Reston Native Brings World's Oldest A Cappella Group To Perform In NoVA This Fall

VIENNA, VA – A Northern Virginia boy is bringing the world’s oldest a cappella group to his hometown – well, close enough – this fall.

The Yale Whiffenpoofs, widely recognized as the world’s oldest continuously performing a cappella group, will perform in Vienna on Oct. 15, a concert that will be a homecoming for bass singer Cyrus Rivers.

The Whiffenpoofs make it a point to add a show in each member’s hometown to the roughly 200 concerts they perform each year, Rivers, a Reston native and graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, told Patch. In the case of Northern Virginia, that means bringing the group into an especially welcoming and engaged community, he says.

“I've found, having brought an a cappella group home in the past (the Yale Alley Cats in 2025), that NoVA is incredibly accessible for traveling groups, with a welcoming arts community and plenty of opportunity. Our Alley Cats public concert in 2025 in Reston was the single [best] attended public concert of the entire year, which I think speaks volumes to the kind of supportive space and arts engagement cultivated in the area.”

At the upcoming October concert, the audience will see 14 Yale seniors continue a musical tradition that dates to 1909 and includes performances at iconic high-culture and pop-culture venues, among them Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the White House, “Saturday Night Live” and the sets of television shows “Gilmore Girls” and “Jeopardy,” and more.

A sample repertoire shared by the group includes traditional Yale songs as well as jazz and jazz standards and contemporary favorites from Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel and the Beatles.

Rivers, who sang throughout high school and is a veteran of Yale’s a cappella scene, says, “The Whiffenpoof experience is the kind that stays with you for life, both in memory and in the alumni community you pass into.”

The show will be held at Vienna’s Church of the Holy Comforter, which has a history of hosting similar performances, on Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $25, with $15 tickets for students and children.

Learn more about the show and buy tickets here.

See more: 20 Fall Festivals To Celebrate Autumn Across Virginia | Reston, VA Patch