The Harvard Krokodiloes ("The Kroks") are Harvard University's oldest a cappella singing group, founded in 1946. The group consists of twelve tuxedo-clad undergraduates, and they sing songs from the Great American Songbook and beyond.[1]
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The group has performed on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Good Morning America, National Public Radio, and on numerous international national television programs.[2] Every January, the Krokodiloes travel across the USA singing for various private and public concerts, and each summer, the Krokodiloes travel around the world on an eleven-week, six-continent tour. They have recorded 31 albums.
They derive their name from the ancient Greek word for crocodile, krokodilos. The group's motto is Nunc Est Cantandum, or “Now is the time to sing.”[2]
The Kroks were founded in 1946, when four members of the Hasty Pudding Club at 12 Holyoke Street, popular for its drag musical theatre productions, began singing popular hits of their time in four-part harmony.[1]
The Krokodiloes have performed around the world for hosts including Ella Fitzgerald, Princess Grace of Monaco, Princess Caroline of Monaco, the Aga Khan, and King Bhumibol of Thailand. They had a particularly close relationship with Leonard Bernstein, who became friends with the group first in 1973, when he composed a setting to an E. E. Cummings poem "if you can't eat." In 1983 Bernstein wrote an original song for the group, "Screwed On Wrong," and provided an introductory letter that helped launch the group's first annual international summer tour.[3]
Since 1989 the group has appeared four times at Carnegie Hall, debuting there to a sold-out audience in 1989 at a concert to benefit world hunger, in the spring of 1995 in an American Red Cross benefit, in May 1998 in a concert for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and most recently at Zankel Hall in March 2008.[4]
In 1993, the Kroks performed as the opening act at the New England Inaugural Ball celebrating the inauguration of US President Bill Clinton.[5]
In 1997, the Kroks performed at the June 30 Hong Kong handover ceremonies commemorating the return of Hong Kong to China.[6]
