Pre-Conference Workshop
Understanding A Cappella with Deke Sharon
Friday, June 22 • 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.REGISTER NOW
Presenter: Deke Sharon
Introduced by: Allen Henderson
Location: Partagas 1-3
Many of our students participate in A Cappella groups at school or professionally. Join the father of the modern A Cappella Movement, Deke Sharon as he shares with us some of the structure and techniques of A Cappella and helps you understand how you can serve this population as a voice teacher. We will have two local A Cappella groups in attendance to work with Deke to demonstrate for you.
About Deke Sharon
Born in San Francisco, California, Deke Sharon has been performing professionally since the age of 8, and as a child toured North America and shared the stage in operas with the likes of Pavarotti. Heralded as "The Father of Contemporary A Cappella," he is responsible for the current sound of modern a cappella, having created the dense vocal-instrumental sound in college, subsequently spreading it around the world.
Deke produces The Sing-Off worldwide (USA, Netherlands, China, South Africa), which had the highest ratings of any new, unscripted television show in the US in 2009, and was the third highest rated show on NBC in 2010. In addition, Deke served as arranger, on-site music director and vocal producer for Universal's Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2 starring Anna Kendrick & Rebel Wilson.
Deke founded the Contemporary A Cappella Society while in college, and is responsible for many seminal a cappella programs, including the CARAs (Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards, ICCAs (International Championship of College A Cappella), BOCA (Best of College A Cappella Compilation), the first contemporary a cappella conferences (the A Cappella Summit), the Contemporary A Cappella League, the professional ensembles Voasis and Vocalosity, and Camp A Cappella.
He is also contemporary a cappella's most prolific arranger, having arranged over 2,000 songs, with many of them in print worldwide with Hal Leonard/Contemporary A Cappella Publishing. He has written five books: A Cappella Arranging (2012), A Cappella (2015), The Heart of Vocal Harmony (2016), A Cappella Warmups for Pop and Jazz Choir (2017) and So You Want To Sing A Cappella (2017). He is also the vocal orchestrator for the Broadway’s first a cappella musical: In Transit (2016).
