!
They won The Sing Off that season (all of the performances are available on UA-cam), in which they received a substantial cash prize AND a record contract with Epic Records. They pooled their prize winnings together and all moved to Los Angeles, and all got apartments right next door to each other in the same building.
But just a week later, Epic dropped them because the marketing people didn′t think an a cappella group could sell records.
Instead of giving up, they were determined and began recording their own songs on UA-cam, hiring Ben Bram as their producer and arranger. These usually consisted of the five of them sitting on a couch and performing cover songs live.
Several of the videos went viral, and Sony (the parent company of Epic) decided to give them another chance by placing them on one of their smaller labels, Madison Gate. They released two secular EPs and one Christmas EP on Madison Gate, all of which were strong sellers.
But when their cove r of a medley of songs by Daft Punk not only went super−viral, but also won them their first Grammy, they were promoted all the way up to RCA Records, Sony′s top label.
They began writing and producing their own songs in addition to their covers, began putting out a Christmas album just about annually (which has become their best−selling genre), and have had multi−platinum album sales, sold−out world tours, and have won two additional Grammys.
Avi began getting burned out with all of the touring and heavy recording schedule, was suffering from anxiety and personal problems, and learned that his mother had been diagnosed with cancer in 2017. He announced he was departing from the group and taking some time away from the music industry.
Matt Sallee (from Baltimore) joined them in September 2017. He did only become official when they renewed their RCA contract in February 2018, but he recorded with them in September as a featured artist and went on their Christmas tour as a featured artist, as well. When he attended the audition for the group, he had already mastered the Bass part for most if not all their past catalogue. He was successful and has proved that he fits in well with the group.
If you think there have been other changes to the line up - look again. This is the ONLY change. Kirstie and Mitch are like chameleons and change looks frequently.
After a year away from music, Avi has now returned as a phenomenal solo artist in the Folk/Americana/Roots genre.
Ben Bram has been in charge of their production, including arranging and directing from the beginning. He is often referred to as the sixth member. Scott and Kevin are major players in the arrangements, but every member contributes. good watch is "The Recording of Evergreen" where a camera was invited into the studio for the second week of recording/
Also, all members are songwriters for both Pentatonix and their own solo work.
Ed Boyer who mixes everything of theirs (even the HWB Livestream) is the one who pulled Ben Bram into the sing off in the first place.
They were nominated for a 4th Grammy for their album Evergreen, but didn't win.
Kirstie became a new mum which caused a pause in touring after their Evergreen Christmas tour 2021.
They have a star on the Hollywood walk of fame installed in February 2023. They are the only a capella group with a star!
Things you need to know because if you get these wrong Pentaholics will come after you with pitch forks and torches! Ha Ha!!
1- There is NO Auto-Tune; what you hear is actually what they sing. They really are that good. One exception is the 90's Dance Medley where Cher used autotune as an effect - so they had to.
2- What produces everything that you hear in the video, you see in the official video. If there is an instrument used in the music, you see it on screen. In the 2022 Christmas album, there are some instruments not featured throughout the album.
3- They never release something on video they can’t reproduce with the exact same quality live on-stage.
I recommend "Kevin's Fifth": ua-cam.com/video/DbCasvcNx78/v-deo.html Scott begins with an introduction of Kevin and the story of how they found him and how he came to join them, which will give you at least a little bit of background, and then Kevin proceeds to demonstrate just how incredibly talented he is.
I also recommend watching their performances on season three of _The Sing-Off,_ preferably in order. It's fascinating watching *them* evolve, over the span of just ten very intense weeks. When they auditioned for the show they'd had all of one day to rehearse together; by the end of it they were a family of choice, with all the tools they needed to make it on their own despite the record label reneging on the recording contract that they'd presumably won on _The Sing-Off._ Awesome is the word that springs to mind.
Great, and considered reaction. I'm such a huge Pentaholic! I've been a fan since their Sing-off contest days in 2011. It's dangerous to ask a Pentaholic for info on PTX as they will give you a novel!
However, just for starters, Mitch (dark haired high counter tenor) and Scott (tall, blonde, Baritone) have been friends since they were 8 years old and Kirstie has also known Mitch since they were both 8 years old. She, Scott and Mitch grew up in Texas and sang together in high school. If you'd like to see them singing 'telephone' from Lady Gaga at a school concert when Mitch was 17 and Kirstie and Scott were 18, you can see it here ua-cam.com/video/t2XBMWRK4Mw/v-deo.html. This is the song they auditioned with for the Sing-off a year later.
Both Scott and Mitch suffered from homophobic bullying when they were kids and Mitch, in particular, was teased for having a high voice. Huge, best-selling albums, 20 million UA-cam subscribers, sell-out arena world tours, three Grammys and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame later and who is laughing now?! Matt was a huge fan of Pentatonix and went to their concerts and workshops before he joined the group to replace Avi Kaplan as their bass in 2017.
As well as singing and beatboxing, Kevin plays the cello, saxophone and piano. Watch his version of 'Down' in which he sings, beatboxes and plays the electric cello! He was an award winning classical musician and he speaks many languages. He did a celloboxing video that went viral which is how Scott found him. He studied at Yale and had done his pre-med training so had been going to study medicine when Scott approached him to join Pentatonix to enter the Sing-off competition.
Pentatonix cover a wide range of different types of music including pop, rock, EDM, rap, musical theatre, world music and more. Their catalogue is huge and there really is something for everyone. They are best known for their covers and Christmas music but their originals are fantastic and much under-rated. My favourite is their EDM one, Love again, but I like them all, particularly Sing, Run to you, Can't sleep love, coffee in bed, be my eyes, water...
CHECK OUT MY OTHER CHANNELS BELOW:
D Reacts Movies & Shows - ua-cam.com/channels/uXFCjBEbf75eMWT8ymXNkw.html
D Reacts Everything Else - ua-cam.com/channels/oM0GbNS8wmb1v77b6NYh9Q.html
D Off Grid - ua-cam.com/channels/xCr1HtUAn0EdrwQBQfDiqA.html
Like and subscribe for more!
Please react to voiceplay too
It s an another a capella group
I recommand you voiceplay Metallica Nothing else matters please please