1995 - 1996
The fifth year of the group saw it grow to its largest size ever, 17 members. Auditions brought Katy H and Kristin S to join Ryan and Radhika on soprano, the incredibly powerful voice of Fez A and soulful stylings of Natalie H joining Zareen and Emma on alto, Loren C on high tenor, Will B on second tenor, and Ben L, the deepest bass in Harmonics history to join Bob. Shortly afterwards, Jonathan P joined as bass/baritone. After fall quarter, Zach F came back from Eastern Europe to sing bass, and Christine N rejoined as well, moving up to mezzo-soprano.
Spring Tour this year was to the east coast, where we sang with the Penn Pennyloafers, the Princeton Wildcats (who we have since sung with again), Brandeis Spur of the Moment, the Tufts Amalgamates, Boston University Terpsichore, the Wheaton Gentleman Callers, and with Bob's first group, the Dartmouth Dodecaphonics. It was a homecoming of sorts for him. The Harmonics also spent a night on the cold and miserable floor of one (too) small room somewhere in Philadelphia, which has gone down in group folklore as hell night. Folklore is too kind. However, all told Spring Tour was a fabulous success, and exposed the Harmonics to many other styles of a cappella and provided a powerful bonding experience (which led to the extremely popular 'Don't Touch Unless Otherwise Instructed' signs).
The Harmonics also sang with two professional a cappella groups this year. They did a show the House Jacks at CSU Hayward, and sang with M-PACT! in a joint show with Counterpoint in Kresge Auditorium, the day after M-PACT won the 1996 Harmony Sweepstakes.
This year Matthew became the primary arranger for the group, turning out four new scores. Mainstays in the group's repertoire were Heat of the Moment, Mack the Knife, Walking on Broken Glass, and December 1963. The Harmonics continued to achieve firsts this year, making their first appearance in the National Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, where Zareen P won runner-up for best soloist on Change. The Harmonics also did their first shows with groups from other schools, welcoming the Duke Pitchforks and the Williams Ephlats to Stanford. Also, this year was the first that the Harmonics rented out one of the major auditoriums, Annenberg, for our Muppet themed spring show. The poster model this year was Pat Hurley.
The Harmonics from this year were so close that most decided to return, including six of the seven freshmen. Matthew was elected director in his senior year, and was already gearing up for the Harmonics next cd, tentatively titled 'Flaming Avocados in Purgatory.'