GRASSI
Mitchell

• 1. Early life and education
• 2. Pentatonix

Mitchell Coby Michael Grassi is an American singer, musician and songwriter from Arlington, Texas. Known for his high tenor voice, Grassi came to international attention as the founder and performer of two groups—the quintet a cappella collective Pentatonix and the duo Superfruit with Scott Hoying. As of June 2021, Pentatonix has released eleven albums (two of which have been number ones) and two EPs, have had four songs in the Billboard Hot 100, and won three Grammy awards as "the first a cappella group to achieve mainstream success in the modern market". As of February 2019, Superfruit's YouTube channel has over 2.5 million subscribers and has accumulated over 392 million views.

In April 2020 Grassi debuted a solo moniker, Messer, doing a DJ set of "a range of dark, techno tunes" at Paper's Club Quarantine Zoom event during the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. "Machine" was released as Messer's debut single in July 2021, with "Angels Pray" following later that month. Messer's debut EP Roses was released August 2021.

Early life and education

Grassi was born July 24, 1992, in Arlington, Texas, to Nel Grassi (née Fenton) and Hornell, New York, native Michael Grassi. He is of half Italian and half a mix of Scottish, Irish and Welsh descent. His parents relocated to the Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas, area in the mid-1980s for Michael's career in the airline industry. Grassi has an older sister, Jessa, and remembers doing singalongs to pop tunes and Christmas songs in homemade variety shows with her for his parents when he was very young. His uncle Tony was also "a high tenor and had an incredible range".

He met Scott Hoying, another co-founder of Pentatonix, and his partner in the duo Superfruit, when he was young. He also met Kirstin Maldonado, another Pentatonix founder, when he was nine or ten and they were both doing musical theater. Grassi and Hoying were both active in theater arts in Arlington and met when they were cast in the musical Annie; they both also play piano. They were "giggly" together but not best friends immediately; they then were split up being sent to different schools for a year and a half, and reunited while performing in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Though both were still closeted at the time, they feel they had a subconscious connection, as well as their musical theater interests; Grassi's favorite Broadway musical is Rent. When he was fourteen, Grassi knew he wanted to be a singer and musician, "I want to enrich others' lives with the music I make, because that's what music did for me all my life."

When Grassi was seventeen he was inspired by Lady Gaga when she came out as part of the LGBTQ community, and admires her sense of self expression, "That was something I'd always yearned to do because I had always been the weird kid—I always had something, I always wanted to make a point and I always wanted to be an individual." Grassi briefly dated Hoying at their "arts-oriented" Martin High School; both openly gay, they remain best friends.

Pentatonix started as a trio, as Grassi, Hoying, and Maldonado had been in choir for most of their high school careers. Grassi and Maldonado also did community theater together as well. The three quickly put together an a cappella cover of Lady Gaga's 2010 "Telephone" featuring Beyoncé to compete in a local radio station contest to meet Glee cast members. They did not win but kept competing and performing, gaining notoriety.

Hoying heard about The Sing-Off reality-show competition for a cappella acts; he gained an interest in the genre once in college. It was the first time the three really embraced a cappella. The show required groups to have five or more members, so they recruited bass vocalist Avi Kaplan and singer/beat boxer Kevin Olusola. Grassi skipped high school graduation to audition for 2011's The Sing Off. After they won, all relocated to Los Angeles to pursue recording artist careers. The main goal of the group was to become the first modern mainstream a cappella group, which they have done.

Pentatonix

Pentatonix is a quintet a cappella collective, with most of their songs being covers, and much of their success comes from touring, including internationally. They gained national attention in the U.S. competing on NBC's a cappella reality show The Sing-Off in 2011, which they won. The group got a record label, who dropped them as their audience was too niche—with no guarantee of selling albums, or concert tickets—but Grassi felt it was ultimately advantageous as around late 2012 Pentatonix started posting videos to YouTube building an international fan base. Pentatonix also released the debut EP, PTX, Volume 1, on their new label in June 2012, followed by a Christmas EP, PTXmas in November. They recorded covers of pop 40 hits like Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" (2011), Psy's "Gangnam Style" (2012), and Fun's "We Are Young" (2011). Their big video hit was a November 2013 video doing a medley of Daft Punk songs, it had ten million views in the first week of its release and rose to over 150 million views; as of January 2020 it has over 320 million views.

As of March 2015 they had 7.6 million YouTube subscribers, that rose to seventeen million as of October 2019; with over three billion video views. As of February 2020, they had over 4.4 billion views; they also have two million followers on Instagram, and 3.6 million on Facebook.

They continually release YouTube videos, with nearly every one with more than a million views. They also tour extensively including across North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America—over an estimated forty countries as of December 2016; and have had cameos in shows and movies like Bones and Pitch Perfect 2 (2015); and their own television show, A Pentatonix Christmas Special (2016).

As of June 2021, Pentatonix has released eleven albums, ten of which reached the Top Ten on the Billboard 200, all combined selling ten million albums—including two number one albums, and five of Christmas music—and have had four songs in the Billboard Hot 100, and won three Grammy awards. Their three Grammy wins were for their: Daft Punk medley tribute to the French electronic music duo (2015); version of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" (2016); Jolene collaboration with Dolly Parton (2017). In addition to their regular tours, they utilize their extensive holiday music for Christmastime tours. Their That's Christmas to Me (2014) is the highest-charting Christmas album by a group of two or more since 1962.

The individual members find inspiration to cover recent songs, as well as international classics, then if they decide as a group it is a good match, they compose an arrangement; their friend Ben Bram, who is also their producer, is their co-arranger. Grassi is influenced by electronic music; his dream mentor, and single biggest influence is Imogen Heap. Although they are known for their covers and re-arranged popular songs, the band released their first album, Pentatonix, in October 2015, and it was all original music; it also marked the first time an a cappella group had the top album on the Billboard 200 album chart. Their sold-out North American tour that year was documented in the movie, On My Way Home. Grassi noted he and Hoying both being openly gay has been appreciated by the group's fans; a common demographic is midwesterners and Christians who comment that the pair have helped them accept their LGBTQ children.