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Thursday, October 8, 2015
More about them.
Pentatonix began with three friends who grew up together and were schoolmates at Martin High School in Arlington, Texas: Kirstin "Kirstie" Maldonado (born May 16, 1992), Mitch Grassi (born July 24, 1992), and Scott Hoying (born September 17, 1991).[2] Hearing of a local radio show hosting a competition to meet the cast of Glee, they arranged a trio version of "Telephone" and sent it in. Although they did not end up winning the competition, it sparked attention around their school, where the group began performing. After their version of "Telephone" by Lady Gaga gained attention on YouTube, they continued performing.[16]
The group met the day before the auditions for the third season of The Sing-Off began.[17][22] The group successfully auditioned for the show and eventually went on to win the title for 2011 (season three).[23]Hoying and Maldonado both graduated from Martin High School in 2010, Grassi in 2011. Hoying went off to the University of Southern California (USC) to pursue a bachelor's degree in Popular Music, while Maldonado pursued a Musical Theater major at the University of Oklahoma.[17] While at USC, Scott Hoying joined an a cappella group called SoCal VoCals. He found out about The Sing-Off from another member of the group, Ben Bram (also their arranger, producer, and sound engineer) and was encouraged to audition for the show.[17] He persuaded Kirstie Maldonado and Mitch Grassi to join him, but the show required at least four members.[18][19]Hoying met Avriel "Avi" Kaplan (born April 17, 1989), a highly recognized vocal bass in the a cappella community, through a mutual friend. Then the trio found Kevin Olusola (born October 5, 1988) on YouTube, where one of his videos in which he was simultaneously beatboxing and playing the cello (called "celloboxing") had gone viral. Kevin was born in Pasadena, California and graduated pre-med from Yale University. He speaks fluent Mandarin after spending a year studying in China.[20][21]
Pentatonix, as suggested by Scott Hoying, is named after the pentatonic scale, a musical scale or mode with five notes per octave.[24] The group believed that the scale's five notes matched their membership. The group replaced the last letter with an 'x' to make it more appealing.[25] The quintet derives its influences from pop,dubstep, electro, reggae, hip hop, and classical music.
Who are Pentatonix?
Pentatonix (or PTX) is an American a cappella group consisting of five vocalists originating from Arlington, Texas.[3] The members in this group are Avi Kaplan, Scott Hoying, Kirstie Maldonado, Kevin Olusola, and Mitch Grassi. Their work, which is mostly in the pop style, consists of covers of existing songs, sometimes in the form of medleys, along with original material. Their music is defined by their own arrangement style, tight vocal harmonies, extensive vocal riffing, dvocal basslines, and a diverse range of vocal percussion and beatboxing.
Their debut EP PTX, Volume 1 was released in 2012, followed by PTXmas the same year, with their third release, PTX, Vol. II, debuting at number 1 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart and number 10 on the Billboard 200 in 2013.[6] In May 2014, Pentatonix signed with RCA Records, a "flagship" label of Sony Music Entertainment.[1] In the same year, the group released their fourth EP, PTX, Vol. III, and two full-length studio albums, PTX, Vols. 1 & 2 (a compilation album released in Japan, Korea and Australia) and their second holiday release, That's Christmas to Me. That's Christmas to Me was certified gold (500 000 sales) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and platinum (1 000 000 sales) on December 24, 2014, becoming the highest-charting holiday album by a group since 1962, and the fourth best selling album in the United States in 2014.[12][13][14]
Pentatonix, together with music producer Ben Bram, won Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella for "Daft Punk" at the 57th Grammy Awards.[15] Pentatonix also released a documentary on June 18, 2015 called "Pentatonix - On My Way Home", which included clips from their "On My Way Home Tour" in 2015.
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