It helps to know the right people. The Harvard Krokodiloes are coming to Cornwall on Jan. 6. The Kroks are the university’s oldest acapella group. Over the past 12 months, they’ve performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and at Fenway Park in Boston. Before the annual Yale-Harvard football game, they sang along side of the Whiffenpoofs.
So what made them include Cornwall on their winter domestic tour? It helps that one of their tour managers is Bobby Flitsch, a Harvard senior and a 2011 Cornwall graduate.
While he was in high school, Mr. Flitsch was a member of the tennis and cross country teams. He performed in the all-state mixed chorus, and he was a runner up in the national bridge design contest at West Point.
As a 12th-grader, he won a 5,000-meter race that he organized as a fundraiser for a cancer victim. Now, as a tour manager for the Kroks, he was responsible for booking stops on a two-week trek during winter break. “I decided to plan a stop here,” he wrote, “so I could bring the group to Cornwall. I thought it would be great to let Cornwallians get a taste of Harvard.”
The Kroks include 12 men who harmonize and entertain audiences with their humor. They sing American favorites and gear their shows toward audiences of all ages. The late Leonard Bernstein wrote a special song for them, and offered the following praise: “The Krokodiloes,” he said, “have the gift of warming one’s soul and enriching one’s day. I cannot praise too highly their… dedication to excellence.”
The performance will be held at the Bethlehem Presbyterian Church at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 6. Tickets can be purchased at the door, and there’s a discount for students.
