Stanford Mendicants

The Stanford Mendicants
The Mendicants performing at the 2011 State of the Valley Conference in San Jose
Background information
Origin	Stanford, California, USA
Genres	A Cappella
Years active	1963—present
Website	www.StanfordMendicants.com

The Stanford Mendicants are an all-male a cappella group at Stanford University. The group is Stanford University's original a cappella group. Since its founding in 1963, the group's size has varied from 6 to 19 members. Although they are strictly an a cappella group today, they have performed with instruments in previous generations. The group prides itself on singing a wide range of songs, from gospel to barbershop to pop tunes and original compositions. The Mendicants are known around Stanford's campus for their romantic serenades.

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.

Their 1998 album Besides What You See received a 4.2 rating 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 CARA Awards in 1992 and have been nominated for awards as recently as 2005.

Two Mendicant songs have been featured on the annual "Best of Collegiate A Cappella" Compilation.

Current members of the Stanford Mendicants include:

Top Alexander Ronneburg, Peter Kurzner, Zach Esrig, Trent Sandland, Tim Sherlock

Lead Alex Feldman, Trey Hale, John Sholar, Austin Zambito-Valente, Khoi Le, Tim Isaacs

Baritone Lachlan Green, Robert Haag, Kris Kaya, Chris Adusei-Poku

Bass Stefan Swaans, Carter Burr-Kirven, Gabe Wieder, Josh Adamson