A Cappella Innovations

I came upon a video of an a cappella group—a group of college students sitting around, singing a song. It wasn’t a major piece of choral work: there were no opera singers there, no rock stars, no instruments. But it had an uplifting feel to it, as if I were joining in celebration… a feeling of joy, community, fellowship, people expressing genuinely through the human instrument.

In early 2007, Keith Raniere, founder of A Cappella Innovations, reacquainted himself with a cappella through a serendipitous encounter. An online video of a college a cappella group became the conduit of the art’s very essence, inspiring him to call together six of his musical friends and create the a cappella group, Simply Human.

Simply Human, under Keith’s innovative tutelage, enjoyed widespread acceptance and success in its community. The group, of course, was not unlike any other group of people: six individuals from all walks of life, each bringing their own virtues and struggles to a dynamic equation. What they found, however, despite any difference of interest or opinion, was uniting through one of the most elemental human connections: music expressed through the human voice.

The joy and growth manifested by Simply Human’s members—Siobahn Hotaling, Farouk Rojas, Sarah Peters, Mike Baker, Kathy Ethier and Ed Kinum—inspired the creation of four other a cappella groups in its locality. Witnessing these events unfolding intensified a question, a seedling already developing in Keith’s mind.

There are an estimated 15,000 college a cappella groups throughout the country. They spring up all over the place—people spontaneously getting together to sing for the joy of singing, expressing authentically through the human instrument… I think that’s wonderful! Imagine if this flourished throughout corporate America, government and society!

Think of a group of people coming together to sing—they may not necessarily share a lot in common outside of singing, they may not even spend time together outside of singing, but they seem to have a general respect for each other. We’ve all read accounts of soldiers suspending war to honor the human spirit singing a Christmas carol, we’ve heard of the most diverse, sometimes oppositional voices uniting in song—regardless of where or how we lift our voices, when we sing there’s a certain bond, a community—a humanity that is built.

I think the nature of what it means to sing with others will change the way the world is—a cappella is just one of those things.

Our organization is born of this vision—a vision recognizing the differences and commonalities of being human; a vision finding a harmonious, common ground through which we can express some of our most noble qualities and, in so doing, uphold the best of who we are and who we can become.