BucAppella

JOHNSON CITY – Ben Bram, one of the co-founders of the a cappella super-group, Pentatonix, will be the guest clinician at the annual “BucAppella” festival on Friday and Saturday, March 23-24, at East Tennessee State University. 

The event will feature two concerts and a day-long series of master classes with Bram. The annual festival is open to anyone interested in contemporary a cappella music and is hosted by Greyscale, the premier a cappella ensemble in the ETSU Department of Music.

The BucAppella Opening Night Concert will be at 7:30 p.m. on March 23, and will include performances by the three ETSU a cappella ensembles, Greyscale, Swashbucklers and Harmonium. 

On March 24, beginning at 10 a.m., Bram will work with the ETSU ensembles and other local college and high school ensembles in a series of clinics. The students will prepare works to be presented during the BucAppella Finale Concert on March 24 at 7:30 p.m.

Both concerts, which will be held in the D.P. Culp University Center’s Martha Street Culp Auditorium, are free for students through college and $10 for adults.  A complete schedule of events is available at www.etsu.edu/bucappella.

Bram is a two-time Grammy award-winning arranger, vocal producer, engineer and music director from Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of Southern California, where he sang with, arranged for and directed four-time ICCA (International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella) champions the SoCal VoCals. He is a co-founder, collaborator and longtime friend of Pentatonix. He has served as their arranger, engineer and producer.

Bram also has an extensive résumé in film, TV and commercials, which includes work for the “Pitch Perfect” movie franchise, and “The Sing-Off,” “Glee,” Cover Girl, Lifetime and MTV.

In addition to film, TV and recording work, Bram enjoys staying involved in the greater a cappella community. Along with Avi Kaplan and Rob Dietz, he co-founded A Cappella Academy, a teen summer program designed to train and mentor up-and-coming vocal talents. He is a frequent guest clinician at various a cappella festivals and continues to arrange for scholastic and professional groups alike.

Greyscale, under the direction of Dr. Alan Stevens, is a recognized success on the ETSU campus and in the Tri-Cities community. They have released two albums, available on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon and other digital distributors.