St. Matthew’s Music Guild will host Harvard Din & Tonics at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, January 10, at St. Matthew’s Church, 1031 Bienveneda Avenue.
The Din & Tonics are Harvard University’s signature jazz a cappella singing group, with a repertoire centered on the American jazz standards of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
These Harvard scholars perform in white tie, tails, and lime green socks and have a reputation for their impeccable musicality, snappy choreography, and hilarious antics.
The Dins began as the Dunster Dunces in 1946. They performed around the Harvard campus until the 1960s, eventually leaving behind a treasury of barbershop and jazz arrangements that would later form the basis of the Din & Tonics’ repertoire.
In 1979, a small group of undergraduates founded a new a cappella group at the Phillips Brooks House in Harvard Yard. Formed as a public service activity of the Phillips Brooks House Association (Harvard’s central service organization), the Harvard Din & Tonics began to perform for the university community and local charitable organizations.
After one particularly successful performance in the Dunster House dining hall, the group was presented with the Dunces’ collection of sheet music and recordings.
Starting as an all-male ensemble, the group admitted its first female in 2018, and a second in 2019.
The Din & Tonics are recognized as one of the world’s finest collegiate a cappella groups, and have enjoyed a global audience while remaining committed to public service and to the Harvard community.
They have produced 19 albums, the first was In the Beginning (1983) and the most recent was Zest (2024).
The Dins have sung the United States national anthem for the Boston Celtics, the Boston Bruins, the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, the San Francisco Giants, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the PGA’s Ryder Cup, US embassies around the world, and countless other audiences.
Tickets: $35 general public and Music Guild $28 subscribers with discount code pay $28. Subscribers may also purchase discounted tickets the night of the concert by presenting their season pass.click here.