The Duke's Men of Yale
Doox of Yale | |
|---|---|
 A Duke's Men crest and letterhead from the 1950s | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
| Genres | A cappella |
| Years active | 1952–present [citation needed] |
| Members | Tenor I: Alexis Cruz '28 Salma Laraki '26 Peighton Lotwis '26 Anika Mohapatra '27 Tenor II: Natalie Bassini '27 Flematu Fofana '28 Danny Holter '28 Yuki Sugita '28 Baritone: Jacob Lebroda '27 Dylan Lee '28 Quincy Rosenzweig '26 Daniel Zhang '26 Bass: Dayne Bolding '27 Bowen Duan '28 Andrew Xu '27 Business Managers: Dayne Bolding Andrew Xu Pitch: Jacob Lebroda |
| Website | http://www.dooxofyale.com |
Doox of Yale (formerly The Duke's Men of Yale) are an all-gender undergraduate a cappella group at Yale University. The group was founded by first-year students in 1952, and in 2017, was the first TTBB a cappella group in the 21st century at Yale to become all-gender. (The now-defunct group Augmented Seven did that right after Yale went coed in 1969.)
History
[edit]The Duke's Men formed in 1952 when Basil "Duke" Henning, a former member of the Whiffenpoofs and the master of Saybrook College, stole an arrangement from the 'Whiffs' and presented it to four of his first-year students.[1]
In the fall of 2017, the Duke's Men became Yale's first historically all-male a cappella group in the 21st century to abolish gender restrictions.[2][3] The group is widely considered to be a feeder to the Whiffenpoofs, and its announcement placed additional pressure on the world's oldest collegiate a cappella group to begin admitting non-male singers;[4] within a year, the Whiffenpoofs followed suit and admitted the group's first female singer in its 109-year history.[5] In 2018, the Duke's Men changed its official name to Doox of Yale, a longtime nickname that better reflected the ensemble's gender inclusivity.[6]
Competition and media
[edit]Doox has been successful in a number of competitions, most notably the International Championship of College A Cappella. In 1996 Doox was the best male group and won first runner-up honors at the ICCA Finals at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, along with awards for soloist Michael Sagalowicz and arrangement.[7] The same year, the group performed for President Bill Clinton at the White House Christmas party.[8] In 2005, the group took first place in the New England regional final of the ICCA.[9][10] Most recently, the group took first place in the 2009 Northeast Quarterfinal, with member Sam Tsui ('11) receiving accolades for Best Solo & Best Choreography.[11] and won again at the Northeast Semi-Final at MIT on March 21, and came in 4th place at the Finals at Alice Tully Hall on April 18, 2009.
In January 2004, the group was featured in a CBS News Sunday Morning segment about collegiate a cappella.[12]
In 2006, the Duke's Men recorded a jingle for the CNBC program "Fast Money."[13]
In June 2015, three members of the group (Solon Snider, Wade Newville, and Paul Holmes) were featured on Bravo TV's scripted comedy series, "Odd Mom Out," where they sang a segment of "Give My Regards to Broadway" (arranged by Solon Snider, Pitchpipe 2014-2015).[14]
Touring
[edit]Multiple times each year, Doox goes on tour, traveling to cities in the United States and Europe as well as Greece, China, Puerto Rico, Peru, Ecuador, and Ireland in recent years. On tour, the group has performed at venues ranging from classrooms and retirements homes to the Lincoln Center and packed arenas of 10,000 in Chongqing, China.[15]
Doox is also known for its traditional tour through the Borscht Belt chain of resorts each winter.[16]
Notable alumni
[edit]- Richard Brookhiser, historian and journalist
- Django Haskins, singer-songwriter and frontman of pop-noir musical group the Old Ceremony
- Conor Knighton, correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning
- Holcombe Waller, singer-songwriter and visual/performing artist
- Sam Tsui, Musician
- Casey Breves, member of Chanticleer
- Jeremy Lloyd, part of the pop duo Marian Hill
- Henry Gottfried, actor
- Christian Probst, cast member of Broadway's The Book of Mormon
- Michael Blume, singer-songwriter
Discography
[edit]Over the decades the group has recorded over 30 albums.[17]
| Title | Year Released |
|---|---|
| The Duke's Men | 1953 |
| The Duke's Men | 1954 |
| The Duke's Men of Yale University | 1956 |
| The Duke's Men of Yale | 1959 |
| Zounds from the Duke's Men of Yale | 1961 |
| The Duke's Men of Yale | 1963 |
| The Duke's Men On the Road | 1965 |
| The Duke's Men | 1966/67 |
| The Duke's Men | 1968 |
| Brighten Your Night | 1971 |
| Istanbul and America | 1974 |
| A Waste of Your Time and Money | 1976 |
| Da Doox Silver | 1978 |
| Off the Record | 1980/81 |
| Doox et Veritas | 1984 |
| Quality Time | 1987 |
| da disc | 1990 |
| Hot Donuts Now | 1992 |
| Food | 1994 |
| Mom | 1996 |
| 45 | 1998 |
| Chunda | 2000 |
| Instant Gratification | 2002 |
| Nobody's Business | 2004 |
| D.O.O.X. | 2006 |
| Silver& | 2007 |
| Gold | 2007 |
| A Smooth Ride | 2008 |
| What a Trip! | 2008 |
| Fifty Five | 2008 |
| The Chase | 2010 |
| Busted. | 2012 |
| The Works | 2015 |
| Golden Hour | 2017 |
| This Name, Vol. 1 | 2020 |
| This Name, Vol. 2 | 2021 |
References
[edit]- ^ "History". Doox of Yale. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
- ^ "Duke's Men Of Yale Set To Welcome Singers Of All Gender Identities". College A Cappella. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
- ^ "Yale's Duke's Men a cappella group opening to all sexes, gender identities". New Haven Register. 2017-07-24. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
- ^ Hamid, Zainab; Yaffe-Bellany 8:07, David (2017-07-21). "All-male singing group to abolish gender restrictions". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Feibel, Adelaide (2018-08-28). "The Duke's Men a capella group rebrands as The Doox". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
- ^ Feibel, Adelaide (2018-08-28). "The Duke's Men a capella group rebrands as The Doox". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
- ^ "International Championship of Collegiate a Cappella". Archived from the original on 2006-05-19. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
- ^ Jordan, Elise (2001-06-10). "Can you sing? Then a cappella groups want you". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
- ^ "International Championship of Collegiate a Cappella". Archived from the original on 2008-11-06. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
- ^ http://www.acappellanews.com/archive/2005_03.html [bare URL]
- ^ (November 17, 2010), "Glee vs. YouTube: Who Did ‘Umbrella’ Best?", New York Magazine: Vulture, Accessed Dec 12 2010
- ^ (January 11, 2004), "A Cappella Frenzy, Many University Students Across America Are Spurning Heavy Metal For Music Of Voices", CBS Sunday Morning, Accessed Dec 23 2006
- ^ Wang, Judy (2006-12-05). "A cappella groups go commercial". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
- ^ (June 15, 2015), "Ep. 3: Dying to Get In", Accessed June 15, 2015
- ^ "About". Doox of Yale. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
- ^ July 3; Comments, 2023 | Daniel Zhang |. "A Brief History of Borshch". Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "DMAA Media Archive - Albums". sites.google.com. Retrieved 2020-02-21.