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 was the first TTBB a cappella group at Yale to become all-gender in 2017.

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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: Archer Frodyma '23 Hope Keithahn '25 Caroline Fai '25 Tenor II: Charlotte Polk '23 Clay Jamieson '24 Ethan Kopf '24 Baritone: Jacob Kaufman-Shalett '23 Gabby Montuori '24 Krishna Davis '25 Charlie Karner '25 Bass: Elliot Lewis '23 Albert Gang '24 Jason Han '25 Business Managers: Clay Jamieson Jacob Kaufman-Shalett Pitch: Archer Frodyma
Website	http://www.dooxofyale.com

History

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 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

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]

Notable alumni

• 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

Over the decades the group has recorded over 30 albums.[15]

References

External links

• Official website