Lisa Huerta

Pentatonix

Origins

Members Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, and Kirstin "Kirstie" Maldonaldo grew up together in Arlington, Texas, and were nicknamed "The Trio." The three of them would perform as a trio for their high school choir concerts and often sang together for other gigs and videos on Hoying's YouTube channel.

In 2011, the trio would expand to add two new members, Avi Kaplan and Kevin Olusola, from across the country to fill their bass and beatboxing roles to compete on the hit television series "The Sing-Off." Kaplan was born and raised in Visalia, California, and attended Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California where he studied opera and choral studies [1]. He was recruited through a friend of Hoying and was known for his "great reputation" as a vocal bass.

Kevin Olusola was born in Pasadena, California, raised in Owensboro, Kentucky, and attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut where he studied music, East Asian studies, and Pre-Med. While at Yale, he developed "celloboxing" where he beatboxed and played the cello at the same time. He uploaded a video of himself doing a cover of Mark Summers' "Julie-O" on July 17, 2011, and quickly became viral on the internet. Hoying saw his video and contacted him about joining their group that same year to compete in "The Sing-Off," which Olusola accepted [2].

The Sing-Off

The five-member group joined together to officially create "Pentatonix" when they started their competitive journey on "The Sing-Off," where 16 acapella groups from around the nation competed for a $200k cash prize and a recording contract with Sony Music Entertainment. Though the odds were stacked against them being the smallest group with only five members competing against groups with 10+ members, their creative arrangements and risky approaches earned them the Season 3 victory in 2011. Just a few months later on June 26, 2012, they released their first EP as a group titled, "PTS, Volume 1" and charted at No. 14 on the US Billboard 200 chart. This was their first EP release of two in 2012, and their first career success of many in the years to come.

Awards

Pentatonix's season 3 victory on "The Sing-Off" was an impressive accolade at the time considering their competition, but they would soon earn much greater accolades for their work. In 2014, they were nominated for "Best Arrangement, Instrumental or Acappella" for their arrangement of "Daft Punk Medley" from their 2013 EP "PTX, Volume 2," and won at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony on February 8, 2015. In just the following year they won their second Grammy in the same category for their arrangement of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony. The year after that they won their third Grammy in a row in the category "Best Country Duo/Group Performance" for their "Jolene" performance they did with Dolly Parton at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony. They were nominated for their 4th Grammy in 2022 in the category "Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album" for their album "Evergreen," but unfortunately were beaten by Michael Buble's "Higher" [4]. Along with Grammys, they also won a Shorty award for "Best YouTube Musician in 2015, and two YouTube Music Awards in 2013 and 2015.

Grammy Award Winning Songs

Member Change

In 2017, shortly after the group won their third Grammy, Avi Kaplan, who was the vocal bass for the group, announced in a YouTube video on the group's official channel that he was leaving. In the video, he explains that the demanding schedule for the group since they were last on the "Sing-Off" had overwhelmed him and he was not able to spend as much time with his family as he wanted to. Because of this, he felt it would be best for him to leave and pursue his solo career at a pace that he felt much more comfortable with.

Although the rest of the group was heartbroken at his departure, they soon found a permanent replacement within that same year. The newest vocal bass, Matt Sallee, has been performing with the group since 2017. He was born in San Antonio, Texas, raised in La Plato, Maryland, and attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts [3].