Дек Шэрон: Отец современного а капелла

American a cappella singer and arranger

Deke Sharon (born December 12, 1967) is an American singer, arranger, composer, director, producer, author, coach, 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" and "the godfather of a cappella".

Deke Sharon was born and raised in San Francisco. He started singing in choir groups at age five, including the San Francisco Boys Chorus. He attended Town School for Boys and San Francisco University High School, where he sang lead (second tenor) in the barbershop quartet his freshman year in "The Music Man," and kept it going all four years, learning to direct and arrange a cappella.

Sharon spent his college years in Boston, graduating from Tufts University with a Bachelor of Arts in childhood studies, and a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music with a focus on vocal jazz, third stream (now called "contemporary improvisation"), and music theory. In college, he directed the collegiate a cappella group the Tufts Beelzebubs, transforming the group's sound to reflect modern rock, with intricate instrumental vocalizations and the integration of vocal percussion. The 1990–1991 Beelzebubs album Foster Street that he directed musically is credited with the creation of contemporary a cappella sound. Sharon had to audition three times before he was accepted, as he was seen as "overzealous" during a time when a cappella was not popular, a fact which was mentioned in the book "Pitch Perfect." Beca and Benji in the Pitch Perfect films are partially based on Sharon. During this time, he decided to make a career of contemporary a cappella and popularize this new style, despite being laughed at and told it was impossible.

Sharon was the music director and arranger for the film Pitch Perfect, as well as singing on several of the songs, where he was credited on screen as "Male Voice #1." He returned for Pitch Perfect 2, in which he has a brief cameo as the German judge and broadcaster. He helped involve several professional a cappella groups and singers with the film, including The Filharmonic, Penn Masala, and Pentatonix. Sharon also worked with the Green Bay Packers. He returned to music direct, arrange, and vocally produce for Pitch Perfect 3. He had also arranged for the film, The Social Network.

In December 2009, he acted as music director, arranger, coach, and consultant behind the scenes on America's first a cappella reality show competition, titled The Sing Off, and returned in 2010 as one of the show's producers. He also served as Executive Music Producer on the Dutch Sing Off, Sing Off South Africa and Sing Off China, including several guest appearances as a judge and performer. Along with The House Jacks, he sang and performed the 2011 Monday Night Football theme song "Are You Ready for Some Football" with Hank Williams, Jr. He worked with Straight No Chaser on their first PBS special Live in New York. He appeared in front of the camera for the first time on Lifetime's Pitch Slapped reality show, in which he coached after school high school a cappella group Stay Tuned from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, focusing both on their musicality and emotional delivery. The show also aired overseas in London, Israel (where its name in Hebrew means "a cappella battle") across Latin America, Indonesia and the Philippines (under the name Pitch Battle). As of summer 2017 he is series music director for a new competitive choir show on BBC1 called Pitch Battle, as well as appearing on camera each episode providing insight and commentary. He was also the third judge for the season one live finale. He judged Eurovision Choir 2019. In 2022 music directed "Best in Snow" for Disney+ as well as co arranged/vocal produced the a cappella scenes in Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin.

Upon graduation in 1991, he moved back to San Francisco, bringing with him a handful of other collegiate a cappella singers to form The House Jacks, a pioneering a cappella group known for its original music and sound, often called "the original rock band without instruments", in part because they were the first a cappella group with a designated vocal percussionist. The House Jacks have released seven albums (signed to Warner Brothers/Tommy Boy Records in the mid 1990s) and completed several world tours. He has performed with many musicians, including Ray Charles, Crosby, Stills and Nash, LL Cool J, Run DMC, The Temptations, and James Brown. They have won "Best Pop Rock Album" from the Contemporary A Cappella Society, for "Unbroken" (2004), "Level" (2010), and "Pollen (2014). He also performs as a solo artist, with groups such as the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and at events like Singapore's "Vocal Edge" and directing DCINY's annual "Total Vocal" at Carnegie Hall as well as serving as Emcee for a cappella events, such as the annual Techapella concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area. Studio session credits include the Wii game Just Dance Kids 2 including the songs "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", "Barbara Ann", and "Mahna Mahna".

A prolific, award winning vocal music arranger, he has arranged more than 2,000 songs for a wide range of ensembles, including some of vocal music's best known groups. The Best Arrangement award at the Colorado Harmony Sweepstakes is named after him, and he has won the best arrangement award at the Harmony Sweepstakes several times since 1991. He was named "favorite arranger" in the 2010 A Cappella Community Awards and won "Best Professional Arrangement" in 2019.

He founded and directed a cappella groups at Walt Disney World/Epcot (American Vybe) and Disneyland (Groove 66). In 2013, he created a new professional a cappella ensemble in New Mexico: "Voasis". In 2014 and 2015 he music directed the Sing Off Live tour He created Vocalosity for which he was artistic producer, music director, and arranger. and their debut album was released on Universal Classics. He serves as the group's co creator, music director, arranger, album producer and artistic producer integrating modern sounds and technology. He also Music Directed "Disney: The Castle" in Riyadh,Saudi Arabia in 2023

His production with Columbia Artists Management, "A Cappella Live," toured the US featuring four a cappella acts: Committed (vocal group), The Filharmonic, Women of the World, and Blake Lewis.

As a producer of a cappella recordings, he is known for having changed the sound of collegiate a cappella recording via the Beelzebubs' album Code Red. He has arranged and produced multiple albums and tracks for Atlantic Records' Straight No Chaser, including the certified gold "Christmas Cheers". In the early 1990s, he co founded The Best of College A Cappella (BOCA) compilation, which he now produces annually with Varsity Vocals.

The pioneering, first all a cappella musical on Broadway, In Transit, for which he is co producer and arranged all the music, opened at the Circle in the Square Theater on Broadway in December 2016. He started working with the production just after their off Broadway run five years earlier. Vocalosity, a live a cappella theatrical concert production with diverse cast, began touring in January 2016 and has performed in 30 states. He has worked on a cappella musical theatre projects including "Street" and "Our World". He arranged the opening number for Andrew Lloyd Webber's new greatest hits musical "Unmasked", a fast paced mashup of 17 of his greatest hits.

He co founded and directs Camp Acappella for teens and adults each summer at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and teaches the music production class Soup To Nuts periodically. as well as travels to other countries to work with groups in person, such as New Zealand, Brazil, Italy, Sri Lanka and Singapore. His YouTube channel features a variety of educational topics including how to sound like several different instruments. A GE special features him discussing the physics of a cappella. In 2016, he joined the California branch of the American Choral Directors Association as the first ever Contemporary A Cappella R&R chair. and co created Acappella. how for google His Camp A Cappella Intensive in Washington DC started in 2022, a partnership with Ben Folds, Planet Word, and the National Symphony Orchestra.

The Pitch Perfect soundtrack earned several awards, including an RIAA platinum record certification, the American Music Award for best soundtrack, an Online Film and Television Association nomination for Best Music, Adapted Song (Don't You Forget About Me) and an MTV Video Music Award for "Best Musical Moment". The Pitch Perfect 2 soundtrack, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, secured the American Music Award for best Soundtrack and a Grammy nomination for Best Soundtrack. As album producer, he was nominated for a Dove Award in 2012 (Best Contemporary Gospel Album: Committed). In 2016, he became an honorary member of the Barbershop Harmony Society, one of only twenty since 1938, and he was named an honorary member of BYU Vocal Point. In 2017 he was awarded the P. T. Barnum Award for excellence in Entertainment from his alma mater, Tufts University. He has received two lifetime achievement awards for his work in a cappella: in 2016 for the 25th anniversary of his founding of thee Contemporary A Cappella Society and in 2018, from the A Cappella Music Awards.

He is known for his ability to replicate a variety of instruments (e. g. trumpet, guitar, flute, violin, muted trumpet, harmonica) with his voice—which he teaches online and via "Singing Instruments" seminars—teaching summer camp for young vocalists, and adjudicating choral festivals around the world. He has worked with many professional pop vocal groups, including 98 Degrees, The Nylons and Boyz II Men. Helping groups get started has been a ongoing goal of his for 30 years, which he does by providing free advice, support and arrangements. He also works with organizations philanthropically who support vocal harmony. He served on the CASA board for almost twenty years, often as President or Vice President. Acapellablog named him the number one "a cappella power player to keep an eye on in 2012", and NPR credits him for "making a cappella cool again". and has appeared on other podcasts. To help promote Good Omens, he arranged several songs for "The Chattering Order of St Beryl," a group of singing nuns., and co created Walmart's "Sparkappella." When the cult NXIVM tried to use a cappella as a recruiting device, he drew out Keith Raniere in a public forum, resulting in his being put on their list of enemies. He has been featured repeatedly in Kiplinger's Personal Finance for socially responsible investing. He describes his life's work is "to get more people singing" because "music can build a better community" as "our country needs to understand the importance of working together". His motto is "Harmony through harmony."

Album Year(s) Role Fourteen – Tufts Beelzebubs 1989 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Beelzebub Winter Invitational – Tufts Beelzebubs 1990 Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Foster Street – Tufts Beelzebubs 1991 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Sing Naked – House Jacks 1991 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Naked Noise – House Jacks 1994 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Best of College A Cappella 1995–present Producer Urban Harmony: R&B A Cappella 1996 Producer Funkwich – House Jacks 1997 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer A Cappella All Stars: The CARAs 1997–2000 Producer Harmony Sweepstakes 1997–1998 Producer Voices Only: A Cappella Originals 1997 Producer Yearbook: Live from Spring Thing 1997–1998 Producer Best of High School A Cappella 1998–present Producer Naked Funk – House Jacks 1999 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Wasting Our Parents' Money: BOCA Humor 1999 Producer Drive – House Jacks 2001 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Next – Tufts Beelzebubs 2001 Arranger, Producer Disney's American Vybe – American Vybe 2001 Music Director, Arranger Punch – Various 2002 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Embodiment – BaSix (Denmark) 2002 Producer Only In America – Peking and the Mystics 2002 Producer Code Red – Tufts Beelzebubs 2003 Arranger, Producer Unbroken – House Jacks 2004 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Fitchy & Grikko – House Jacks 2005 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Udder Won – Moosebutter 2005 Vocalist, Producer Unleash the Periscope – Colorado College Back Row 2006 Producer Get Down Mr. President – House Jacks 2007 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Good Things – House Jacks 2009 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Christmas Cheers – Straight No Chaser 2009 Arranger, Producer The Sing Off tracks – US Sing Off Cast, Season 1–5 2009–2014 Arranger, Music Director, Producer Go Nuts – Colorado College Back Row 2010 Producer With A Twist – Straight No Chaser 2010 Arranger, Producer Level – House Jacks 2010 Music Director, Arranger, Vocalist, Producer Nota – Nota 2010 Arranger, Producer Harmonies for the Holidays – Sing Off Cast, Season Two 2010 Arranger, Producer Best of The Sing Off Season Two – Sing Off Cast 2011 Arranger, Music Director, Producer Committed – Committed 2011 Arranger, Producer Songs of the Season – Sing Off Cast, Season Three 2011 Arranger, Producer Pitch Perfect Soundtrack – Pitch Perfect cast 2012 Arranger, Music Director, Vocalist, Producer Act Accordingly – Gentlemen's Rule 2012 Arranger, Producer Life's So Lyrical – Forte 2012 Arranger, Producer Blackjack – The House Jacks 2012 Arranger, Music Director, Vocalist, Producer Southern Autumn Nostalgia – Street Corner Symphony 2013 Arranger, Producer Pollen – The House Jacks 2014 Arranger, Music Director, Vocalist, Producer Best of BOCA 2014 Producer Pitch Perfect 2 Soundtrack – Pitch Perfect Cast 2015 Arranger, Music Director, Vocalist, Producer Pitch Slapped Live Performances – Stay Tuned 2016 Arranger, Music Director, Producer Vocalosity – Vocalosity 2016 Arranger, Music Director, Vocalist, Producer Straight No Chaser – I'll Have Another 2016 Arranger, Producer ("Run Run Rudolph") In Transit – Original Broadway Cast 2017 Arranger, Producer Pitch Perfect 3 Soundtrack – Cast 2017 Arranger, Music Director, Producer Incredibles 2 Soundtrack – D Cappella 2018 Arranger, Music Director, Producer Full Rally – Tufts Beelzebubs 2018 Arranger, Producer D Cappella – D Cappella 2018 Arranger, Music Director, Producer Unholy Night – Chattering Order of St Beryl (Good Omens) 2019 Arranger, Coach/consultant D Cappella Japanese album – D Cappella 2019 Arranger, Music Director, Producer SparkAppella SparkAppella2019Arranger, Music Director, Producer Rockin Holiday – D Cappella 2019 Arranger, Music Director, Producer All Ears – D Cappella 2020 Arranger, Music Director, Producer Holiday A Cappella – D Cappella 2021 Arranger, Music Director, Producer Magic Reimagined – D Cappella 2022 Arranger, Music Director, Producer Home For The Holidays – D Cappella 2022 Arranger, Music Director, Producer Pitch Perfect: Bumper In Berlin – Soundtrack 2022 Arranger, Music Director, Producer