Unless you’ve been living under a rock or just really hate a cappella (which, let’s face it, is pretty impossible), you’ve probably heard of Pentatonix.
Hailing from Arlington, Texas, the YouTube sensations rose to the top of the charts with their eclectic a cappella style and impeccable musical performances. Since their foundation, the group members have become 3-time Grammy award winners, selling over 6.5 million albums.
According to their website, Pentatonix currently consists of Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kirstin Maldonado, and Kevin K.O. Olusola— all with a rich, musical history saturated with the performing arts. For example, Hoying is a talented songwriter and pianist who has been performing since the age of 8. During his time at the University of Southern California, he joined the campus a cappella group, SoCal VoCals and has since been featured on CBS’s Star Search. Maldonado studied Music Theatre at the University of Oklahoma before touring and polishing her skills alongside Theatre Arlington. Olusola, for his part, is a talented instrumentalist, having performed at Carnegie Hall as a soloist on both sax and cello; and Grassi, lead vocalist, is a recent high school graduate who acts as a DJ and producer on the side.
Long-time Pentatonix fans will tell you that until recently, Pentatonix had another member— Avi Kaplan, who, in May, announced that after many years, he would be living the group. In a Facebook post (via tubefilter), Kaplan wrote “It has been the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life. The things we’ve accomplished, the places we’ve seen, the people we’ve touched with our music… It surpasses anything that I could have ever dreamed up for my life.” Luckily, however, the other group members did not let Kaplan’s decision get them down.
Although Pentatonix released a Holiday album in 2016, they have revamped it into a deluxe edition, with a ton of extras like Deck the Halls, Away in a Manger, and How Great Thou Art, a song performed alongside Jennifer Hudson. On November 27th, in their Deck the Halls video though, Pentatonix surprised the world by introducing the world to Matt Sallee, who would be acting as the new vocal bass for the performance-packed Holiday season.
Staying true to pure Pentatonix form, the group’s version of the Deck the Halls is delightfully fresh and upbeat, turning beloved Holiday classic into a masterpiece that listeners of all ages can enjoy. And Matt, for his part, does amazingly.
Check it out below!
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