Stanford Mendicants
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The Stanford Mendicants is an all-male a cappella group at Stanford University. The group is Stanford University's oldest a cappella group, and has inspired a strong a cappella musical tradition on the Stanford campus. Because of their elder position in this tradition, membership in the group is very competitive and considered prestigious. New members are chosen by members of the previous year's group, although an alumni organization maintains close ties with the group. Since its founding, the group's size has varied from 6 to 18 members, although the average today has settled around 15. Although they are strictly an a cappella group today, they started out performing some music with instruments in their early years.
[edit] History
The Stanford Mendicants was founded in 1963 by Hank Adams, a transfer student from Yale University, with a group of 5 undergraduate men. The group originally rehearsed only a single song before breaking into the dining commons of Branner Hall, an all women's dormitory at the time, and performing their song during lunch. Adams often recalled, himself tearing up, that during their performance, the women wept, and there was literally "not a dry seat in the house". Stunned by their success, the original Mendicants watched, paralyzed, as women cheered, cried and beat their breasts. Having only rehearsed the one song, they quickly fled through an open window and went immediately back to rehearsal.
