Yale University's Spizzwinks (?) to perform in Oakland, Fox Chapel
They hail from all over the world and gathered in a Monroeville living room on Wednesday night.
Representing four continents, their voices blended as they rehearsed songs in Pittsburgh — a city the vast majority of them have never visited.
Traveling the globe is one of the beautiful aspects of belonging to the Spizzwinks (?) a cappella group — one that performs without instrumental accompaniment — for Yale University in New Haven, Conn.
The group incorporates humor into its performances. The name is fun, too. Urban legend has it that it came to be when postmaster Frank Johnson in Iowa proclaimed that a corn blight was the handiwork of an insect known as the spizzwink. When thinking of a name for the group, a student from Iowa recalled the name spizzwink. The question mark in parentheses came when the Yale Daily News, the nation’s oldest college daily newspaper, had a story about the group. Editors placed a ( ?) on a story more than a century ago, because the staff wasn’t sure how to spell it.
It stuck.
“Every Spizzwink will travel to all six inhabited continents and their hometown during their three years in the group, with travel and lodging funded entirely by our annual performance schedule,” said junior Giri Viswanathan of Monroeville, whose family is hosting the group during their time here.
Viswanathan is a 2020 graduate of Shady Side Academy. He is one of 17 members of the 110-year-old group. The member from the farthest away hails from Nigeria.
For several days, they will perform throughout the city. Some are private concerts. On Thursday, one of the stops was UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in Lawrenceville.
The Spizzwinks (?) are composed entirely of full-time undergraduate students. The group has a repertoire of more than 600 arrangements of songs that members have added their own flair to over the decades. They perform annually at events such as the Harvard-Yale football game, university dinners, admissions events, first-year orientation and at Mory’s Temple Bar.
They have performed at Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, and the historic Kennedy Center in New York. They’ve sung in Beijing, Santiago, and in Istanbul and Ecuador.
“We maintain a robust touring schedule and that includes our hometown,” said Viswanathan, who helped schedule the local performances. “That is what we call the Spizzwinks (?) Promise.”
That promise was kept for Viswanathan, who said collegiate a cappella isn’t super common in Pittsburgh and he thinks this will be fun for other Pittsburghers to learn more about.
The university has 17 different a cappella groups. Interested singers (first-year students, sophomores and juniors) attend open auditions. An email is sent and once they accept they wait for a knock at their door and then go knocking on other member’s doors — all the time singing.
It’s called “tap night.”
Adam McPhail, a junior from Rochester, Minn., who has been singing since middle school, said the repertoire of songs and the people are so diverse.
“That is what I love about this group,” McPhail said.
Jiayang Jin, of Shanghai, who is in his first year (at Yale, the terms freshman or freshmen have been changed to first year, which is more gender-neutral), started his musical career as a pianist at age 5. He said being a member is easily the most exciting part of his college experience so far and that the travel aspect is huge.
“It is 17 voices that are part of the legacy of this group,” Jin said. “Being part of all of this is a point of pride. It has such a storied past.”
It is a completely student-run organization and they get funding from donations and support from alumni, in addition to charging for some events.
They sing music from the Great American Song Book and tunes from every genre and time period using different soloists. They sing songs by the Beatles, Ed Sheeran, Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra. On Wednesday night, they sang “Trouble Maker,” “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” and their newest, “Spaceman” by The Killers.
“It’s a great way to decompress,” said Viswanathan, who is studying global affairs and is on a pre-med track, as he stood in his family’s living room surrounded by his friends. “I feel like I always need something musical in my head. This is good, quality music and an excellent experience. I am so happy to bring some music back to my home town. There is something beautiful when it all comes together and all harmonies lock in. It’s a magical experience.”
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a TribLive reporter covering the region's diverse culinary scene and unique homes. She writes features about interesting people. The Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist began her career as a sports reporter. She has been with the Trib for 26 years and is the author of "A Daughter's Promise." She can be reached at jharrop@triblive.com.
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