A cappella music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this fashion. The term a cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato musical styles. In the 19th century, a renewed interest in Renaissance polyphony, coupled with an ignorance of the fact that vocal parts were often doubled by instrumentalists, led to the term coming to mean unaccompanied vocal music. The term is also used, rarely, as a synonym for alla breve.
Collegiate a cappella ensembles are college-affiliated singing groups, primarily in the United States, and, increasingly, the United Kingdom and Ireland, that perform entirely without musical instruments. The groups are typically composed of, operated by, and directed by students. In the context of collegiate a cappella, the term a cappella typically also refers to the music genre performed by pop-centric student singing groups. Consequently, an ensemble that sings unaccompanied classical music may not be considered an a cappella group, even though technically it is performing a cappella.
Deke Sharon is an American singer, arranger, composer, director, producer, pioneer, and teacher of a cappella music, and is one of the leaders and promoters of the contemporary a cappella community. He has been referred to as "the father of contemporary a cappella" by some authors, and "the godfather of a cappella" by others.
The International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), originally the National Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, is an international competition run by Varsity Vocals, that attracts hundreds of college a cappella groups each year.
The Tufts Beelzebubs, frequently referred to as "The Bubs", is a male a cappella group of students from Tufts University that performs a mix of pop, rock, R&B, and other types of music while spreading their motto of "Fun through Song." Founded in 1962, they have toured in Europe, Asia, South America, and North America, and they competed on NBC's The Sing-Off in December 2009, finishing in second place.
Straight No Chaser (SNC) is a professional American a cappella group that originated in 1996 at Indiana University. Originally a student group at Indiana University, they recorded a video in 1998 of a comical version of "The 12 Days of Christmas". The founding members all graduated, to be replaced by other students, in 1999. In 2007, the 1998 video went viral on YouTube, and subsequently led to a reunion of the founding members and a five-album record deal with Atlantic Records in 2008. The YouTube video has been viewed over 24 million times.
The House Jacks is a professional a cappella quintet from San Francisco, founded in 1991 by Deke Sharon.
Peter James Hollens is an American singer-songwriter, producer and entrepreneur. He has been involved with a cappella music since 1999 when he and Leo da Silva founded the University of Oregon's a cappella group, On The Rocks, known as the first official collegiate a cappella group in Oregon. He regularly releases new music videos to his YouTube channel. With over 5 million followers and over 3 million subscribers, his content has received over a billion total views since 2011.
Pitch Perfect is a 2012 American musical comedy film directed by Jason Moore and written by Kay Cannon. It features an ensemble cast, including Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Rebel Wilson, Adam DeVine, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Hana Mae Lee, Alexis Knapp, Ester Dean, Kelley Jakle, Shelley Regner, Wanetah Walmsley, Ben Platt, Utkarsh Ambudkar, John Michael Higgins, and Elizabeth Banks. The plot follows Barden University's all-girl a cappella group, the Barden Bellas, as they compete against another a cappella group from their college to win Nationals. The film is loosely adapted from Cornell University alum Mickey Rapkin's non-fiction book, titled Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate a Cappella Glory and director Jason Moore's own experiences at his alma mater, Northwestern University. Filming concluded in December 2011, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Kelley Jakle is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She played the role of Jessica Smith in the Pitch Perfect series (2012–2017) and appeared on the first and second seasons of The Sing-Off in 2009 and 2010. She is also a member of an Americana duo band, Robin Alice.
Shelley Anne Regner is an American actress and singer, known for her role as Ashley Jones in the Pitch Perfect film series (2012–2017). She is also known as a past member of Disney's acappella group, DCappella.
Pitch Perfect 3 is a 2017 American musical comedy film directed by Trish Sie and written by Kay Cannon and Mike White. A sequel to Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) and the third and final installment in the Pitch Perfect franchise, the film features Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Hana Mae Lee, Ester Dean, Chrissie Fit, Alexis Knapp, Kelly Jakle, Shelley Regner, John Michael Higgins, and Elizabeth Banks all reprising their roles from previous installments, and they are joined by John Lithgow, DJ Khaled, Ruby Rose, Matt Lanter, and Guy Burnet. The film follows the Bellas, now graduated from college, reuniting for one final performance together during an overseas USO tour.
Evynne Hollens is a female vocalist who lives and works in her native Eugene, Oregon. She was one of the co-founders of the University of Oregon’s female a cappella group, Divisi, with which she sang for five years. Her name is the first word in the first chapter of the book Pitch Perfect, on which the movie of the same title is based. Her and Divisi’s adventures at the 2005 International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella Finals make up a major portion of the book.
Pitch Perfect is an American musical comedy media franchise created by Kay Cannon, loosely based on the non-fiction book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate a Cappella Glory by Mickey Rapkin. Jason Moore directed the first film, Elizabeth Banks directed the second, and Trish Sie directed the third. Paul Brooks, Max Handelman, and Banks produced the films. The film series features an ensemble cast, including Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Skylar Astin, Adam DeVine, Ben Platt, Alexis Knapp, Hana Mae Lee, Ester Dean, Hailee Steinfeld, Chrissie Fit, John Michael Higgins, and Banks; while the television series stars DeVine. The series is distributed by Universal Pictures.
The Stanford Fleet Street Singers is a comedy a cappella group from Stanford University. The group performs original songs and sketch comedy, and wears a uniform of black vests and red bow ties. Fleet Street is perhaps best known for having published the first collegiate a cappella album composed entirely of original music. In total, Fleet Street has released 13 studio albums and has received a dozen national awards.
Pitch Slapped is a reality show on Lifetime. It premiered on January 5, 2016. It follows a cappella teams from two New Jersey high schools that are mentored by some of the best coaches in the industry as they face off in weekly competitions, leading up to a championship sing-off. Cherry Hill's Stay Tuned learns under the tutelage of Deke Sharon—who was the on-site music director for the Pitch Perfect films—while singer and performance coach Diana Preisler guides Highlands Voices as they prep for their performances.
In Transit is a one-act musical with book, music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplan and Sara Wordsworth. The musical, performed entirely a cappella, ran Off-Broadway in 2010, and on Broadway in 2016.
DCappella was an a cappella group formed via a national search and run by Disney Music Group featuring Disney songs. The group originally consisted of Antonio Fernandez, Joe Santoni, Morgan Keene, Orlando Dixon, RJ Woessner, Shelley Regner, and Sojourner Brown: Kalen Kelly and Kelly Denice Taylor joined the group after Regner and Brown left. Deke Sharon was DCappella’s co-creator, music director, arranger and producer.
Bill Hare is an American Grammy Award-winning audio engineer known for pioneering contemporary recording techniques in a cappella. He was the first to record voices individually, and the first to mic singers exactly as one would mic instruments. Over the course of his career, Hare has become well known for his outsize role in shaping the sound of recorded a cappella. Industry observers have called him the "patriarch" and "the Dr. Dre" of a cappella recording. Deke Sharon, founder and longtime president of the Contemporary A Cappella Society, wrote of Hare's influence in 2018: "The sound of contemporary recorded a cappella owes more to his technique, style, and pioneering than any other person."
