I am not a big fan of going to concerts – even at JPJ and especially not to 22,000 seat venues such at the Jiffy Lube Stadium in Northern Virginia. But I am a huge fan of Pentatonix. We own all their Christmas CDs. They are an amazing group of acapella singers. When we found out that they would be performing just 80 miles north, we got tickets – third row, middle seats in the orchestra section tickets.
They came on stage at 9 pm and finished at 11. They were exhausted and so were we, but we had been thoroughly entertained.
For the most part Pentatonix performs with no accompaniment whatsoever. Matt Salee, an incredible bass, pounds out the rhythm along with Kevin Olusola, a skilled cellist and pre-med graduate from Yale. Scott Hoying, a baritone, is the lead singer along with the lovely Kirstin Maldonado, a mezzo soprano. The spoon that stirs the broth is Mitch Grassi, a countertenor who can sing soprano with the best of the lady divas. He hits high notes that I can’t even fathom. Together, it’s a perfect blend.
Kirstin, Mitch, and Scott grew up together in Arlington, Texas. They performed in high school before heading off to various colleges yet keeping in touch. Needing a deep bass and beatboxer, they recruited the original bass, Avi Kaplan, and added Kevin for bass and cello work. When Avi left the group, Matt joined to form the current Pentatonix, so named after the pentatonic scale, a mode with five notes per octave.
The blended voices are absolutely unique, and their rendition of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen is stunningly beautiful. When the group performed that number, the crowd went absolutely wild.
After the concert, we bobbed and weaved through heavy traffic and got back to the hotel late, but both Nancy and I agreed that Pentatonix is truly one of the world’s great wonders.