Deke Sharon

Early life

Deke Sharon was born and raised in San Francisco. He started singing in choirs at age five, including the San Francisco Boys Chorus, in which he toured America and performed with Pavarotti. He attended Town School and San Francisco University High School, where he sang in and directed a quartet all four years after singing lead in the barbershop quartet his freshman year in "The Music Man."

College

Sharon spent his college years in Boston, graduating cum laude from Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with Ran Blake, Dominique Eade and Alan Fletcher (composer).

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 including being the first to integrate vocal percussion. The 1990–1991 Beelzebubs album Foster Street that he directed musically, co-produced and largely arranged is credited with giving birth to the contemporary a cappella sound. In fact, he had to audition three times before the Bubs accepted him, as he was seen as "overzealous" during a time when being excited about a cappella was uncool, a fact which was mentioned in the book Pitch Perfect and was part of the inspiration for the character of Benji in the film Pitch Perfect.

In college, he decided to make a career of contemporary a cappella even though people laughed at him and thought he was crazy for doing so.

Film

He arranged for The Social Network, and served as music director and arranger for the film Pitch Perfect, starting with a month of "a cappella boot camp", as well as singing on several of the songs (credited on screen as "Male Voice #1").

He returned to make Pitch Perfect 2, (in which he has a brief cameo as the german judge/broadcaster), again commencing with "a cappella boot camp." His work began before the movie, helping to select songs, and continued through arranging to teaching the music, producing the vocal parts on set, and making sure the actresses are properly lip-synching to their own voices. He got several professional a cappella groups and singers involved, including The Filharmonic, Penn Masala, and Pentatonix, and worked with the Green Bay Packers.

Television

In December 2009, he acted as arranger, coach, and consultant behind the scenes on America's first a cappella reality show competition The Sing-Off, and returned in 2010 as one of the show's producers as well as arranger, directing performances by groups like Pentatonix and Home Free, who he convinced to start singing Country music. 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. Sixteen versions were taped, but only a few episodes aired before the song was removed (due to Hank's comments about President Obama).

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 an 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.

Performing career

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 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

Studio session credits include the Wii game "Just Dance Kids 2" including "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", "Barbara Ann", and "Mahna Mahna".

Arranging

A prolific (over two thousand a cappella arrangements), 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 between 1991 and 2011. He was named "favorite arranger" in the 2010 A Cappella Community Awards.

Live music direction and production

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 in music directed the Sing Off Live tour

His latest creation is Vocalosity for which he is artistic producer, music director and arranger. They started touring in 2016 and their debut album was released on Universal Classics.

Album production

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.

Event production and promotion

In college, he brought the Harmony Sweepstakes to the East Coast, producing the first Boston regional with the Beelzebubs. Shortly after college he founded the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), the West and East Coast A Cappella Summits, and a number of other a cappella-related projects, programs, and events with the goal of popularizing a cappella. Recent festivals include Aca-West in San Francisco and VoiceJam in Arkansas where he often hosts the evening concert or competition as well as teach during the day.

He is a frequent host and emcee at a cappella events, such as Silicon Valley's "Techapella" "Pacific Harmony" in New Zealand and AKA A Cappella in Singapore. Some of the videos he has posted to promote a cappella groups around the world have gone viral.

His work to popularize and promote a cappella worldwide is now being recognized by major media: "A Capella (sic) is more popular than ever, thanks to this guy" (NPR Here and Now), "Deke Sharon makes a cappella cool again" (NPR All Things Considered).

Organizations

In his college dorm he founded The Contemporary A Cappella Society and The Ultimate A Cappella Arranging Service (which became TotalVocal).

He formed the Contemporary A Cappella League, a new national network of adult "post-collegiate" a cappella groups.

Writing

"A Cappella Arranging," his first book, co-authored with Dylan Bell, was published in 2012.

"A Cappella," a general interest book covering many aspects of the style, co-authored with Ben Spalding and Brody McDonald, was released in 2015.

"The Heart of Vocal Harmony," about how vocal harmony groups can perform with unified emotion, was released in early 2016.

"A Cappella Warmups for Pop and Jazz Choirs" and "So You Want To Sing A Cappella" will both be released in 2017.

Biographical Information about Deke Sharon can be found in Mickey Rapkin's "Pitch Perfect" (2008), Joshua Duchan's "Powerful Voices" (2012) and Alysia Abbott's "Fairyland" (2013).

Musical theater

The pioneering, first all a cappella musical on Broadway, In Transit (musical) 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".

Education

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

Awards

The Pitch Perfect soundtrack earned several awards, including a platinum record, 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 won an 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 one of only twenty honorary members of the Barbershop Harmony Society since 1938, was named an honorary member of BYU Vocal Point and received the lifetime achievement award from CASA. In 2017 he was awarded the P.T. Barnum Awards for excellence in Entertainment from Tufts University.

Other

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 vocal groups, including 98 Degrees, The Nylons and Boyz II Men.

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".

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."