East Alum Competes in NBC A Cappella Competition

2008 East graduate Thomas Henry takes the stage, along side his a cappella group The Backbeats. Bursting out in If I Were a Boy by Beyonce, the crowd goes wild. Voices mix, hearts are broken, and

Henry is all part of it.

Henry is not the only Kansas City-ian on the show though. Brennan Caldwell, a Pembroke graduate in 2007, is a part of the Yale a cappella group named the Whiffenpoofs. Caldwell and Henry participate in Y-Chromotones, a local men’s choir directed by choir teacher Ken Foley, together.

“Those two were awesome,” Foley said. “They were amazingly talented.”

Last Monday, December 6, season two of the hit NBC show The Sing-Off started. 10 teams took the stage to battle it out, one of those teams was The Backbeats, a team from Los-Angelos. Henry attends school at University of Southern-California. The Backbeats is “the best-of-the-best” from California, according to Kenton Chen, team organizer.

So far, The Backbeats have made it through two eliminations, leaving behind Caldwell. Caldwell and the Whiffenpoofs. The boys didn’t know they would each be on the show until they saw each other there. The Whiffenpoofs were eliminated last Wednesday.

The Backbeats will be performing again on Monday, December 13. The show is at seven o’clock on NBC.

“It’s been fun to watch [the Sing-Off],” Foley said, “even though the Whiffenpoofs got voted off.”

Check out Henry and The Backbeats at www.backbeatsvocal.com

Photos by Tyler Roste

(Harbinger Photo Editor 2008-2009)