Dutifully, Karan Mathur tells me that Mixed Company, or MixedCo, is Stanford’s oldest coed a cappella group. But his passion, along with that of co-president Matt Baiza, clearly lies with Mixed Co’s modern form: namely, its reputation as a tight-knit community of diverse individuals. From over 100 applicants, the singing group accepted eight new members this year, and the selection process is clearly geared toward chemistry. “It’s important to keep a really strong group dynamic,” Baiza says. “It’s more than just musical ability.” For me, the 30th anniversary concert confirmed his sentiments: Mixed Company is a family.
Last weekend, the group’s 30th anniversary celebration convened with over 100 MixedCo alumni visiting campus during Homecoming Weekend for an intergenerational concert. The setlist appropriately spanned decades, from a quirky rendition of “Road to Nowhere” by the classes of ‘85-’90, to the contemporary “Shut Up and Dance.” Finally, every member rushed on stage for a timeless (albeit oversized) performance of the group’s anthem, “Leland’s Island” (memorable: “and we’ll have fun fun fun till our daddies take tuition away”). Though the older groups may have lost some of their previous musical lustor, the event didn’t hinge on vocal quality. Instead, it succeeded on anecdotes about initiation, jokes about members who had gotten married and campy comedy sketches. MixedCo was performing a family reunion.
That said, someone deserves a shoutout for the incomparable performance of “Black and Gold” by the classes of ’10-’15. Or — even better — everyone does. I’d never heard MixedCo sound better, or perform more compellingly, than with an army of flawless harmonizers behind Nicholas Chen ‘13, alumni president, on lead.
Maybe these moments — Chen’s soulful croon over a chord of 30 voices — are what Baiza means when he explains the MixedCo vision. Asked about the group’s Singing in Service program, which has taken the group to schools in Hawaii and Mexico and elsewhere, he tells me: “[It’s] sharing the ability to make music.” Drawing from his own experience, Baiza suggests, “being part of a musical group and in school really affects your academic outlook, and makes you invested.” Mathur jumps in to riff on the value of arts, affirming, “music is something everyone universally understands.”
If there’s a unity in 30 years of MixedCo, outside of its traditions, it stems from this understated view of music. Indeed, the MixedCo philosophy suggests music can be funny or grand or serious or understated, depending on the interplay of its producers, and that music is best — it inspires, it unifies — when those contributors are numerous, diverse and collaborative. For proof, Baiza and Mathur suggest, I need only look at the talented team they’ve assembled. After all, who would imagine cohesion among such mixed company?
Contact Joshua Seawell at jseawell ‘at’ stanford.edu.