Deke Sharon

“The father of contemporary a cappella" - Entertainment Weekly
“A one man a cappella revolution" - Boston Globe
“Deke Sharon makes a cappella cool again" - NPR

Born and still living in San Francisco, California, Deke Sharon has been performing professionally since the age of 8. As a child he toured North America and shared the stage performing in operas with the likes of Pavarotti.
 
Heralded as “The Father of Contemporary A Cappella” this performer, arranger, music producer, author, producer and coach is credited by many as being responsible for the current sound of modern a cappella.   While at college, he pioneered the dense vocal-instrumental sound that we today take for granted as the sound of contemporary a cappella.  
 
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), the ICCAs (International Championship of College A Cappella), the BOCAs (Best of College A Cappella Compilations), the first contemporary a cappella conference (the A Cappella Summit), the Contemporary A Cappella League, the professional ensembles Voasis and Vocalosity, as well as the educational residential program, Camp A Cappella. He’s a frequent emcee at events, and gives corporate speeches on business lessons from vocal harmony, to companies like Google and Facebook
 
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. A few of the songs he has arranged for DCappella appear in this folio.  He has written 5 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).
 
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 at Carnegie Hall, and even a performance of the “Monday Night Football Theme” with Hank Williams Jr. in 2011.
 
Deke 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 has received CASA’s lifetime achievement award in 2016 and the PT Barnum Award for Excellence from Tufts University in 2017.
 
Deke has also helped popularize a cappella in the mainstream.  He produced five seasons of The Sing Off for NBC (which was also adapted for TV in France, the Netherlands, South Africa and China), was arranger, on-site music director and vocal producer for all three of Universal’s hit films in the Pitch Perfect franchise and was most recently seen in Lifetime Television’s Pitch Slapped, coaching the group Stay Tuned  and on BBC1’s Pitch Battle as music director and guest judge. Most recently Deke created DCappella with Disney and A Cappella Live with Columbia Artists.