Joyce’s Story

“When I arrived at Stanford as a freshman in the Fall of 1977 I was surprised to find out that Stanford did not have a long tradition of a cappella singing groups like the East Coast Ivies. I had been a member of an a cappella singing group in high school and had planned to do the same in college. I was astonished, to say the least, to discover that the only a cappella singing group on campus was all male, the Mendicants. That was it!  After my freshman year I decided that I really missed the experience of singing with an a cappella singing group and I knew that there were talented women on campus that would be interested in participating. Linda Chin was in the Stanford Chorale with me and we also both lived in the German language theme House (Haus Mitteleuropa). I asked Linda if she would be interested in starting a female a cappella singing group and she was intrigued. We asked several of the Mendicants for organizational and auditioning ideas, we spread the word about starting the group among other female singers, we put up posters, we had auditions in the basement of Dinkelspiel, we selected 12 women and Counterpoint was born. The name is based on counterpoint baroque music like Bach's music. Our debut performance was in the Spring of 1979. We received an award for Most Innovative Student Project of the Year for the founding of Counterpoint - and now more than 45 years later Stanford definitely has a tradition of multiple a cappella singing groups.”  

Linda’s Story

“I had never sung in a choral group until Stanford and had no vocal training, but I’d always wanted to sing. I joined the Glee Club as a tenor (!!!) and was encouraged by two Mendicants to try out for the choir and then for Chorale, where I met Joyce. We both were disappointed that there was no women’s choral group and Joyce had all the necessary musical expertise…and I was happy to handle more of the administrative side of things - a great partnership. She had the a cappella vision - I was just happy to sing! And we conveniently lived together at Haus Mitteleuropa our sophomore year so it was easy to coordinate our efforts.”