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WHIFFENPOOFS OF YALE VISIT PHOENIX SUNDAY

Presented by Whiffenpoofs of Yale and Phoenix Theatre at Phoenix Theatre

January 15, 2012

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The Whiffenpoofs of Yale, finalists on NBC’s THE SING OFF, and the world’s oldest and best-known collegiate a cappella singing group, will appear in a special concert at Phoenix Theatre this Sunday, January 15, at 7:00 PM. The world-renowned Phoenix Boys Choir will be special gusts.

THE WHIFFENPOOFS
Each year, fourteen of the finest male singers in Yale's senior class are chosen to be members of the Whiffenpoofs, the world's oldest and best-known collegiate a cappella group.The “Whiffs” perform over 200 concerts around the world at a wide range of venues including large concert halls, private events, country clubs, schools, and churches. The group has performed for the likes of Presidents Obama, Clinton, Bush I and II, and Reagan, Mother Teresa, and the Dalai Lama, in venues such as The White House (within the last month!), Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center, for events such as The World Series, SNL, The West Wing, and more.

The concert will feature a diverse repertoire that contains everything from traditional college songs to original compositions to hits from every decade.

The Phoenix Boys Choir engages singers ages 9-14 in a program that combines the joy of performance with musical education, and teaches the values of discipline and teamwork. Sunday’s concert will feature singers from the Tour Choir, the top Phoenix Boys Choir ensemble, which toured to Venice, Munich, Vienna, the Balkan countries and the Adriatic Coast last summer, and in the west coast tour of the arena presentation of THE LORD OF THE RINGS with the Munich Symphony last fall.

A Brief History of the Whiffenpoofs
More than 100 years ago, on a frosty January night in New Haven, Connecticut, five of the Yale Glee Club’s best singers convened at Mory’s Temple Bar to escape the cold. Louis Linder, the tavern’s barkeep and a music aficionado, welcomed them in, beginning an institution that survives to this day.

Of those original five singers, four were members of the Glee Club’s prestigious Varsity Quartet, a group that sang together regularly at various alumni events. Unwilling to restrict themselves to performances at public functions, the group began to meet on a weekly basis at Mory’s, where they improvised harmonies to the songs they loved so well. These weekly meetings soon became a hallowed tradition.

As their fame on campus grew, the quintet began their search for a name. Denton ‘Goat’ Fowler, tickled by a joke featuring a mythical dragonfish named the Whiffenpoof, suggested the name to his companions, who found the name an apt reflection of the atmosphere of levity that accompanied the group’s gatherings. The word quickly caught on with the group’s admirers, and the name stuck.

In the years since, each generation of Whiffenpoofs have taken up the mantle of their forebears. For more than one century of songsters, the name, the song, and the weekly date at Mory’s have remained inviolate traditions that continue to bind us together.

We are poor little lambs who have lost our way,
Baa, baa, baa
We are little black sheep who have gone astray,
Baa, baa, baa
Gentleman songsters off on a spree,
damned from here to eternity.
God have mercy on such as we,
Baa, baa, baa

– from The Whiffenpoof Song