How Kirstin Maldonado’s dream of becoming a Disney princess led to the founding of Grammy-winning a capella group Pentatonix.
When Kirstin Maldonado joined a couple of high school friends in forming an a capella group in the summer of 2011, she didn’t have grand ambitions for it. Sure, the ultimate goal of the group–Pentatonix–was to compete in NBC’s “The Sing-Off” that year. But for Kirstin, then 19 and fresh off her freshman year at the University of Oklahoma, the objective was more personal than professional. “I just really loved my friends, and that’s the reason I did it,” Kirstin says. She thought of the competition as a fun bonding experience but planned to return to OU for her sophomore year when it was over. A musical theater major, she had her sights set on a career on Broadway.
But Pentatonix proved to have electrifying chemistry…