Williston Basin School District #7 and Williston High School would like to thank Harmonic Creative World for sponsoring a visit from world-class acapella arranger, Deke Sharon. Mr. Eric Rooke and Mrs. Katie Rooke found a post from Deke Sharon’s Facebook page that stated, “I was looking at a map of the US, and with all the travel I’ve done I realized: I don’t think I’ve ever been to North or South Dakota!” This got the wheels turning for the Rookes, and they set their minds to figure out how to get Deke to Williston. Mrs. Rooke reached out to Mr. Sharon and was able to schedule time for him to come.
On Tuesday, Deke came to Williston High School to speak to the choir students and share his story of how he broke into the acapella industry. He then worked and rehearsed with the choir students on several of his arrangements. One of the arrangements was the well-known “Since U Been Gone” acapella version that is heard on the movie Pitch Perfect. Mrs. Rooke states “Deke was amazing! He brought so much energy to my choirs! And he shared a great message about how choir is a safe space and we should not be ashamed to be who we are!” The WMS and Bakken choirs also got to meet him that day.
Deke Sharon is a world-class acapella arranger, who arranged all the music for the NBC “Sing-off” competition, Pitch Perfect, and DCappella, a group who only sings Disney acapella songs.
For more information on Deke Sharon, please visit https://www.dekesharon.com/.