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Pentatonix will make its voices heard at fair

Thursday, August 29, 2019

IF YOU GO

What: Pentatonix, with Rachel Platten

When: 8 p.m. Sunday

Where: Canfield Fairgrounds grandstand

Tickets: Start at $39.50, $58, $75 and $89.50 at ticketmaster.com (fees apply).

Staff report

CANFIELD

Pentatonix is one of those musical acts that amazes those seeing them for the first time.

Or the second or third time.

The five-person a capella group recreates pop songs and Christmas carols with vocal complexity and precision, the members working together like a seasoned orchestra.

Pentatonix will make its Mahoning Valley debut Sunday at the Canfield Fair.

Its members – vocalists Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kirstin Maldonado and Matt Sallee, and beatboxer Kevin Olusola – do much more than vocal harmony.

They create new and lively arrangements of songs, including some of their own, that are often quite intricate. The beatboxer lays down the beat, with the others layering in the sound of notes in their own vocal range or handling the lead vocals.

As the name implies, they are unaccompanied by a band, yet still sound full and lush.

The Texas-based quintet formed in 2011 and won NBC’s “The Sing-Off” that year, receiving $200,000 and a recording contract.

After getting dropped by its label, Pentatonix started its own YouTube channel, which currently has more than 17 million subscribers and 4 billion views.

The act has already won three Grammy Awards. It was the first a cappella act to win Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella, doing so in 2015 and 2016. It also won Best Country Duo/Group Performance in 2017.

Nine of their albums reached the top 10 on Billboard’s 200 chart (with two albums reaching the top spot).

The group has had two holiday specials on NBC, released their tour documentary – “On My Way Home” – in 2015, and appeared in the film “Pitch Perfect 2.”

Last year, Pentatonix released its fourth holiday album, “Christmas Is Here!,” with the single “Making Christmas.”

The group is currently amidst a 45-city North American tour that started in May, with opening act Rachel Platten.

Born in New York and raised in Massachusetts, Platten is an Emmy Award winner and a multi-platinum selling recording artist who is best known for her empowering hit “Fight Song.”

Her other hits include “Stand by You,” “Broken Glass” and “Shivers.”