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<p>There was a time, oh maybe seven or more years ago, Shelley Regner surmises, when just about &#8220;the only people who knew about a capella music were part of the a capella world.&#8221;</p><p>Then the first of three &#8220;Pitch Perfect&#8221; movies came out in 2012 and &#8220;brought it to the masses and made it a cool thing&#8221; to sing without accompaniment, to have singers vocalizing the sounds that maybe, in some other kind of group, a drum or a horn would make.</p><p>Regner, who portrayed a member of the fictional Barden Bellas in the first &#8220;Pitch Perfect&#8221; film and its two sequels, now contributes her singing talent to DCappella, a real-life a cappella group whose seven members will bring classic Disney songs to the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts for a Feb. 13 concert.</p><p>&#8220;Be ready to experience a range of emotions and nostalgia,&#8221; is her advice to future audience members. &#8220;You&#8217;re gonna hear your favorite Disney classics, paying homage to the original but in a revitalized way.&#8221;</p><p>While tunes you&#8217;ll recognize from &#8220;Aladdin,&#8221; &#8220;Mary Poppins,&#8221; &#8220;Tarzan,&#8221; &#8220;Moana,&#8221; &#8220;Frozen,&#8221; &#8220;Toy Story&#8221; and &#8220;The Little Mermaid&#8221; are in the repertoire, when you ask Regner to choose a favorite, it&#8217;s &#8220;I Wan&#8217;na Be Like You&#8221; from &#8220;The Jungle Book,&#8221; a jazzy number in which the orangutan king tried to persuade man-cub Mowgli to show him how to make fire.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a great song. It puts you in a good mood. It makes you want to dance,&#8221; Regner said. &#8220;All of us have a very specific part, very separate but we come together nicely. It&#8217;s like a big ol&#8217; parade.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m from the south,&#8221; the Baton Rouge native said. &#8220;We have Mardi Gras, and I know all about parades.&#8221;</p><p>Regner sings mezzo, which is the female voice in the middle, between Morgan Keene&#8217;s soprano and Sojourner Brown&#8217;s alto.</p><p>She has high praise for all of her fellow singers, whom she describes as &#8220;as close as a family.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Sojourner has this sultry, rich voice. I call her the &#8216;Diana Ross&#8217; of the group. Her voice is so soothing to your ears,&#8221; Regner said. &#8220;Morgan can hit notes up to the angels. I still don&#8217;t understand how she does it. It&#8217;s like hearing a Disney princess sing.&#8221;</p><p>The men of DCappella include tenor RJ Woessner, baritone Orlando Dixon, bass Joe Santoni and vocal percussionist Antonio Fernandez.</p><p>&#8220;RJ, our tenor, has the highest male part. His voice is so versatile. He can sing everything from soft ballads up to rock songs and his voice can fit so well within those different styles,&#8221; Regner said. &#8220;Joe, our bass, has that booming quality, which kind of shocks people that someone can sing down there, so low.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Our baritone, Orlando Dixon, has such a smooth, velvety voice, everyone will fall in love with him,&#8221; she predicted.</p><p>As for Fernandez, the vocal percussionist, &#8220;people are truly going to be blown away by his repertoire of crazy sounds. He creates new sounds every day. He&#8217;ll surprise us within a song with something he&#8217;s learned,&#8221; said Regner, who was a vocal percussionist in &#8220;Pitch Perfect,&#8221; and knows how challenging it can be.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very happy to be singing words and melodies (now) instead of holding down the beat,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Though she sings words rather than making percussive pops or horn-like squeals when she&#8217;s performing, Regner admits odd sounds come out of her mouth when she&#8217;s warming up, including a wail that sounds like a siren.</p><p>&#8220;We always kind of warn people in the crew at the theater and tell them nothing&#8217;s wrong,&#8221; Regner said. &#8220;They&#8217;re going to hear a lot of weird noises, but we&#8217;re just going through our scale and siren sounds.&#8221;</p><p>DCappella&#8217;s co-creator, music director, arranger, and producer is Deke Sharon, who was the arranger, on-site music director and vocal producer for the &#8220;Pitch Perfect&#8221; movies. Entertainment Weekly has called him &#8220;the father of contemporary a capella.&#8221;</p><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> DCappella in concert</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 7 p.m. Feb. 13</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, 71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>Tickets:</strong> Start at $25</p><p><strong>&#8216;Friend Like Me:&#8217;</strong> A Meet &amp; Greet experience with a chance to meet DCappella members, hear a soundcheck performance, attend a Q&amp;A, and more, will be available to purchase.</p><p><strong>Info:</strong> 570-826-1100 or cidentertainment.com</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">DCappella, a seven member a cappella group, will bring rejuvenated Disney classics to the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 13. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_DC_DCappella_5-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>DCappella, a seven member a cappella group, will bring rejuvenated Disney classics to the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 13. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photos </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_DC_DCappella_4-1-1-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">It&#8217;s &#8216;the biggest compliment,&#8217; DCappella singer Shelley Regner said, when audience members tell them they can hardly believe the seven-member group makes all its music with their voices. &#8216;We are the instruments,&#8217; Regner said. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_DC_DCappella_4-1-1-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>It&#8217;s &#8216;the biggest compliment,&#8217; DCappella singer Shelley Regner said, when audience members tell them they can hardly believe the seven-member group makes all its music with their voices. &#8216;We are the instruments,&#8217; Regner said. </caption1><photoCredit1>Submitted photos </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>A cappella group adds new dimension to Disney songs</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> DCappella in concert</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 7 p.m. Feb. 13</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, 71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>Tickets:</strong> Start at $25</p><p><strong>&#8216;Friend Like Me:&#8217;</strong> A Meet &amp; Greet experience with a chance to meet DCappella members, hear a soundcheck performance, attend a Q&amp;A, and more, will be available to purchase.</p><p><strong>Info:</strong> 570-826-1100 or cidentertainment.com</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

DCappella to perform at F.M. Kirby Center