The Davenport Pops Orchestra, endorsed as a residential college orchestra, was founded by a group of Yale undergraduates in the spring of 2005. The orchestra is currently supported financially by Davenport College. It is Yale's youngest college orchestra, and also its fastest growing. The orchestra has already been conducted by composers such as Gerald Fried and David Shire!

As a student organization, the orchestra aims to make the orchestra experience accessible to as many undergraduates as possible, both those who play instruments and those who just like to listen. While there are a large number of student orchestras at Yale, most groups focus on classical music; with this in mind, the Davenport Pops Orchestra hopes to expand the musical offerings of the Yale community - and appeal to a wider audience than is usually targeted by classical orchestras - by offering programs of well-known popular music.

The Davenport Pops plays a wide variety of music, with repertoire that includes film/TV scores, Broadway, jazz, popular classical works, cultural genres, and original student works.

If you would like more information about the Davenport Pops Orchestra (affectionately called "DPops" by its founding members), please take some time to browse through this website. And please - if you still have questions, don't hesitate to email the presidents Trinh Nguyen and Kelly Freund, and ask!

Board Membership

While DPops membership is open to all Yale undergraduates as well as graduate and professional students, the executive board is typically composed of undergraduate students representing all the residential colleges. Students are able to serve in many different capacities, from conducting, arranging music, fundraising, and doing community outreach work. Auditions for conductor and elections for board positions are held each spring at the end of the term, and are open to all students.

Click here to learn more about the current Board.