January 3, 2026 2:00pm

The Emerson Center - 1590 27th Ave, Vero Beach, FL 32960

Yale Spizzwinks
Yale SpizzwinksEnsemble

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

The critically acclaimed and world famous Spizzwinks return to Vero Beach to present a fun and exciting program. Recent Spizzwink performances include audiences at ESPN, Carnegie Hall, Disney World, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Severance Hall, and the White House. Maintaining a broad repertoire of exclusively original arrangements from the past 112 years – jazz standards, ballads, show tunes, pop and rock music, and humorous numbers – the Spizzwinks are sure to please. No Spizzwinks performance would be complete, however, without a generous dose of our choreography and unique brand of humor. It is this perfect blend of humor, musicality and showmanship that leaves audiences the world over begging for more. In recent years, their fan club has grown to include Senator John Kerry, Magic Johnson, Henry Kissinger, Kelsey Grammer, George Pataki, and Fred Savage.  The Spizzwinks(?) are America and the world’s oldest underclassman a cappella group. In an age before iPods or reality TV, when the only way to hear singing without instruments was in the shower, the Spizzwinks showed the world that a bunch of college guys sporting sweet harmonies and a perplexing name was a winning combination. That’s right – they liked a cappella before it was cool.  Don't miss the returning Yale Spizzwinks in Concert!

TICKET INFORMATION

TICKET RESERVATIONS ARE NOW OPEN! Season passholders will have reserved seats for this added program.  Everyone deserves access to great music. This special concert is FREE with a suggested donation of $25 per person. The donations are relied upon to cover our costs, which include venues, printing, and performance fees.  Your donation will help make future events like this possible.  Thank you for your consideration.

Artist Information

The Spizzwinks(?) are composed entirely of full time undergraduate students, performing concerts all over the world. Since our founding in 1914, the Spizzwinks(?) have released several dozen albums and performed around the globe, bringing our diverse repertoire of over 600 arrangements everywhere from local New Haven elementary schools, to concert halls, special events, businesses, and universities on our international tours.  Domestic concert highlights include singing at the United States State Department for former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, the Connecticut Open tennis tournament, for Lady Gaga at Yale’s Emotion Revolution summit, and the historic Kennedy Center. Internationally, the Spizzwinks(?) have sung for John Kerry in Beijing at the Forbidden City Concert Hall, for the bicentennial celebration of US-Chile relations in Santiago, at historic churches in Istanbul and Ecuador, and with the Cape Town youth choir.  And back in New Haven, the Spizzwinks(?) are Yale staples, performing annually at events like the Harvard-Yale football game, university dinners, admissions events, first-year orientation, and at Mory’s Temple Bar.  Being a 'Wink means loving music and wanting to sing for audiences of all kinds all around the world. It means embracing our family, and above all, committing to the Spizzwinks(?)’ motto: “Never don’t go!
IOWAN INSECTS ~ Like all great stories, the Spizzwink(?) saga begins in 1906 in Iowa, when the state was in the oppressive grip of a massive, inexplicable Corn Blight. Inexplicable, that is, except to one man: a small-town postmaster by the name of Frank Johnson. Mr. Johnson proclaimed to anyone who would listen that the Great Iowa Corn Blight was the handiwork of an insect known as the Spizzwink, which, coincidentally, only he could see. Few took heed of his warning, and the legend of the mythical Spizzwink would have been lost, but for a young boy with a sweet voice from that small town in Iowa, whose greatest ambition was to someday attend Yale University.
YOUNG YALIES ~ Flash forward to the winter of 1913, where four Yale freshmen – including a certain young man from Iowa – met at Mory’s Temple Bar, Yale’s historic tavern, to decide upon a name for their new singing group. This new group had been created to provide audiences with a light-hearted alternative to the Whiffenpoofs, Yale’s older, all-senior a cappella group, who were known as much for their stodginess as for their musical excellence. After an evening of drinking and thinking (and perhaps more of the former than the latter), our hero glimpsed a strange sight across the table: the ghost of his old postmaster, Frank Johnson. Inspiration struck, and the young singer exclaimed, “That’s it, boys! We’ll call the group the Spizzwinks!”
ERRONEOUS EDITORS~ Later that year, the editor of Yale’s yearbook was unsure of the spelling of the fledgling group and added a question mark in parentheses as an editorial mark. The group liked the look of “The Spizzwinks(?)” and the parenthetical question mark is still with us today.
Since our historic beginning at Mory’s, the Spizzwinks(?) have proudly carried on a tradition of musical excellence and camaraderie as one of America’s oldest male choirs. With one eye towards our one hundred year history and the other towards the future, we seamlessly fuse tradition and innovation to bring audiences a unique and unforgettable concert experience.