When Sam Findlen-Golden ’20 of Amherst, Mass., first started at �ֲ���ý, he wanted to try anything and everything that was available to him. “Just because it’s an option,” he says.

Since then, as he’s learned more about what interests him, he’s let go of some pursuits while taking a deeper dive into others — including both mathematics and the performing arts.

A mathematics major and French minor, he’s a member of the a cappella group Crosstones and the music director of the Robinson Players, the student theater company.

Video by Theophil Syslo.

For Findlen-Golden, math serves as an organizing principle in his life.  “Math manages to work its way into a lot of places that I didn’t expect,” he says. “It can be math in the perspective of music or through the perspective of history and education, which is a lot of what I’ve done here outside of academics.”

As he completes his math major, Findlen-Golden has similarly dived deep into biomathematics, learning how best to model the spread of diseases. Along the way, he’s learned how to embrace the more subjective side of his discipline.

Sam Findlen-Golden ’20 (left) and El Khansaa Kaddioui ’20 of Elhajeb, Morocco, talk with Associate Professor of Mathematics Meredith Greer during their biomathematics seminar in Hathorn Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

“I’ve always been a very pure mathematician: I like working with straight numbers,” he explains. In the past, “whenever it gets into interpretability, like modeling complex behaviors or patterns in nature, I’ve always been a little intimidated because as much as I enjoy being creative, I also like things that have objective truth to them. There’s a bit of a simplicity in that.”

Yet once again, math has shown him a path, and he’s discovering new satisfaction as he’s explored biomathematics in his senior year, including epidemiology and disease spread.

“It’s shown me that there can be this beautiful blend of interpretability and subjectivity to something that is very objective. You have this objective language to describe subjective opinions and subjective patterns that can be modeled, interpreted in various ways.”

At 9 p.m. on a Monday night, a hush fell over a darkened Memorial Commons. Then lights flashed on and the harmonies of a cappella filled the room.

The first big a cappella concert of the year, on the first day of Winter Carnival, featured a crowd-pleasing confluence of vocal talent and pop favorites.

The energy was reciprocated: Friends sang for friends in the audience, and friends cheered on their crooning friends.

“I found a group of brothers.”

For Walter Washington ’19 of Fleetwood, N.Y., singing with the Deansmen is central to being a �ֲ���ý student.

“I joined my sophomore year after feeling a little bit weird about being at �ֲ���ý and not really having that sense of community,” said Washington, who is also student government president. “So I found a group of brothers and knew from then on that whatever is going on, throughout the night they got my back.”

“A cappella is pretty amazing because it brings people together from all different walks of life,” said Sophie Mortman ’18 of Sharon, Conn., a member of Take Note.

For the high notes of the Winter Carnival a capella concert, take a look — and a listen.

The Deansmen

“If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys

The Merimanders

Mashup of “No Scrubs” by TLC and “No” by Meghan Trainor

TakeNote

“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen

The Manic Optimists

“Dreaming with a Broken Heart” by John Mayer

The Crosstones

“Wild Things” by Alessia Cara

https://vimeo.com/252595305

The �ֲ���ý community comprises many smaller ones, and no community harmonizes better than �����������������.

On Wednesday night, the Crosstones, one of �ֲ���ý’ half dozen a cappella groups, rehearsed in the Olin Arts center, and this camaraderie was in full voice.

“Crosstones are my favorite part about �ֲ���ý,” says Katie Allard ’19 of Ridgewood, N.J. “If I could have rehearsal 24/7, I would. It’s just like one big family.”

Newcomer Sam Findlen-Golden ’20 of Amherst, Mass., thoroughly enjoys being part of the bass section. “It’s a blast. We get all the low notes in the song and get to make all the ‘dum dum’ noises.” Singing with the group has set a sweet tone for his first year. “It was the first big thing I got into here and it’s been a formative thing in terms of going through my first year,” he says.

Luke McNabb '17 of Glastonbury, Conn., belts out the high notes in his solo of Aerosmith's "Dream On."

Maddie McLean '17 of Hood River, Ore., conducts the group.

After the group moves to an Olin classroom, Madeline Clark '20 of McLean, Va., works with her section on a challenging part of a song.

Members of the Manic Optimists, done with their own rehearsal elsewhere in Olin, watch and listen from the other side of the glass doors.

Sam Findlen-Golden '20 of Amherst, Mass., works to blend with fellow bass singers.

The group began rehearsal in a spot favored by ����������������� groups, thanks to its reverberant acoustics: the lobby between the closed doors of the �ֲ���ý Museum of Art and the rest of Olin, known as the glass box.

There, they ran through a few songs at full strength. While they were performing, members of the Manic Optimists, who had finished their own rehearsal elsewhere in Olin, gathered on the other side of the glass doors to watch and listen.

Here’s a clip from the Crosstones’ rendition of “All These Things That I’ve Done.”

Co-president Maddie McLean ’17 of Hood River, Ore., enjoys the role that music plays at �ֲ���ý. It’s a very inclusive, fun, and kind community. We all support each other and we all go to each other’s concerts,” she said. Declan Chu ’17 of Winthrop, Maine, adds,  “We push each other to be better.”

Chu elaborates on the impact of �ֲ���ý �����������������. “It doesn’t just end at �ֲ���ý. I’m still in contact with alums from the Man Ops and TakeNote who were seniors when I was a freshman. And it’s really nice to have that network,” he says, pausing to laugh, “as a senior trying to get employed.”

McLean sums it up: “You usually leave this rehearsal exhausted, but really happy with what you did.”

�ֲ���ý dancers rehearse for a October 2014 performance. (Sarah Crosby/�ֲ���ý College)

Dancers, actors, musicians and improv comics offer a late afternoon smorgasbord of performing arts in the annual �ֲ���ý Arts in Action concert at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, in �ֲ���ý College’s Schaeffer Theatre, 329 College St.

Coordinated by the Robinson Players, �ֲ���ý’s student-run theater organization, with help from other student clubs and from Hannah Miller ’14, formerly a stage manager for �ֲ���ý dance, the event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6161.

Performers include the Robinson Players; members of the Dynasty Step Team and the �ֲ���ý Dance Club; the Crosstones and TakeNote a cappella singers; and Strange Bedfellows, an improv comedy troupe.

The performance “is an opportunity for the broader community to hang out in a relaxed environment and witness a large variety of art performed by students,” says Miller, now an academic administrative assistant at �ֲ���ý.

The Whiffenpoofs. Nimal Eames-Scott is shown at front center. (Courtesy of the Whiffenpoofs)

The Whiffenpoofs of Yale University, the country’s oldest collegiate a cappella group, perform at �ֲ���ý College at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 3, in the Gomes Chapel, 275 College St.

The singers include Nimal Eames-Scott, a 2010 graduate of Lewiston High School and the son of �ֲ���ý anthropology professor Elizabeth Eames.

Tickets cost $20 for the general public and $10 for students, available at . For more information, please call 570-294-7957.

The Whiffenpoofs began in 1909 as a senior quartet that met for weekly concerts at a campus tavern. The group made its mark on mainstream culture early on with their signature “Whiffenpoof Song,” an amusing adaptation of a Rudyard Kipling poem by Yale students Meade Minnigerode and George S. Pomeroy.

Published as sheet music the year of the quartet’s founding, “The Whiffenpoof Song” became a hit for Rudy Vallee in 1927 and in 1947 for Bing Crosby. Numerous other artists have recorded it, including Elvis Presley, Count Basie and the Statler Brothers, and it has turned up in movies including 12 O’Clock High with Gregory Peck.

For more than a century, the Yale vocal group has ended every concert with the song as a celebration of their brotherhood and tradition.

Today, the group is composed of 14 senior Yale men who are selected annually. The singers take the year off from school and devote the time to singing and traveling with the group.

Today the “Whiffs” continue their tradition with more than 200 performances each year in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the White House. Their Whiffenpoofs’ repertoire covers a wide diversity, from original compositions to hits from every decade since their beginning.

The group often pays tribute to Whiffenpoof alumnus Cole Porter, and contemporary pop also finds its way into the group’s programs.

The Whiffenpoofs have been featured on various television programs including “Saturday Night Live,” “The Sing Off,” “Today,” “60 Minutes,” “Jeopardy!” and most recently on the fourth-season finale of the TV hit “Glee.” Straight from a spring tour in South America, the Whiffs are back on the East Coast before embarking on a world tour.

The 2011 Lessons and Carols event. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

�ֲ���ý holds its annual Service of Lessons and Carols for the Advent season of the Christian faith at 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, in the Peter J. Gomes Chapel, 275 College St.

Sponsored by �ֲ���ý’ Multifaith Chaplaincy, the service is open to the community. For more information, please call 207-786-8272.

�ֲ���ý’ Service of Lessons and Carols draws on the traditional structure of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, telling the story of the birth of Jesus through traditional readings from Scripture mixed with contemporary prose. Christmas hymns and musical performances by college vocal and instrumental groups round out the service.

The service will be led by Acting Multifaith Chaplain Emily Wright-Magoon and Acting Associate Multifaith Chaplain Raymond Clothier. Musical performers will include the Three Point Jazz Trio, Chase the Fiddlers, the College Choir, the Gospelaires and several a cappella ensembles: the Crosstones, the Deansmen, the Manic Optimists, the Merimanders and Take Note.

At 8:15 on Halloween morning, a new status on the college’s Facebook page shared a link to a �ֲ���ý student parody of the uber-viral “What Does the Fox Say?” video.

Thousands of views later, “What Does the Bobcat Say,” exemplifies the big lesson about creating a successful video parody, says the blog Social Media for Colleges.

Through Nov. 10, views of “What Does the Bobcat Say” total more than 17,700.

“You can do it, but you damn well better do a fantastic job,” writes Joe Kuffner.

Among the many “Fox” parody videos in circulation, he concludes, the �ֲ���ý version “might be the best one!”

What Does the Bobcat Say

While the �ֲ���ý Communications Office provided the lyrics and production, all the talent came from students: the a cappella Crosstones and �ֲ���ý Dance Company dancers.

The Crosstones created the musical arrangement, a challenge that fit the “you better do a fantastic job” category.

“It was a daunting task to take such a recognizable song and reproduce it with only 13 voices,” says the group’s musical director, Catherine Strauch ’14 of Exeter, Maine. “It’s such a popular song, so lots of people would notice if it’s not done correctly.”

She did the arrangement of the “popular, ridiculous song,” but the group deserves most of the credit, Strauch says. “The Crosstones are a cohesive and incredibly talented group, so I didn’t feel limited by what I could or couldn’t put in the arrangement.”

Strauch presented the arrangement two days before recording the song, “and we had it down by the end of rehearsal that day.”

�ֲ���ý Communications writer Tory Stanton, who coordinated the project, tells the Portland Press Herald that “we just wanted to showcase the fun, spirit and talent of our students. They work hard, but they know how to have fun. We basically asked them ‘Can you do this?’ But we had no idea how far they would take it.”

The fun, says Stauch, “was to create something that could benefit �ֲ���ý as a whole.”

Coverage:

Mikey Arsnow ’14 is a member of the Deansmen. Here he explains the dynamic within �ֲ���ý’ oldest all-male a cappella group.