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The Singers in Beyond Zebra
Get to know "the band"
We are a combination of many things in Beyond Zebra. We bring experience from choirs, college groups, rock bands, musical theater, contemporary a cappella, violin, piano, guitar, and barbershop. Just to name drop - Fog City Singers, Hookslide, Redshift, Fleet Street, Harmonics, Whiffenpoofs, Studio One and Prime Time. Check out our bios to find out about each of us.

Soprano
Fiona McRea
Meet Fiona McCrea, the soprano from Beyond Zebra! Growing up in a family of singers and musicians, Fiona's first taste of the stage was at four, singing during her parents' clogging recital, and she was hooked from that moment. She rocked the musical theater scene throughout childhood and high school, where she even met her husband under the stage lights.
College brought a change of tune, and Fiona dove into a cappella with the Stanford Harmonics. Fast forward, and her Harmonics connections landed her a spot in the awesome Beyond Zebra crew, making every note a joy.
When she's not belting out harmonies, Fiona's a software engineer by day, battling a knitting addiction on the side. She can also be caught unwinding with "Top Chef" binges alongside her husband and daughter.

Mezzo / Alto
Zareen Levien
Zareen grew up playing violin and piano, but always dreamed of singing. In college, she joined the Stanford Harmonics and fell in love with a cappella. With the Stanford Harmonics, she won runner-up best soloist at the National Championship of Collegiate A Cappella western regional competition. And she has been singing ever since, veering into groups with (gasp) instruments including Simply Jazz and Canyon Birds straight-ahead jazz, The Befores original trip-hop and Los Boleros Afro-Cuban band.
She has performed all over the Bay Area and recorded several albums, including her most recent children’s music album, “All the Things I Can Be” with a group of fabulous SF Bay Area artists. Zareen continues to play piano and guitar secretly while not singing a cappella. By day, she is the Director of Digital Learning for the San Francisco Unified School District.

Alto / Tenor
Shiv Pande
Though he missed the chance while schooling, Shiv had privately enjoyed singing tenor tunes from an early age. He finally mustered the courage to sing and perform among others in 2015 with East Bay Harmony. After a year with them, he was so thrilled that he additionally joined Take Note (also of the east Bay), and spun part of EBH off into quartet/quintet The Patch Notes. Eventually leaving those groups, he began a three-year stint with the Peninsulaires barbershop chorus from 2022-2025, supporting lead and tenor sections. Shiv slotted in to the ten-piece contemporary group Redshift in 2024, with whom he still sings.
Shiv can otherwise be found hiking or near chocolate.

Tenor / Bari
Davy Lu
Davy started his musical journey with classical violin. Balancing traditional school and conservatories for most of his life until everything changed in college when he discovered musical theater and a cappella singing.
A voice that was previously reserved for the foggiest of showers was suddenly born.
Singing with the Stanford Fleet Street Singers in college, he found himself doing a few theater productions in San Francisco as well as singing with the Fog City Singers as a young adult.
Davy dabbles in taking over guitar from JRG at campfires when John gets too rowdy, playing guitar hero way too competitively, and working in a SF based startup.
When he’s not singing, he’s hiking or playing golf with his wife or cleaning up after his pitiful adopted street dog, Pepper.

Vocal Percussion / Bari
Jon Pilat (JP)
Jon heard a King's Singers album when he was 16 years old and decided he wanted to sing a cappella music. He's stuck with that decision ever since. In college, Jon sang and learned how to beatbox and arrange music with the Stanford Harmonics. Since then, Jon has kept singing with Hookslide (bass & beatbox, usually at the same time) since 2000, with Beyond Zebra (baritone & beatbox, usually at different times) since 2017, and sometimes with the Fog City Singers, who let him sing 2nd tenor, but have no use for his beatboxing.
Jon has arranged over 200 songs for a cappella, and has won numerous awards for his arrangements. Nominated for the 2000 Contemporary A Cappella Award (CARA) for "Best Mixed Arranger", he lost to John Legend. It's the only time he's been compared to John Legend. He's won best arrangement awards at the Harmony Sweepstakes Bay Area Regionals for "Tightrope", "The Chain", and "Don't You Forget About Me" and a Best Pop/Rock Cover Song CARA for his arrangement of "Dream On", by Aerosmith.
Beyond Beyond Zebra, Jon works at Apple, bakes bread, and lives in Palo Alto with his wife (who he met singing!), sister-in-law, and 2 children. They tolerate the a cappella.

Bass
John Rae-Grant (JRG)
John started his love of harmony singing in his high school rock band, singing the middle falsetto part to Bee Gees tunes while playing rhythm guitar.
While attending Yale University, John focused on a cappella singing with the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus and the Whiffenpoofs.
Upon graduation, John found himself drawn to barbershop and remains involved to this day, having sung with Evergreen District champ quartet Studio One, and International top twenty quartet Finale. He currently sings with Fog City Singers and leads its Artistry team.
Starting in 2009, John added contemporary a cappella to his singing pursuits, singing with The Eclectic Company, Amaranth, and the 2014 Bay Area Harmony Sweepstakes champs Prime Time.
John dabbles in campfire guitar playing, while lamenting that so few popular songs are pitched for basses.
When not singing, John is a tech guy, having worked at Microsoft, Google and many start-ups.
He is happily married and his singing habit is supported by his wife and two grown up children.
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