BRATTLEBORO — Some of the finest undergraduate singing groups in the nation will perform at the Latchis Theater on Saturday, Feb. 4, at 7:30 p.m., in Brattleboro's 14th annual Collegiate A Cappella Concert.
A benefit for the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, the concert will feature the legendary Yale Whiffenpoofs, the Tufts Beelzebubs, Tufts Amalgamates, University of Maine Renaissance, Middlebury Dissipated Eight, and University of Vermont Cat's Meow.
Founded in 1909, the all-male Yale Whiffenpoofs consists of seniors who perform extensively throughout the school year and go on a three-month world tour in the summer.
Famous Whiffenpoofs alumni include the composer and songwriter Cole Porter and U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, father of President George H.W. Bush and grandfather of President George W. Bush. The current iteration of the Whiffenpoofs counts among its ranks tenor Benson May, who grew up in Putney and graduated from Brattleboro Union High School.
Also, Museum & Art Center Director and concert emcee Danny Lichtenfeld is an alumnus of the Tufts Beelzebubs.
Three of the four other groups slated to perform on Feb. 4 also feature singers who grew up in or around Brattleboro, starred in local musical productions, and graduated from high school in the area: Aurora Phillips is attending Tufts, Julia Waldron is at the University of Maine, and Will “Salty” Pennington-FitzGerald is at Middlebury.
“Giving these kids a chance to return to their hometown and strut their stuff in front of a sold-out crowd is one of the best things about this event,” Lichtenfeld said. “It's exactly what former producer Dede Cummings envisioned when she founded this concert 14 years ago."