Avi Kaplan
co-founder, camp director
Avi Kaplan is best known as vocal bass of the world-renowned a cappella group, Pentatonix, but he is also a Grammy-winning arranger, composer, and solo artist. He majored in opera and choral studies at Mt. San Antonio College, a school known for its strong choral and a cappella tradition. While at school, Avi sang with a cappella group Fermata Nowhere, vocal jazz group Singcopation, and the Mt. SAC Chamber Singers, racking up competition wins at the ICCA, Monterey Jazz Festival, and Choir of the World competition. Avi has worked with artists such as Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, Cee Lo Green, Ne-Yo, Sara Bareilles, Nick Lachey, Ben Folds and many more.
Ben Bram
co-founder, camp director
Ben is a Grammy-winning arranger, vocal producer, and music director from Los Angeles. A graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music, Ben sang with, arranged for, and directed four-time ICCA champions the SoCal VoCals during his time at USC. He is a longtime collaborator with Pentatonix, having co-arranged, engineered and produced all 5 of their currently released albums, including the platinum-selling "That's Christmas To Me". Ben also has an extensive resume in film, TV, and commercials, which includes work for Pitch Perfect 1 and 2, The Sing-Off, Glee, Covergirl, Lifetime, and MTV. He is currently developing two exciting new a cappella groups.
Rob Dietz
co-founder, camp director
Rob Dietz is a multiple CARA winning producer who has been arranging, performing, and critiquing contemporary a cappella music for over ten years. His career began in high school as director of the critically acclaimed group Ascending Height, with whom he produced the first all-original high school a cappella album. Rob has studied at the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney and at the Ithaca College School of Music, where he directed the award winning all-male group, Ithacappella. Since graduation, Rob has been an arranger and group coach for seasons 3, 4, and 5 of NBC’s The Sing-Off, as well as a vocal percussionist for the Warblers on Fox’s hit show, Glee.
Tom Keyes
director of operations
Tom is a passionate and dedicated a cappella facilitator, event producer, and music director. He is the exec. producer of the Los Angeles A Cappella Festival, and has formerly served as director of the Contemporary A Cappella League. With a considerable background in vocal and instrumental music, Tom was bitten by the a cappella bug in 2009 when he decided to create and direct his own group, the award-winning Frequency, and has been a passionate advocate of all-vocal music ever since. Currently music directing the award-winning Frequency as well as a spiritual center, he balances music, work, and family, and lives with his wife and three children in South OC.
Diana Galeano
assistant camp director, camp mom
Diana Galeano is a choral director from Lake Worth, Florida. A graduate of Florida State University, Diana studied music education with an emphasis in secondary choral education. While at FSU, she sang with ICCA Southern Champions, the AcaBelles. Since graduating, she has worked as a high school chorus teacher and as a director at FSU's Summer Music Camps. She has started several high school a cappella groups and has participated in the Festival Singers of Florida. Diana now lives in Boston, where she directs and arranges for collegiate and high school a cappella groups and sings with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.
Christopher Diaz
group director
Christopher is a singer, songwriter, arranger and vocal coach from Newport News, VA. A graduate of the FSU School of Music, he led the co-ed All-Night Yahtzee to three consecutive ICCA Finals appearances and is a two-time winner of the Outstanding Soloist award. As a coach, Christopher has adjudicated, sung and instructed at vocal festivals across Asia, Europe, Australia and the US. In 2012, Christopher joined the music eam of The Sing-Off (Season 3). After the show, he co-founded the international touring group, The Exchange, which has performed hundreds of shows for audiences in over 25 different countries on 6 continents. The Exchange joined The Backstreet Boys as support for their 32 city “In A World Like This” stadium tour, and competed on Season 5 of NBC’s The Sing-Off, taking the runner-up title. In 2016, Christopher and The Exchange will tour central Asia as part of a cultural diplomacy tour supported by the US Department of State.
Shams Ahmed
group director
Shams Ahmed is an arranger, music director, and educator from Cherry Hill, NJ. He is a graduate of Northeastern University, where he directed a cappella heavy-hitters and two-time ICCA champions, The Nor'easters, while studying Business. During his tenure, Shams earned numerous awards, including Outstanding Arrangement wins at the ICCA, as well as several CARA awards. Shams is also featured alongside the Nor'easters in Pop TV's reality docu-series, Sing It On, where he can be seen coaching the group. He founded the all-female group, Pitch, Please! who are featured on the show as well. In the fall, he can be found bringing a cappella to South Beach alongside a panel of experts including Ben Bram, Robert Dietz, and India Carney at The Betsy's A Cappella Festival. Shams serves as a regular judge at ICCA, ICHSA, and CASA events all over the country. Outside of a cappella, he serves as Director of Talent & Creative for Northeastern University's $1.4 billion Empower fundraising campaign. He is currently based in Los Angeles, arranging, coaching, and overseeing projects in the a cappella world.
Erin Bentlage
group director
Erin Bentlage is a vocalist, composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist from Burlington, Vermont. She co-founded and directed her high school’s first a cappella group and went on to join the Boston University Treblemakers, but soon transferred to Berklee College of Music where she earned her degree in Contemporary Writing and Production. Influenced heavily by jazz and the world of improvisation, Erin has been a member of the Singing Tribe, an improvisation-oriented world a cappella group created by Bobby McFerrin, Introflection, a jazz and improvisation based group, and the Berklee Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and has appeared throughout the country and around the world at festivals in groups and as a featured artist and clinician. Erin now lives in Los Angeles in where she continues to explore the musical world through writing, recording, performing, and teaching at Silverlake Conservatory of Music and Los Angeles College of Music.
VJ Rosales
group director
VJ Rosales is a singer, songwriter, arranger, and music director from Los Angeles. Hailing from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music (CSU Long Beach) with a B.M. in Jazz Studies, VJ is a versatile musician who is equally adept in jazz, pop, and R&B. During his college career, he sang in the top vocal jazz ensemble “Pacific Standard Time” at CSU Long Beach, performing at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival. Presently, he works as a voice teacher at the Silverlake Conservatory, founded by members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In April 2013, he co-created The Filharmonic and competed on NBC's The Sing Off, making it to the semi-finals. With The Filharmonic's success on national television, he continues to work with them, with plans to record and tour.
Taylor Fugit
group director
Taylor Fugit is a singer, arranger, music producer and instrumentalist from Napa, California. As a college student Taylor directed the UCLA Scattertones for 2 years, taking them to their first-ever appearance at ICCA Finals in 2012. In addition to receiving several "best arrangement" awards during ICCA's, Taylor's work has been recognized by popular a cappella compilations such as Sing and Voices Only. As a member of the UCLA ethnomusicology department he studied Chinese music theory and Pipa performance, playing alongside living legends like Chi Li and Gao Hong. Aside from his musical activities Taylor enjoys playing video games, participating in Star Trek-related cosplay, and writing about himself in the third person.
Nathan Fertig
group director
Nathan Fertig is a songwriter, producer, singer, and arranger from the Chicago suburbs. He studied at USC as part of the Thornton School’s Popular Music Program. While there, Nathan joined the SoCal VoCals and took on the role of arranger/music director, helping lead them to their fourth ICCA title in 2015. He is currently writing and producing songs for artists and is published under Warner/Chappell. He can’t wait to spend a week singing with so many excited and inspiring voices!
Amanda Taylor
group director
Amanda Taylor was born in Seattle, Washington. Growing up, she participated in a number of the city's prestigious ensembles, such as the Seattle Youth Symphony, Vocalpoint! Seattle, and the Seattle Girls' Choir. During these years of growth, she was accepted into the Grammy Jazz Ensembles (one of eight students selected from the USA). Through this organization, she was able to perform throughout Grammy week, at such events as the Blue Note Records party, the MusiCares Person of the Year tribute, and the Grammy Celebration After Party (which included performances with artists Cassandra Wilson, Terence Blanchard, and Herbie Hancock.) Amanda graduated from Central Washington University with her BM in Music Composition. She is an active studio singer (World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Destiny, music teacher (Mt. Si High School, the Northwest Choirs, and more), and composer/arranger.
Jamond McCoy
group director
Jamond is an improvisational jazz and gospel influenced vocalist, pianist, composer, arranger, session singer, and accompanist creating music for various venues and other fellow musicians. He is dedicated and committed to giving each musical endeavor the passion, energy and respect it deserves. His current endeavors include teaching at studios, and working as an assistant director at the Monterey Jazz Summer Camp, and giving back to the church communities that helped shape him as a music director. Jamond is looking forward to pushing the limits and carrying on the legacy of m-pact music group for which he now sings baritone. Outside of music, he absolutely loves all things food and puts as much passion into eating and making food as he does music.
Taylor DiBernardo
instructor
Taylor is a singer and teacher living in Los Angeles, California. She earned her B.A. in English and Masters in Education from UCLA, where she sang with the award winning co-ed a cappella group, the ScatterTones. During her time in the group, she performed at prestigious venues all over the country including the White House, the Hollywood Bowl, and the ICCA Finals stage in New York City. Currently, she is a full-time 8th grade English teacher at Manhattan Beach Middle School. At camp, Taylor teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Kittens.
Austin Kiley
instructor
Austin Kiley is a vocal music teacher at his hometown high school in Vestal, NY. He received a BM and MM in Music Education from Ithaca College, where he served as the president of Ithacappella. At Vestal, he directs the annual musical, two a cappella groups, a jazz choir, and a select choir, and teaches music theory and history classes. One of his groups, Bear Necessities, has won multiple awards at the ICHSA's and is represented on BOHSA. Austin runs The Vocal Connection in upstate NY, which pairs up high school and collegiate a cappella groups for year-long mentorships. He loves community theatre and reading fantasy/sci-fi!
Tracy Robertson
instructor
Singer, instrumentalist, director and arranger Tracy Robertson maintains a life-long passion for music and vocal harmony. Upon transferring from SUNY Fredonia’s classical vocal and compositional training to Berklee College of Music, he joined the award-winning a cappella group “Pitch Slapped” (SoJam and ICCA Champions) and became their musical director. He has worked with names such as Rhiannon Watson, Joey Blake, and Bobby McFerrin, and performed with renowned musicians of Quito, Ecuador where he also led a vocal improvisation workshop at UDLA. He has performed throughout the US, recently at the 2014 JEN Conference in Dallas with Berklee’s Vocal Jazz Ensemble.
Marisa Esposito
instructor
Marisa is a seasoned vocalist living in Los Angeles who has over 15 years of experience in choirs, musical theatre and a cappella. She studied Psychology and Musical Theater at USC, and also sang with and was president of the award winning a cappella group, Reverse Osmosis. Marisa also worked at acclaimed performing arts camp Arts Unlimited for 5 consecutive summers, working as a counselor, coordinator, teacher, choreographer and musical director. After graduating, Marisa helped found award-winning a cappella sextet Simply Put, who shared the stage with Sing Off champions Nota and Committed. Marisa now manages and sings in the L.A. Choral Lab and is also the Co-Founder and COO of Endeavor Studios, LLC, a recording studio located in West Los Angeles. Marisa also lends her voice to recording projects from time to time.
Selame Scarlett
instructor
Selame Scarlett hails from Okemos, Michigan. As an undergraduate at Michigan State University, she was a part of Capital Green A Cappella, where she served as beatboxer, music director, and arranger. Currently, she is an ICHSA producer, Varsity Vocals judge, CASA ambassador and clinician for high school/collegiate groups in the Midwest. She serves as the beatboxer for all-female CARA winning sextet Lady Jaye and all-female gospel powerhouse group Traces, who were featured on NBC's The Sing Off Season 5! Selame has led beatboxing workshops and masterclasses, both on her own and with her fellow beatboxing colleagues.
Tory Stolper
photographer, instructor
Tory is a singer, actor and photographer hailing from Boston, MA. She is a graduate of the USC School of Dramatic Arts, where she earned her BFA in Acting, and was a proud member of the acclaimed SoCal VoCals. During her time with the VoCals, Tory served as President and helped lead the group to two ICCA titles. As an actor, Tory has won the Jack Nicholson Award and the LA Stage Scene Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. As a photographer, she has had the honor of photographing artists such as the legendary Stevie Wonder, Tegan and Sara, and Pentatonix. Her passion is for capturing the power and beauty of young artists through still and video photography.
Beth Davis
managing director
Beth received a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and Music Education from Ithaca College, and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from California State University, Northridge. In college, she studied opera, while also participating in musicals, madrigals, choir, and the all-female a cappella group, Premium Blend. In graduate school, she continued to study opera, and also began teaching voice lessons. She worked many administrative jobs along the way, and also directed church music from 2009-2014. Today, she is a voice teacher, coach and adjudicator in the greater Seattle area, while actively performing in local plays and musicals.
Trist Curless
sound engineer
A resident of Glendale, CA, Trist grew up in Cheyenne, WY where he became addicted to vocal harmonies! He attended Northwest College and the University of Northern Colorado, majoring in music education. In 1995, he co-founded the pop-jazz vocal group m-pact, with which he has performed in festivals and concert halls around the world. Trist has also been known to work on the other side of the microphone, as an audio engineer for several vocal groups and bands,
including Pentatonix, Straight No Chaser, VoicePlay, and Take 6. When he's not performing and mixing, Trist also finds time to participate as a clinician and adjudicator in clinics and festivals worldwide which enable him to share his love of music with others. Trist is having the time of his life making music recently with m-pact, Take 6, Bobby McFerrin, New York Voices, The Swingle Singers, Vox Audio, and now as a member of The Manhattan Transfer!
Lily Lester
intern
Lily is a singer and beatboxer, originally from LA, but is now based in New York. She studies musical theatre at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, in the New Studio on Broadway. Lily was the music director and choreographer for NYU's premiere a cappella group, The NYU N'Harmonics. Before college, she sang with Vivace - a nationally ranked women's choir from Calabasas High School. She also toured China and performed at Carnegie Hall with the award-winning, high school a cappella group, Unstrumental. Aside from music, Lily studies improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, drinks too much coffee, and tweets a lot. lilylester.com
