Avi Kaplan

Born in California to Ukrainian and Russian parents, the bass vocalist and songwriter formerly belonged to Pentatonix, the multi-platinum pop a cappella ensemble that collected multiple Grammys. He exited the ensemble in 2017, redirecting his crisp, exact delivery into an independent folk trajectory. Three EPs preceded his May 2022 debut album, Floating on a Dream, helmed by Shooter Jennings and incorporating country, soul, and bluegrass touches.

Avriel Benjamin Kaplan arrived in 1989 as one of three siblings raised in Visalia, California, adjacent to Sequoia National Park. Following attendance at Divisadero Middle School and Mt. Whitney High School, he trained in choral music and opera at Mt. San Antonio College, an institution esteemed for instruction in those fields. While enrolled he claimed first place at the Monterrey Jazz Festival with the vocal jazz group Singcopation, and in 2009 he captured the grand prize of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella with Fermata Nowhere.

He entered Pentatonix a single day before their audition for season three of NBC’s The Sing-Off, the televised a cappella contest they would win. RCA signed the group, whose initial success derived from singular interpretations of pop material originally associated with Nicki Minaj, Daft Punk, and Imagine Dragons; holiday releases later expanded their reach, yielding three Grammy Awards from 2015 to 2017 and two albums that topped the U.S. charts. After six years in Los Angeles, however, Kaplan withdrew from the group’s demanding itinerary and moved to a forest outside Nashville, Tennessee. The setting restored him and prompted folk songs written on his porch while gazing into the trees. Under the name Avriel & the Sequoias he independently issued the Nick Drake-inspired single “Fields and Pier” in April 2017 and shortly thereafter declared his departure from Pentatonix; the EP Sage & Stone followed that June, and a bluegrass arrangement of Outkast’s “Hey Ya” appeared the next month.

In 2019, after signing with Fantasy Records, he returned to the Avi Kaplan moniker and issued six singles, among them the richly produced “Otherside,” which recalled the work of David Crosby and Fleet Foxes. February 2020 brought the seven-track EP I’ll Get By, while August saw the Lean on Me EP anchored by a cover of Bill Withers’ classic 1972 number-one single. April 2021 introduced the standalone single “Song for the Thankful,” clearly shaped by Glen Campbell. During an extensive European tour later that year he released “First Place I Go,” a pedal-steel-laden track that would open his debut LP, Floating on a Dream, which appeared the following year.