{"id":93648,"date":"2025-07-31T13:24:55","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T13:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=93648"},"modified":"2026-02-10T14:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:56:25","slug":"distinguished-speaker-series-presents-kevin-olusola","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/event\/distinguished-speaker-series-presents-kevin-olusola\/","title":{"rendered":"Distinguished Speaker Series presents Kevin Olusola"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kevin Olusola<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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Pentatonix Beatboxer | Classical Fusion Artist | Expert on Creativity
\nand Collaboration<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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50th<\/sup> ANNUAL MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. COMMEMORATION KEYNOTE SPEAKER<\/p>\n

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Presented in part by:<\/h3>\n
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Free tickets available for graduate students starting January 26th through the UB Ticket Office<\/a>.\u00a0 1 per UB ID.<\/div>\n
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Public Ticket Information<\/a><\/div>\n
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Tues., Feb. 10, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.
\nCenter for the Arts
\nUB North Campus<\/p>\n

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More About Kevin Olusola<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Kevin Olusola creates art at a nexus between styles, cultures and perspectives. His signature sound reimagines classical musicianship through an ambitious modern sonic and lyrical lens, while balancing his dynamic background of Nigerian and Grenadian heritage. He showcases his ability to captivate as a solo artist or as one-fifth of three-time GRAMMY\u00ae Award-winning multiplatinum a cappella phenomenon Pentatonix. As such, all of these energies and elements comprise his ever-evolving artistic vision as vocal powerhouse, songwriter, beatboxer, cellist and producer.<\/p>\n

Olusola is known as a pioneer of “celloboxing” \u2014 playing the cello and beatboxing at the same time \u2014 and has garnered international acclaim and recognition from music industry leaders including Yo-Yo Ma, Quincy Jones, Pharrell, and countless others. The fluent Chinese speaker and Yale graduate began developing the skill in college, and in his senior year his celloboxing video performing Mark Summer\u2019s \u201cJulie-O\u201d exploded on YouTube. Vocal arranger Ben Bram and Pentatonix member Scott Hoying serendipitously reached out to\u00a0Olusola to create Pentatonix and audition for Season 3 of the NBC a cappella TV show “The Sing-Off.” After winning the competition\u2019s top prize, Pentatonix went on to multiplatinum success (over 10 million albums sold), #1 albums, three GRAMMY\u00ae Awards, film and television projects, sold-out arena tours, and rapturous performances on iconic stages around the world from The Hollywood Bowl to The Kennedy Center. Their YouTube channel boasts over 20 million subscribers and yields over 6 billion video views.<\/p>\n

As a solo artist, he released “The Renegade” EP (which debuted #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical and Classical Crossover charts), “The Triptyq Sessions” EP, and the “Don\u2019t Let Me Be Misunderstood” EP, as well as fan favorite singles and collaborations. His debut solo album, \u201cDawn of A Misfit,\u201d was released May 2025 via Sony Music Masterworks.\u00a0He was also named one of the 100 History Makers in the Making by NBC\u2019s TheGrio.<\/p>\n

As a speaker, Olusola\u2019s captivating presentations cover themes ranging from innovation and creativity to teamwork and collaboration all while weaving in stories from his inspiring personal journey. Whether he\u2019s speaking for corporations like Nike, universities like Yale, or megachurches like Willow Creek, his combination of musical performance and storytelling delivers a unique keynote experience that will inspire any and every type of audience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Olusola Pentatonix Beatboxer | Classical Fusion Artist | Expert on Creativity and Collaboration 50th ANNUAL MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. COMMEMORATION KEYNOTE SPEAKER Presented in part by: Free tickets available … Continue reading Distinguished Speaker Series presents Kevin Olusola<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":360,"featured_media":93649,"template":"","meta":{"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[29],"class_list":["post-93648","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-university-event","cat_university-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/93648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/360"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/93648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94301,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/93648\/revisions\/94301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93648"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubwp.buffalo.edu\/gsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=93648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}