The Yale Alley Cats

The Yale Alley Cats is an undergraduate a cappella singing group at Yale University. Founded in 1943, it is the college's third-oldest underclassman a cappella group.[1]

The Yale Alley Cats
The Yale Alley Cats of 2019-2020
Background information
Origin	New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Genres	A cappella, pop, jazz, R&B, Motown, soul
Years active	1943 – present (80 years)
Members	Tenor I Logan Foy (Pitch) '25 Yixiao Zhang '26 Benjamin Jimenez '26 Ryann Schaffer '27 Tenor II Tarel Dennie '24 Joey Cumpian (President) '25 Charlie Calkins (Business Manager) '26 Noah Jung '26 Ben Heller '27 Baritone Quinn Evans (President) '25 Jason Kisare '25 Jonathan Akinniyi '26 Marco Gajic '27 Sebastian Gervase '27 Bass Ian Richardson '24.5 Rory Latham '25 Joseph Aguilar '26 Cyrus Rivers '27 Stellan Min '27
Website	www.yalealleycats.com

In the summer of 1943, four Yale undergraduate students climbed Saybrook Tower to serenade the night with Henry Carey's "Sally in Our Alley." Their singing awoke the Head of College, who yelled at them: "Stop it! Your singing sounds like a bunch of screeching alley cats!" and sent them to bed. The performance marked the founding of the group and gave it its name.[2]

While the group’s early performances centered on jazz, their current repertoire span pop, R&B, Motown, folk, and other genres.[3] The group has created more than 300 a cappella arrangements.

Each year, the Alley Cats hosts a large on-campus performance known as the "Champagne Jamboree," or "Cham Jam". It customarily features a non-male guest soloist from the senior class[4] and includes dance number featuring a member of the first-year class (known as "kittens"). Audience members toss shoes on stage if they feel particularly moved by a soloist's singing; many audience members bring multiple pairs of shoes to throw.

The group also performs for public and private audiences throughout the United States and around the world,[2] funding their travels with concert revenue.[5] Audience members have included Martha Stewart, Jay Leno, Stella McCartney, Tom Brokaw, and President Barack Obama.[3][6] In 2017, the group performed at Facebook headquarters and Google headquarters on their tour of the California Bay Area,[5] then at the United Nations office in Geneva, Switzerland,[7] and at the United States Embassy in Paris, France.[8] In 2018, the group completed a ten-city tour of China through the invitation of Beijing Shengchou Education Technology Company,[9][8] including collaborations with the Central Conservatory of Music and other schools and hotels across the nation such as the Little Swan Choir in Xi'an.

In 2021, the Cats collaborated with songwriter Diane Warren to create a music video of her lead single from the movie Four Good Days, "Somehow You Do".

As with many Yale a cappella groups, first-year students audition in a multi-week process known as "rush."[10] Current Alley Cats choose several applicants to join the group for three years.[11][12]