Acapella group promises entertaining Christmas show with a classic feel

In the world of acapella singers, Voctave sets out to do something a little different, something they hope will delight all who come out to Wharton Center on Dec. 12 to catch their “Feels Like Christmas” production.

More than just a concert, it’s an unpredictable story that changes with every performance.

With 11 singers, all of whom had experience singing at Disney in Florida. where most of them met, Voctave performs songs with a heavy taste of nostalgia.

Jamey Ray founded the group in 2015 and continues to arrange the songs, creating versions designed to play to the group’s strengths, a group that has five octaves from their highest note to their lowest. What they do, he says, creates a niche that sets them apart from other acapella groups.

“It’s a very nostalgic sound that people want to hear at this time of year,” Ray said. “It’s definitely something that is going to be a bit more classic sounding — not classical, but classic — but we still have some pop influences. We’ve got a few soloists that are going to just blow people away with some of their more pop-sounding solos.”

He said the group doesn't stay within only one style because of how versatile the singers are.

“We’ve got crazy high notes and crazy low notes and everything in between,” Ray said. “It’s a lot of fun for me as the arranger to get to play with all those voices.”

He said what a lot of people don’t expect when they come to one of Voctave’s touring shows is that it is actually a show and not a concert.

“They’ll hear a lot of good Christmas music, but it’s definitely set in a way that we’re going to take you on an emotional journey,” Ray said. “You’re going to laugh, you’re going to cheer, hopefully you’re going to cry — you’re going to do all these things.”

In the years since Voctave was founded, they have racked up several #1 songs and albums on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify and nabbed a top 25 ranking on Billboard Magazine’s charts. Their YouTube channel videos have received more than 150 million views.

Ray co-hosts the show with Kurt Van Schmittou, a musician from Nashville who went to college on a tuba scholarship and came out with a degree in recording industry management. Between then and now he’s performed as a solo artist at the Grand Ole Opry, toured internationally as a vocalist with the Chippendales and performed with such recording artists as Conway Twitty, Wynona Judd, Loretta Lynn and Lee Greenwood.

Ray describes Van Schmittou, a baritone, as a full-on comedian.

“It’s terrifying for me to keep up because he does things differently every show,” Ray said. “The audience will say, ‘Oh, it looks like you all are really laughing at him,’ and we were because we didn’t know he was going to say that either.”

He said there are two songs (he won’t reveal which ones) that keep everyone laughing throughout because they never know what Van Schmittou is going to say.

“The audience just feeds off of the whole routine that he does,” Ray said. “It’s very, very entertaining to just let him go loose, because it’s not on any of our recordings. It’s something that, as an audience member, you get to experience in person only, which is fun for us, too, because he’s got a different routine for every single show.”

Ray said when he first started Voctave, he thought they were going to be a studio group that made videos. It required him to make some changes once they started going on tour because while he wanted the show to still be vocally challenging, it also had to be something they could perform every night.

He said he feels they have hit the sweet spot with that. “Feels Like Christmas” is a new show with half the numbers being pieces they’ve never performed in front of an audience before.

“If you don’t leave in the Christmas spirit, it’s your own fault,” Ray joked.

If you go

Voctave: It Feels Like Christmas

• When: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 12

• Where: Wharton Center

• Tickets: starting at $25; whartoncenter.com or (517) 432-2000

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Wharton Center hosts Voctave, acapella group, for Christmas show