Ivy League glee club goes co-ed
HARTFORD, Conn. — Leaders of the Whiffenpoofs, Yale University’s world-famous glee club, say their sound isn’t changing, but they are ending their more than century-old tradition of being a male only a cappella ensemble.
The Whiffs, as they are known, and Yale’s senior women’s a cappella group, Whim ‘n Rhythm, issued a joint announcement on Feb. 1 that tryouts for both groups will now be open to all rising seniors, including transgender students.
The move, they say is designed to give more people access, to what can be life-changing travel opportunities and music industry contacts that come with being a member of the nation’s oldest collegiate a cappella group.
“Both Whim ‘n Rhythm and the Whiffenpoofs acknowledge the transgender, gender- nonbinary and gender-nonconforming members in our community, and understand that they feel unseen within the current paradigm of ‘all-male’ versus ‘all-female’ senior a cappella,” the groups wrote.
But, the ensembles say they aren’t changing their sound. The 14-member Whiffenpoofs, a group formed in 1909, will continue to comprise tenor, baritone and bass voices, and the Whims will continue to be for sopranos and altos.
Auditions, which are conducted by members of the current ensembles, were held recently in New York and will continue through the upcoming week, said Kenyon Duncan, the Whiffenpoofs’ music director.
The change has been under consideration for several years and was made after a year of surveying alumni and the student body at the Ivy League college in New Haven, Connecticut, Duncan said.
“There is a lot of emotion there,” said Rich Johnson, who sang with the Whiffenpoofs in 1981 and is president of the alumni association. “There are some who think it’s long overdue. Others think it should never happen because, ‘My experience was perfect and I don’t want you to disrupt my memory of the Whiffenpoofs by making it coed.’ And then, there is every opinion in between.”
The Whiffenpoofs decision, he said, is important because of the group’s prestige as the oldest such collegiate group in the nation. The ensemble tours the world and has access to famous and powerful Yale alumni.
They have literally been the music of the old boys’ club, he said, holding regular concerts for over 100 years at Mory’s Temple Bar, an eatery frequented by a who’s who of the Yale elite.