Photos & Story by Bre Gondek
The a cappela group Wonder Voice performed with the Legend choirs at Southeast Christian Church March 11. Wonder Voice worked with the choir students last fall at their retreats and then again in class the week before the concert. The concert closed with all four choirs joining Wonder Voice on “Lean On Me” and “Joy to the World.”
Legend High School choirs put on an outstanding concert with NBC’s winners of the Sing Off- Wonder Voice. This upbeat and energetic group brought Legend’s choirs to a new level of amazing. There was dancing, clapping, and screaming throughout the whole building.
Wonder Voice was started by Mister Tim in 2008. When he moved back to Colorado he re-formed the group in 2010 and they have been performing ever since. There are five members in the group: Kate Moreland, Shaw Lathrop, Mister Tim, Zakk Wooten, and Dele Opeifa.
Kate Moreland, the only lady of the group, has been singing since she was a child. Her musical inspiration comes from The Beatles. Kate is no way shy of the spotlight. Moreland has a wonderful personality that can be seen when she is both onstage and offstage. She has another job at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, but singing is still her passion. She “just keeps [singing]” because she likes it.
Shaw Lathrop sings tenor two. Lathrop’s musical inspiration comes from Marvin Gay. He enjoys the rides in the “Wonder Van”. Even though Shaw runs his own health consulting business, he loves when “the crowd is feeling it,” and at that point “you want to be a performer.” A career in music “is a lot of fun” and even though they only did a 45 minute set for us, he wished they could have gone for longer.
The creator of the group, Mister Tim, is highly energetic and absolutely hilarious! It’s easy to see he enjoys what he does and that music is important to him. Music is always something he has been doing. “I love music,” stated Mister Tim, “it beats sitting at a desk.” Mister Tim finds inspiration from James Horner, a famous film score composer.
Zakk Wooten has been singing a cappella music since he was 15 years old. Music was the only thing that made him “feel at home.” He finds musical inspiration from singer-songwriter Martin Sexton. Music has always been important to Wooten because it makes people happy. “Music is so fun and entertaining.” Before the concert, Zakk had a bad day, but when he got there he had “so much fun.” Wooten sings tenor one in the group.
Drumroll please for the percussionist of the group: Dele Opeifa! He finds musical inspiration from Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and his high school music teacher. In high school Opeifa realized he was good at music and “he could not, not do music.” “Music transcends culture and demographic, economic status, race, all of that to just bring joy and happiness to any human being” said Opeifa. Dele Opeifa is just as upbeat as the rest of the group with his fast and crazy beats.
Outstanding, amazing, phenomenal, and astonishing don’t even come close to describing how great Wonder Voice is. With such great vocalists and such great arrangements Wonder Voice cannot be beat! They have high energy that the crowd loves. Legend choirs and Wonder Voice threw an amazing concert that none of us will ever forget.