Nassoons
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The Princeton Nassoons are an all-male a cappella singing group drawn from the ranks of Princeton University undergraduates known for its five-part harmony. The group has been self-selecting (and self-directing) since 1941.
The Nassoons have performed at a number of prominent venues, including the White House at the request of former President Bill Clinton, and have also appeared on Good Morning America, The Early Show, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The group typically takes week-long tours for fall break, intersession, and spring breaks; recent destinations include the Dominican Republic, Switzerland, Mexico, the British Virgin Islands, and Taiwan. The Nassoons also have a long-running relationship with The Greenbrier, where they travel each Labor Day weekend and Easter holiday to entertain guests, rehearse, and enjoy the grounds.
[edit] History
The group had its beginnings as part of the Princeton Glee Club in the late 1930s, rehearsing for small on-campus shows in the basement of Murray-Dodge Hall. The turning point for the yet-unnamed group came on a cool autumn evening in 1941. During the annual Princeton-Yale Glee Club concert on the weekend of the schools' annual football game in 1941, the seven men sang a short set in the middle of the program to a dishearteningly lukewarm reception. In a move of desperation, they decided to unveil an arrangement that the Glee Club director had explicitly asked them not to perform, fearing its bawdy five-part harmonies and scandalous lyrics would offend the sensibilities of the stodgy New Haven audience. But as the final chord rang out, the crowd broke into thunderous applause, and the group sang it again as an encore. In that moment, the Nassoons were born. That song, Perfidia, remains the alumni song of the Nassoons, and it ends their performances to this very day.
Within the Ivy League a cappella music tradition, the Princeton Nassoons are fourth in age, following The Whiffenpoofs (est. 1909), The Spizzwinks(?) (est. 1914), and The Yale Society of Orpheus and Bacchus (est. 1938), all of Yale University. It is the oldest such group at Princeton.
