New leader for poor little lambs

Jon Vachon

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Eunice Oh ’26 was a violinist when she arrived as a first-year from the Bay Area of California. “I did not sing until I got to Yale,” she says. But that changed quickly when she went to one of the concerts the college's a cappella groups put on during their fall rush. “There’s something so attractive when you see everyone having fun with each other, and the music is a real part of it,” she says. Oh tried out for the formerly all-male Society of Orpheus and Bacchus (aka the SOBs), and became one of their first woman members, singing first tenor. Two years later, she became the group’s first woman director.

Now, Oh is making history again as the first woman pitchpipe—or musical director—of the Whiffenpoofs. The world-traveling group for Yale seniors first admitted women in 2018, but, like the SOBs and other formerly all-male groups, it continues to sing arrangements for lower voices. So Oh knows both the vocal range and the social landscape of a male-dominated group.

As is custom nowadays, Oh and her fellow Whiffs will take a year off from Yale to accommodate the group’s demanding travel schedule. But they don’t waste any time getting started. “Immediately after I was tapped, the work began,” she says. “We all have to get to know each other and each other’s voices quickly.”