Stanford Mendicants

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 eye in the house". Having only rehearsed the one song, they quickly fled through an open window and went immediately back to rehearsal.[3]

Their 1998 album Besides What You See received a 4.2 rating[4] from the Recorded A Cappella Review Board (rarb.org), which is the group's highest album score to date.

The group was Runner-Up in three categories in the inaugural Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards (CARAs) in 1992.[5] As of 2020, they have been nominated for six more recording awards since then: in 1999, 2001, 2005, and 2019.[6][7][8][9]

Mendicant songs were selected for Varsity Vocals' "Best of Collegiate A Cappella" compilation album in both 2001 and 2005.[10]

On February 2, 2019, The Stanford Mendicants finished in first place in the ICCA Northern California Quarter-Finals in Redwood City, CA.[11] The Mendicants also took home two individual awards, including Outstanding Soloist, for Austin Zambito-Valente, and Outstanding Choreography, for Khoi Le and Gabe Wieder.[11]

• Chris Ayer, Singer and Songwriter [12]
• Jordan Gelber, actor from the Broadway run of Avenue Q [13]
• Founding Mendicant Dick Grant, Director of the Pacific Mozart Ensemble[14][15]
• Founding Mendicant John Frohnmayer, Politician and Professor at Oregon State University
• Brandon Singleton, actor from the National tours of Disney's "THE LION KING" as "Simba," the New York-Broadway production of "WICKED," and both the original National Tour and the Las Vegas productions of "JERSEY BOYS" at the Palazzo Las Vegas-Resort Hotel Casino Jersey Boys[16]
• Joseph Siravo, actor with The Sopranos and Jersey Boys National Tour [16]

2011 Musical Director De Wei Koh editing a track for Sh-Boom

• Untitled (1964)
• Untitled (1965)
• A Fellow Needs a Girl (1966)
• Untitled (1967)
• Untitled (1969)
• Untitled (1973)
• Untitled (1975)
• Untitled (1977)
• Untitled (1979)
• Clean-Cut and Slightly Frayed (1981)
• Somewhere in Hawaii (1982)
• Take You Back (1986)
• Pretending to Care (1987)
• Aquapella (1989)
• Just Like That (1991)
• Feline Casanova (1992)
• Back For Seconds (1994)
• Beggars Can't Be Choosers (1996)
• Besides What You See (1998)
• Room to Grow (2000)
• Best Laid Plans (2002)
• Mendication (2004)
• Beggar's Dozen (2006)
• Roses In My Hand (2008)
• Sh-Boom (2012)
• Just a Group of Guys (2013)
• Mendicants At Large (2015)
• For the Long Haul (2018)
• Trailblazer (2019)

• List of Stanford University a cappella groups

• Stanford Mendicants Official Website
• Stanford Mendicants YouTube