Whiffenpoofs '25 Come to Scarsdale

Yale's famed and illustrious a capella singing group, The Whiffenpoofs, will present a concert in Scarsdale, N.Y., Friday, April 25, 2025.

The group will sing some of its traditional favorites, as well as tunes from a contemporary repertoire. Recordings from the concert will be included in a planned Spotify album later. 

The Whiffs '25 are currently on tour at venues in New York and Connecticut. Concerts this year have taken the group to California, Florida and Mexico. Each year, the group tours sites across the world after the school year. The Whiffs '24 held concerts in Brazil, Turkey, Croatia, South Afria, and many other countries last summer.

The Whiffs '25 include Scarsdale native Josh Bock '25, who acts as the group's business manager. 

The group started singing in 2009 and has included women since 2018. The Whiffs' 20 appeared in concert in White Plains, October, 2019, at the Grace Episcopal Church. 

The Scarsdale Congregational Church (1 Heathcote Road) will host the April 25 concert at 6 pm. For more information and to purchase tickets, click Scarsdale-Whiffs.

Scarsdale native Josh Bock '25

Yale Alumni College: Celebrating Opera

 

Yale professor Dan Egan will teach a six-week seminar for Yale alumni in Westchester in March-April, 2025 (Yale photo)

Yale Alumni College will sponsor and present a six-week course in Rye, N.Y., for Westchester alumni, "Celebrating Opera: Sight, Sound and Emotion," taught by Yale professor Dan Egan from the Yale School of Music on Mondays at 4-6 pm from March 10-April 14. Alumni in the area are invited to join the course and should register by clicking the link below. The sessions will be held at the The Osborn in Rye, 101 Theal Road.   As an amalgam of the arts, opera offers multiple points of entry for the audience, but ultimately, the art form is defined by its music. Changing attitudes across time toward opera’s place in the cultural discussion have precipitated an array of storytelling strategies as well as the incursion of political perspectives, theatrical innovations, and new musical styles.  This six-week course will explore opera from multiple eras with a focus on both its fundamental musical perspective as well as its larger cultural significance.   The session will begin by exploring “why we love opera” with excerpts from multiple eras, composers, and operatic styles of storytelling. Subsequent sessions will build on this foundation with a guided discussion of a single opera and/or compositional style each week. A video performance will be assigned for each class to ensure that everyone has had a similar opportunity to experience the week’s topic before class.   The course is open to anyone interested in opera, from the dabbler to the devotée. Various levels of knowledge and analytical acuity will be welcome additions to discussion. No singing will be required. A graduate of the School of Music, Prof. Egan is a lecturer and has been an advisor to undergraduates for projects and programs in music and theater. He teaches courses and has led special programs in the history of Americal musical theater and the work of composer Stephen Sondheim. He has spoken frequently at Yale alumni events and Yale reunions.  Prof. Egan has performed at the New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic and the Manhattan Theater Club. He has sung on recordings with the New York City Opera.

YACOL Rye-Celebrating Opera: Sight, Sound, and Emotion

Holidays, 2021

 

Despite continuing apprehension around new variants of CoVID-19, the Yale Club of New York does its part to boost holiday moods in 2021. The Club traditionally decorates itself inside and outside. Attached scaffolding this year gives it an excuse to surround itself with slim, glistening Christmas trees, as it joins its Manhattan neighbors in presenting the City at its decorative best. 

Yale Singing Alums

Opportunity for Yale Singing Alums

Are you interested in gathering with other Yale singing alums from the Glee Club, a cappella groups, Yale Russian Chorus, Slavic Chorus and other groups?

In Washington,  D.C., and other cities, the Yale Glee Club and singing group alumni have participated in a wide variety of singing opportunities:

• Informal evenings around a piano singing through favorite songs
• Hosting the Yale Glee Club (and singing a set of songs at the concert as well as singing with the YGC)
• Joining together for a local singing dinner
• Hosting a cappella jamborees
• Finding joyful ways to reconnect through singing.

If you sang at Yale in any group and are interested in being on an e-mail list, please send an email to clayk@aya.yale.edu.

The Glee Club is very interested in coming to Greenwich for a concert next year, so we are hoping to gather a local chorus of singers who would like to join in (which usually means three rehearsals of fairly familiar songs--any yodelers out there?).

Clay Kaufman

YWAA, Cyrano at Boscobel

Murray Biggs, Yale drama expert, returned to deliver a pre-performance lecture to Yale alumni and guests before the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's presentation of Cyrano (YWAA photos).

With summer rushing toward its end, YWAA once again hosted alumni, family and friends at its annual Boscobel outing in Garrison, Sunday evening, Aug. 25. A Shakespeare tragedy or comedy wasn't on tap this year, as it has been in previous years.  The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival performed Cyrano, a loose, modern interpretation of the life of French novelist Cyrano de Bergerac, written by Jason O'Donnell and Brenda Withers. Meredith McDonough directed the production. 

Shakespeare was absent, but long-time Yale lecturer and Shakespeare expert Murray Biggs returned to deliver a pre-performance lecture to rally the Yale guests and give them hints about the evening's story. For the past several years, Biggs has spoken to the Yale group in Boscobel and at similar alumni gatherings across the country.  Rich Fabbro '76, YWAA board member, helped organize the YWAA  evening this year. 

In past years, YWAA has hosted Yale guests for performances of such HVSF productions of Hamlet, Othello, A Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour Lost, All's Well That Ends Well, The Winter's Tale and MacBeth. 

Cyrano at Boscobel, Aug. 25

YWAA will host its annual Boscobel event, Aug. 25, featuring Cyrano, directed by Jason O'Connell. 

As part of its annual outing at Boscobel and featuring productions of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, YWAA will host alumni, family and friends for performance at Cyrano, Sunday, Aug. 25 (7:30 pm) in Garrison.

Yale lecturer Murray Biggs once again will open the events of the day with a pre-performance lecture at 3:30 pm. YWAA guests will then have a chance to have a picnic on the grounds of Boscobel before joining the public to watch actors of the HVSF group present Cyrano.

To purchase tickets for the event and join the affairs of the day, click Boscobel Tickets.  YWAA board member Rich Fabbro '76 is organizing the day's events.

In most years, the YWAA Sunday event often showcases a Shakespearean play.  Last year the Festival performed Richard II.  In 2016, the performers presented a female actress Maria Christina-Oliveras '91, a Yale alumna, in the male role Macbeth. Other "Yale Day at Boscobel" performances in the past included The Winter's Tale, Hamlet, and Othello.

A Yale expert on Shakespeare, Biggs, in his Boscobel lectures, offers insights, special tips, clues, and color before the Yale group watches the evening performance.

This year the August Yale gathering won't see a Shakespeare production. The actor, Jason O'Connell, who will play the part of Cyrano in this year's Cyrano, co-wrote the drama with Brenda Withers.  Meredith McDonough is its director.

Cyrano is O'Connell's loose interpretation of the life and fancies of Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, the 17th century French novelist and playwright. The play chronicles Cyrano's crush, love letters and love interests in Roxanne even as France prepares for war with Spain.

Sunday Songfest in Chappaqua

The Spizzwinks of Yale greeted Yale alumni at the concert by singing the traditional Yale football medley at the a cappella concert in Chappaqua, Feb. 3.  They were joined in concert by Yale's New Blue and by Horace Greeley's Enchords and Quaker Notes (YWAA photos)

Yale singing groups, the Spizzwinks and the New Blue, made a Westchester stopover and joined groups from Horace Greeley High School for a Sunday afternoon a cappella songfest in Chappaqua, Feb. 3. 

The concert, held at the performing arts center at Seven Bridges Middle School, was jointly sponsored by YWAA and Horace Greeley. Proceeds from ticket sales will support the high school's clubs and other extracurricular events. Horace Greeley's Enchords and the Quaker Notes took the stage before the Yale groups sang after intermission. 

All groups performed familiar repertoire tunes, as well as their interpretations of popular songs.  The Spizzwinks of Yale even sang the Yale football medley. And alumnae at the concert joined the New Blue for the final song. 

The program was part of the YWAA music series of inviting Yale groups to perform in Westchester. The Spizzwinks sang in Westchester for the third time since 2013.  The Alley Cats, Red Hot & Blue and the Whiffenpoofs have also visited Westchester in recent years. 

At Horace Greeley, Enchords feature male and female voices singing in original arrangements.  The Quaker Notes is an all-female group on campus. At the concert, they both sang before an enthusiastic crowd of parents, classmates, and Yale alumni and friends. 

The Spizzwinks, who claim to be America's oldest a cappella group on campus (since 1914), sang renditions of "Once in My Life" and "No Regrets" (its traditional final song), as well as other popular songs and the football medley.  The group is headed to Iceland, Seattle and China later this year. 

The New Blue turns 50 years old this year and is Yale's oldest women's organization.  While members of the Spizzwinks and the New Blue hail from different parts of the country (from the Bay Area to Boston), the New Blue includes four from the Westchester area:  Laura Clapp '21 of Scarsdale, Anna-Sophia Boguraev '20 of Bedford, Alice Tao '20 of Tappan, and Allie Larocco '21 of Cold Spring. They had opportunities to sing solos before their own families and friends. 

Yale a cappella tradition calls for Yale a cappella alumni to join the groups for the final song.  In Chappaqua, Yale alumnae B.K. Munguia '75 and Sara Levine sang with the New Blue to conclude the concert. 

Horace Greeley, during the intermission, recognized Julia Rellou for her service to clubs and extracurricular activities at the school. YWAA board members Munguia, Levine, Regina Possavino-Serai '01, and Dan Leonard '76 helped organize the event.  Stacy Jacobs, Tom Witmer, and Priya Ma coordinated at Horace Greeley. 

See below photos of all four groups in performance:  

The New Blue of Yale is Yale's oldest women's organization

Enchords of Horace Greeley kicked off the a cappella songfest in Chappaqua.

Members of Horace Greeley's Quaker Notes and Enchords sang before an enthusiastic crowd of friends, teachers and classmates. 

Above, Enchords and the Quaker Notes in Chappaqua, Feb. 3

The Quaker Notes in Chappaqua, Feb. 3

The Quaker Notes in Chappaqua, Feb. 3

The Quaker Notes in Chappaqua, Feb. 3 

The Quaker Notes in Chappaqua, Feb. 3

Enchords and the Quaker Notes in Chappaqua, Feb. 3

Above, Yale a cappella alumni Sara Levine and Dan Leonard introduce the Yale groups

The Spizzwinks of Yale in Chappaqua, Feb. 3

The Spizzwinks of Yale sing in Chappaqua, Feb. 3

The Spizzwinks of Yale, Feb. 3, Chappaqua

The Spizzwinks of Yale, Feb. 3, Chappaqua

The Yale Spizzwinks in Chappaqua, Feb. 3

The Spizzwinks of Yale, Feb. 3

The New Blue of Yale will celebrate 50 years in 2019

Anna-Sophia Boguraev '20 of Bedford (above, top) sang a solo for New Blue during the concert

Yale's New Blue in Chappaqua, Feb. 3. Alice Tao '20 of Tappan is featured in a solo

The New Blue of Yale, Feb. 3, Chappaqua

Yale alumnae B.K. Munguia and Sara Levine joined the New Blue for the traditional final song

The New Blue of Yale, Feb. 3, Chappaqua

The New Blue of Yale, Feb. 3

Enchords and the Quaker Notes, Feb. 3

The Quaker Notes, Feb. 3, Chappaqua

The Quaker Notes, Feb. 3

Both a cappella groups from Horace Greeley posed as one for a final shot, Feb. 3, Chappaqua

Red, Hot & Blue in Rye, Oct. 19

Yale's Red, Hot & Blue sang at the Osborne in Rye in 2017 (above) and returns for another engagement with the Princeton Wildcats, Friday, Oct. 19, 2019 at 7:15 pm. The concert is free.

Yale's oldest co-ed, a cappella group, Red, Hot & Blue, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year, returns to Westchester in Rye at the Osborne (Retirement Community) Auditorium, Friday, Oct. 19 at 7:15 pm.  Yale alumni, guests and friends of a cappella are invited to attend the concert at no cost.  The Yale singers will be joined by the Princeton Wildcats, Princeton's highly regarded women's a cappella group. 

YWAA board member Bill Nightingale '53 is coordinating the affair.  Both groups from Princeton and Yale will sing selections in jazz, pop and the American songbook.

Red, Hot & Blue has previously sung at the Osborne three other times, including a concert this past March and concerts in 2015 and 2017. The group celebrated its 40th last year with tours to France, Seattle, China and Puerto Rico.  Next semester it plans concerts in Brazil and Washington, D.C.

The Osborn is located at 101 Theall Rd. in Rye.

Maya Lin's Tribute to the Hudson

Maya Lin '81, '86 M.Arch. pays tribute to the Hudson River in an exhibition this fall in Yonkers.

Best known for her Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and known, too, at Yale for her design of the Women's Table, a tribute to women at Yale, Maya Lin '81, '86 M.Arch. will be featured at an exhibition "A River Is a Drawing" in Yonkers from October through January, 2019.

The exhibition at the Hudson River Museum explores and pays homage to the Hudson River. It features several works from Lin, all with themes recognizing the history and importance river or using the river as a background or setting.

The works will be placed in several areas of the museum.  They include drawings and sculptures. Some will feature the Hudson in the background. Some will be representations of the river. Other drawings will include rivers from around the world, along with the Hudson. 

In announcing the project, Lin observes rivers as "fluid moving drawings--delineated and drawn out." She explores not only the river's shape and its flowing, but wants to study its history and "movement in time and space."

Over the next few months, she will publish an exhibition catalog and plans to lecture on the planning and purpose of her work. 

Yonkers is Lin's professional home. In 2014, she and her art-collector husband Daniel Wolf     purchased an old Yonkers jailhouse and converted it into a working studio and gallery near the Hudson River. The panoramic views of the Hudson and the Palisades, she told the Journal News then, were major reasons why they moved to Yonkers. "The breathtaking views from the doorsteps of the Hudson inspires a vision as unique as the building itself."

At Yale, Lin has received an honorary degree and served as a trustee on the Yale Corporation.

For more information about Lin's work in Yonkers, click Hudson River Museum (Yonkers).

Boscobel, 2018: Richard II

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival will perform Richard II at this year's YWAA Boscobel outing, Aug., 19 (HVSF photos)

YWAA returns to Boscobel in Garrison, N.Y., Sunday, Aug.  19, hosting an afternoon of lecture and picnic outing before the evening culminates with a Shakespeare performance of Richard II by the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.  

The afternoon lineup features the pre-show lecture from Yale lecturer Murray Biggs, who for years has prepped Yale alumni and guests with colorful insights and special watch tips before they ventured over to the big white tent at Boscobel for the evening production. 

Yale alumni and guests will also have a chance to lounge on the grounds of Boscobel and observe summertime scenes on the Hudson River shores before the actors take the stage. 

The Murray lecture at the Hastings Center starts at 4:30 pm.  The Richard II performance follows at 7:30 pm (after the picnic).

To purchase tickets for the lecture and performance, click YALE-WESTCHESTER and follow instructions. Or contact YWAA board member Rich Fabbro '76 at 914-391-3707. 

Davis McCallum directs the HSVF's Richard II, and Richard II himself will be portrayed by actress Julia Coffey, not unusual when the HSVF presents its interpretations of Shakespeare's works. 

In early July, Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout called Coffey's performance of the king as "distinctive" while "pivoting from arrogance to desperation so smoothly."   He also praises director McCallum's staging:  "(McCallum) works his usual visual wonders--no director in America is more adept at moving around a big cast."

In years past, YWAA-Boscobel has hosted outings of such performances as The General from America, Macbeth, Othello, The Winter's Tale, All's Well That Ends Well, and Hamlet.  

Six Films That Changed America

YWAA's lecture series resumed in Chappaqua May 29 when Yale's Marc Lapadula spoke on America's most influential movies. (YWAA photos)

Yale screenwriting professor Marc Lapadula came to Westchester May 29 to unveil and explain his list of what he considers as the six most important movies in American history.

Before a Chappaqua audience of 80 Yale alumni, guests and Westchester neighbors, Lapadula outlined his list, explained his rationale, and entertained comments and questions:

The Jazz Singer
I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
The Graduate
Easy Rider
Jaws
Philadelphia

Lapadula has taught film and media studies at Yale for 26 years. His courses also include seminars in playwriting, film analysis, and screenwriting. 

While Lapadula selected movies, YWAA guest lecturer and Yale professor Paul Freedman in 2017 spoke about the 10 restaurants that changed America.

Lapadula's visit (at the Chappaqua Library) was part of the YWAA lecture series, organized by YWAA board member Rich Fabbro '76.

Red, Hot & Blue in Rye

Red, Hot & Blue, the a capaella singing group from Yale, will make a return appearance in concert at the Osborn Auditorium in Rye, Friday, Mar. 2, 2018, at 7:30. The event is free and open to all.

The concert, organized in part by YWAA board director Bill Nightingale '53, will also feature Princeton's Roaring 20 group. The two groups performed at the Osborn last Feb., 2017, and in Dec., 2015. They will sing selections from jazz, pop and the American songbook.

Red, Hot, & Blue is Yale's oldest co-ed singing group, setting an example for Yale's oldest singing group, the Whiffenpoofs, which this month selected for the next school term its first female singer in its history.

In 2017, Red, Hot & Blue celebrated its 40th anniversary with tours in France and Puerto Rico. In 2018, the group sang in Little Rock in January and will spend spring break in Seattle.  In May, it plans a trip to China.

Its current repertoire includes such selections as "Georgia on My Mind," "Blackbird," and "Every time We Say Goodbye."

West Point and Arnold at Boscobel

After the traditional Murray Biggs lecture, YWAA alumni and guests watched The General from America under the tent at Boscobel. (HSVF, YWAA photos)

YWAA returned to Boscobel in Garrison, Aug. 20, in its annual outing with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.  The line-up was familiar.  YWAA invited Westchester alumni, families and friends for a Sunday affair that included a glowing performance under the tent along the Hudson River shoreline, a pre-performance lecture from Yale drama professor Murray Biggs, and a picnic on Boscobel's lush, scenic grounds.

Shakespeare, however, wasn't on the docket this year.  HVSF's 2017 summer schedule squeezed in a performance of The General from America, Richard Nelson's account of Benedict Arnold's defection to the British Army during the Revolutionary War. Penny Metropulos, affiliated with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, directed the play.

For more than 15 summers, Biggs has launched the day with an exuberant lecture about the evening's performance.  The Shakespeare expert this year detoured beyond Shakespeare and provided insights on how the audience should observe a performance about a notorious traitor.  The play, written in the 21st century, features a central character, a general in the U.S. Army, who spends much of the show agonizing over criminal charges from the U.S. side and rationalizing a decision to defect--until he finally crosses over.

Benedict Arnold (played by Chris Thorn, who has otherwise performed in many Shakespeare productions Off-Broadway) limps across the Boscobel stage, fusses with his sister, and barks at his wife.

He debates George Washington (played by long-time HSVF actor Kurt Rhoads) and arranges a meeting at West Point with British Major John Andre--with the hills and greenery of the real West Point looming in the background.

The hushed, dark background of the real Hudson River becomes the setting for the 18th-century fateful meeting between Andre and Arnold--despite the occasional commuter train roaring faintly every 20 minutes or so.

Earlier that day, Biggs lectured to over 40 YWAA guests, refreshing them on the old history lesson and hinting at Davis' humanized portrayal of Arnold. 

Rich Fabbro '76 and Dan Leonard '77 helped organize the day's events, carrying on a YWAA tradition led for many years by Merrell Clark '57 and Bruce Jennings '71.

YWAA's Sunday at Boscobel always includes a picnic on the grounds and moments to absorb the Hudson River scenery. (YWAA photos)

Sidra Bell at the Yale Club, Mar. 15

At Yale, Sidra Bell '01 studied history before deciding on a career in dance.

Greenburgh native Sidra Bell '01, the choreographer who leads her own New York dance company Sidra Bell Dance, will speak on dance innovation at the Yale Club of New York, Wednesday, Mar. 5 at 6:30 pm. Yale alumni, guests, and those interested in the arts and dance are invited to attend. 

A New York Times reviewer once referred to one of her group's performances as "slick, in-your-face intensity."  A Washington Post critic described her choreography as "creepy and comical."  

Bell will discuss her work after a short reception.  At Yale, a resident of Saybrook College, she majored in history before earning an MFA degree from Purchase College. Her dance company has performed around the country and abroad (in Greece, Brazil, Bulgaria, and Germany, among other countries). 

In 2015, she was honored by ArtsWestchester as one of the top 50 artists who work in or are from Westchester. 

"It's not about the steps," she once told an interviewer. "It's the ideas behind the steps."

Sidra Bell '01 will speak on dance innovation and contemporary dance at the Yale Club of New York, Mar. 15