Briarcrest’s Onevoice makes RARB list of top a cappella tracks
Eleven years ago Director of Fine Arts J.D. Frizzell started a small a capella group at Briarcrest Christian School — a group that has gone on to receive international recognition through the years.
And much like Mr. Schuester’s singing group on the hit TV show “Glee,” Frizzell’s Onevoice is a team of 12 high schoolers in grades 10 to 12, who meet every day for their last period to put together an album by the end of the year.
“It’s a cool experience because there’s nothing like it,” junior Lauren Green said. “We have other groups (at school) that have instruments, but this is cool ‘cause we get to use our voice to do all the parts whether you’re a solo or not.”
The album is part of the students’ curriculum and is sent to Recorded A Cappella Review Board every year to hear from reviewers and possibly be added to one of the different categories of “RARB Picks.”
For the fifth year in a row, Onevoice has made RARB’S “Track of the Year” list. It was announced in January that “Broken” from Onevoice’s album “Find Yourself ” was one of 22 songs to make the 2019 list.
RARB reviews hundreds of a cappella albums from around the world every year to provide potential buyers of a cappella music insight on new albums.
Participants send their albums for review and receive a score and detailed feedback from reviewers.
“We had a good review this year, and they gave us a five out of five rating, which was a relief,” Frizzell said. “Yeah, it’s exciting.”
It’s a team effort for Onevoice, so students help choose the songs — which are written and arranged by professionals — for the album. Last year’s songs were chosen to voice some of the issues teens go through.
“We were in the car with some of the girls and we were thinking about ideas for the album,” senior Kallen Miller said. “We thought about just being really relatable and how many people struggle with whether it’s anxiety or depression, and all these commonalities that teenagers have that aren’t really spoken about.”
All the albums are recorded at the Grove recording studio at Hope Church. The album is also released on Spotify and Apple Music.
RARB’S “Track of the Year” list is not the only recognition the group has received. This is the sixth year a Onevoice song has been selected for “Best of High School A Cappella (BOHSA) 2020,” a national high school a cappella album.