“the father of contemporary a cappella” – Entertainment Weekly
“a one man a cappella revolution” – Boston Globe
“the maven of the a cappella movement” – Oakland Tribune
“the a cappella expert” – Ottawa Citizen
“the voice of a cappella music” – Songwriters Monthly
“a musical genius, an a cappella giant” – Ithaca Times
“deke sharon makes a cappella cool again” – NPR
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” & “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 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. His first book, “Acappella Arranging” was published in 2012, and “A Cappella” will be published in 2015
As the founder, director and arranger for the House Jacks for almost 25 years, the original “Rock Band Without Instruments,” Deke shared the stage with countless music legends, including Ray Charles, James Brown, Crosby Stills and Nash, Run DMC, The Temptations, LL Cool J and the Four Tops, and performed for luminaries including President Bill Clinton. The House Jacks have eight albums, and dozens of international tours to their names, including multiple appearances Carnegie Hall, and performed the Monday Night Football Theme with Hank Williams Jr. in 2011.
He has produced dozens of award winning a cappella albums (including Straight No Chaser, Committed, Nota, Street Corner Symphony and the Tufts Beelzebubs), created a cappella groups for Disneyland and Disneyworld, and frequently tours the world teaching a variety of topics to students and professional singers. His voice can be heard in commercials and video games, including “Just Dance Kids 2.” He is one of only 20 honorary members of the Barbershop Harmony Society since 1938, as well as an honorary member of BYU Vocal Point, and received CASA’s lifetime achievement award in 2016. You can see him on television on Lifetime’s “Pitch Slapped” (aka “Pitch Battle” in the Philippines, and “A Cappella Battle” in Israel)
Anne Raugh
Anne Raugh works as a full-time programmer in the Astronomy Department of the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. She’s also enrolled part-time as an undergraduate majoring in Music Theory. She’s a long-time fan of the King’s Singers, with a mild interest in modern a cappella until relatively recently, when Anne was serendipitously exposed to the generics, Rockapella, Take 6, and several other modern a cappella groups within a few months time. In fact, she started the music degree (c. 1990) specifically to learn to arrange music.
Anne co-founded a 12-voice mixed ensemble in 1993 which performs an eclectic mix of modern and standard a cappella tunes. She does all the in-house arranging and until recently, the musical direction. Outside of that Anne has been music director or orchestra conductor for a number of community theater productions of musicals ranging from “Little Shop of Horrors” to “City of Angels”; she’s played sax, flute and clarinet in more orchestra pits than she cares to enumerate and with a local big band jazz ensemble; she sings with bands when they’ll let me put the damn saxophone down long enough; and has directed a number of informal choruses and choirs.