Vassar’s obsession with a cappella is perhaps a product of her unusual history with the art form.
In 1942, an outbreak of polio at Vassar brought life to crippling halt. Everything, save classes, was put on an uncompromising hold lest the plague should continue to spread, and life at Vassar became but a shell of itself. It was in this darkness that the Night Owls took flight.
One night, sixteen black-clad, brave young women stole out of their dorms to meet secretly in the basement of the library. Here, they sang late into the night, practicing to eventually serenade their ailing classmates from outside their windows. Now, some 70 years later, they continue to sing. And still in black.
However, according to research by past Musical Director, Becca Rose ‘11, the title of “oldest continuing female a cappella group in the US” may not be entirely accurate – evidence suggests that other groups also lay claim to this title…and there might not have been a 1942 polio outbreak at Vassar at all!
We will never know. But we do know that as a part of Vassar’s history, the Night Owls will continue to symbolize what it means to be a Vassar girl: a woman of grace, beauty and unmatched fierceness.
VASS 101: 