Acapella is a type of singing where you utilize no instruments at all other than your voice. No drums, no piano, no string instruments, nothing. This type of music only started becoming popular after media around it blew up in the US around the 2010s, specifically with hit movie series “Pitch Perfect,” as well as the hit TV show “The Sing Off.” This TV show ran five seasons, where it featured ten groups that were all acapella, all competing in different musical challenges to be the last group left in order to claim a grand prize of $100,000 and a Sony Contract, except for season 3 when the grand prize was doubled to $200,000. The show lasted 4 full seasons, featuring arguably some of the best acapella groups of all time, like season 3 winners Pentatonix, and season 4 winner, Home Free.
Home Free is particularly interesting, because they are a country acapella group. This has never been done before, in fact they are the first ever country acapella group. This is because country is a music genre known for having rich instruments like a guitar, banjo, or even a harmonica, but there’s no need for these guys. The group was able to take the win for the fourth season, and that’s really where they got their careers going. Putting out huge hits like their arrangement of “Burning Ring of Fire” from their TV appearance, as well as a Sea Shanty medley put together during the Covid lockdown, this group has grown tremendously popular, getting ranked #3 best acapella group on ranker.com, and the #1 best acapella group on thetoptens.com. For a while now, they’ve been traveling around the world, performing approximately 250 shows a year as their full time job.
This leads us to our school choir director, teacher Aaron Moreno, who messaged the group’s Bass Tim Foust around 2-3 months ago upon learning about their arrival in Grand Junction for a performance at the Avalon Theatre. He asked if Tim would be willing to do a master class with our FMHS Jazz choir, an event in which a talented musician has an in depth teaching session with another musician or music group. So, two months ago, Tim happily agreed to do the event. Quote Aaron Moreno, “It’s an incredibly exciting experience to have somebody who’s better than you be able to work with your students.” So, on December 10th, during 7th hour Tim made his way into the auditorium to work with our Jazz choir.
The tenor for the Jazz choir Trevor Schimdt noted about the master class, “It felt different than normal because you have a celebrity that is actively a professional at performing arts just sitting there. But it’s great to realize that he is there to see you succeed, and when he said that the audience is there to see you succeed, it was like I forgot he was famous for a second, it was really cool.”
After helping out the choir, he opened the room up for some insightful Q & A, before revealing that he would offer free seating to the entire FMHS choir program and teacher Shelby Fredrickson for their concert that night. Fredrickson stated about the experience, “I got to meet a group I’ve been a fan of since 2013 so I’m really grateful I got to catch a ride.” After 7th period ended, Tim pulled the Jazz Choir aside, and informed them they would be getting into the VIP session for free as well. Fast forward two hours, the Jazz choir entered the Avalon Theatre for the VIP session, where they got another Q & A session, as well as an exclusive song from the entire group. During the session, Tim Faust stated, “They are too good for a high school choir,” and ended up inviting the choir to open the concert for them. Upon hearing this, the choir thought they were joking, but it was soon clear to the choir’s horror they definitely were not.
The group then gave the choir a tour of their tour bus, and then sent the choir off to their seats for approximately 30 minutes. The choir then entered back stage fifteen minutes before the show to hang out with Home Free before they performed. I actually am the bass for this Jazz choir, so I got to hang out with Adam Rupp at this time before performing, who is the vocal percussionist for the group, and serves a vital role for the group since in acapella there is no such thing as drums. I got to talk with him about hobbies, and personally this was a really great experience for me just to hang out with the guy for a little while, serving as an eye opener to show the life behind performing, revealing that these artists are able to have a life beyond just performing.
Then, the choir performed “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” the song Home Free used to win The Sing Off 12 years ago. After a good run through the song, the choir, feeling fulfilled, went back up to their seats with an uproar of applause, and began to watch the concert, until they got spoiled again and got upgraded to $300 front row seats. Choir Council President Maddie Cox recalls, “I was just in shock the whole time, I couldn’t really think of anything or do anything other than be amazed when they hit a crazy note.”
After this, the concert continued, with different members of the choir receiving various items throughout the concert like custom guitar picks and jingle bells used during the concert. Finally, as the show ended, the choir was invited backstage one last time for a giant photo of the entire choir group that showed up, as well as the whole Home Free band, and with that, the experience finally ended.
Tim Foust also posted the next day about the night on instagram that at the time of writing this article has gotten 500+ likes, with many encouraging comments on the post. It’s kind of crazy the things that can happen on a whim that can just change your life forever. In a span of less than half of a day, Home Free was able to turn an experience from incredible to truly unforgettable for a very lucky group of kids. Once again, thank you to Home Free for such an incredible experience.
