The Yale Glee Club Blog

Stage manager Dylan Morris '11 reflects on the Glee Club's holiday concert in New York City and explains how the YGC almost sang itself afoul of the law. The first Friday in December is always a day of celebration at Yale. Fall term classes end that afternoon. Exams and papers remain, but with the seeming eternity of reading week stretched out before us, we students feel as if we can ignore them (a week later, we feel differently). The Glee Club has its own traditional way of celebrating this campus holiday. We board the Metro-North train and head down to New York City for our yearly Holiday Concert at the Yale Club of New York. When announcing the trip at rehearsal, our manager Rachel Wilf told us that the Yale Club is her favorite yearly YGC concert. Or, as YGC president Emily Howell put it in her ad-libbed solo during “Eli Yale”: “Out of all our fall concerts, the Yale Club is always a winner / And that’s not just because we all like free dinner.” We are indeed treated

On Friday November 19th, the members of the Yale Glee Club traveled to Cambridge, MA for our annual joint concert with our counterparts from Harvard. The concert is always the day before the big Yale-Harvard football game ("The Game"), so rivalry runs high. During the lead-up to the 2010 Game, there had been much ado about the possibility that both Yale and Harvard fans would be armed with vuvuzelas during the contest (the powerful plastic horns were eventually banned ). During our football medley, we found a way to get in on the fun in B-flat : John Clayton '13 juggles Yale vuvuzelas during "Lord Jeffrey Amherst Douma" The Yale Vuvuzela Consort (Mari Oye '11, Rebecca Trupin '11, Jason Perlman '11, Dylan Morris '11), with a portrait of its spiritual leader YGC alumna Kaley Sullivan '10 gets in on the fun More photo fun from the Harvard Concert: "The saddest tale we have to tell" — YGCers mourning the fact that we have to grad

Happening Sunday, 12/12, at 2 pm in Battell Chapel. RSVP to our Facebook event here.

Kate Carter '12 on divided allegiance, the YPMB-YGC football game, and transcendence of ancient hatreds. I am, as my Glee Club bio aptly puts it, a Benedict Arnold, a traitor to the cause of Glee Club domination. After failing to cajole, coerce, or otherwise convince me, YGC left me to the ranks of that menacing and bizarre force, the Yale Precision Marching Band, in the annual epic showdown of musical powerhouses. The YGC-YPMB football game. A battle of glee against “precision,” of spirit, of “Y’s.” The score is unimportant (*coughthebandwoncough*). Vastly outnumbered (think 300 ), facing an opponent honed by weekly practices and killer duck-duck-goose matches, the Glee Club put up a valiant fight and emerged battle-worn but proud. I believe YGC’s efforts can be best described in the words of our manager and one of two fear-inspiring captains, Rachel Wilf: “ Our all-star freshman (Ben Lewis, Connor Kenaston) played brilliantly, Atid Kimelman chose to play on our side instead of

New member Ari Susu-Mago '13 on our Family Weekend Concert Like many things in the not-so-distant past, my memories of my first YGC concert are still fairly fresh (as far as memories go), but enough time has passed that they have distilled themselves into discrete moments; these pockets of clear recollection are surrounded by a fuzzy knowledge of what happened in between these moments (there's rather a difference between knowing that you hung out in the Woolsey rotunda and actually remembering every facet of the experience). Thus, I'm going to focus on the beads of clear memory I've strung together and gloss over the spaces between them, because...well, because I can't recall them clearly. And that's probably because they weren't interesting enough to be worth remembering, so you're not missing anything either way. ANYHOW, I remember... ...walking into Hendrie on the night of the concert and being abruptly conscious of how well-dressed everyone looked (e

Welcome to all the fantastic new members of the Yale Glee Club. In keeping with tradition, we offer the following (extremely serious) bios of our officer corps for your edification and amusement. President – Emily Howell, CC ’ 11 Emily Howell is a senior in Calhoun College, majoring in English. She hails from the charming city of Lynchburg, VA. Having already filled the roles of Social Chair and Tour Manager in the past, Emily is currently the longest serving member of the Glee Club Officer Corps. Other than presiding over the YGC, she spends her free time terrorizing elementary-schoolers with the Yale Children's Theater group, and lending her hunky alto vocals to the Christ Church Choir. Emily Howell is also a computer program developed in the 1990's as an interactive interface that facilitates musical and language communication. Look it up on Wikipedia. Manager – Rachel Wilf, TD ’ 11 Rachel Wilf is the Manager of the Glee Club and manages to make that job look manageable. She

“Good Morning” from Singing in the Rain is blasting off President Emily Howell’s computer. The door opens. She hits pause. Officers rush to seats in the Glee Club Office, stow half-eaten bagels under chairs, and try to look semi-official and yet not intimidating to freshmen. “Something Auditioning This Way Comes,” says Emily. I can’t shake the feeling I’m in a reality show. There’s one chair in the center of the room. Kids from West Virginia, South Africa, California, Vietnam, and Long Island are coming in one at a time to say hey, shuffle their feet, and talk music at Yale. As a cheat sheet to those of you planning to audition in future who may be reading the Glee Club Blog, I offer a set of possible questions you should study up on. We’ll answer some of them ourselves, as a sneak preview of the new officer bios to be posted Monday. Ahem. Q: If you could build a house out of any unconventional material, what would it be? A: “Ice cream sandwiches. They’re kind of like bricks and woul

Casey Klippel '09, the wise old woman of the YGC, on our last few days in Santo Domingo. The last day on the Tour That Broke All The Rules started out by ... breaking another rule. The morning after our closing banquet usually consists of sad farewells and moaning-and-groaning about the early wakeup call. But not on this tour! Banquet technically happened last night (though more on that later), and instead of travelling home today, we had our first free time in Santo Domingo as well as our final concert. Time to rise and shine! Those who rose and shone early enough could take a walking tour of the Colonial Zone in Santo Domingo. Since I am a professional athlete in the extreme sport of sleeping in, my day started instead at our awesome hotel’s even awesomer breakfast buffet (read: tons of pastries, three kinds of tropical fruit juice, and unlimited fried cheese). To be fair, twenty-two of us had toured the Colonial Zone yesterday afternoon. Santo Domingo contains many of the oldest

Yale Glee Club Workshop Slideshow from Julia Myers on Vimeo . On the Dominican Republic leg of tour, the YGC hosted arts workshops for young people from the town of Vallejuelo and its surrounding villages. "Team Film," an outreach group led by Julia Myers '12 and Phyllis Thangaraj '11, created a video slideshow documenting the workshop experience. The slideshow includes photos taken by the workshop students themselves.

Rebecca Trupin '11 describes an epic YGC day in the mountains of the Dominican Republic. Photos: Josh Schoenfield '10 Yesterday, Jeff told us: Great work today, guys, in handling the unexpected. For sure there will be some kind of surprise tomorrow. Never were truer words spoken. The day began smoothly enough with glorious sunshine and delicious oatmeal (there was fruit as well but the oatmeal earned rhapsodic praise from all who tasted it). We climbed aboard our buses at our hotel and set off for our second day in the remote town of Vallejuelo. There, we separated into Film Team, Dance Team, Theater Team, Writing Team, and Quilting Team to lead creative arts workshops with children from the nearby villages. I’m sure I speak for most of the Dance Team when I say we got well exercised when, at the end of our workshop, the kids taught us salsa, merengue, and reggaeton. After lunch, several Glee Clubbers began spontaneously singing on a balcony. Old beloveds such as “Ride the Char

Neena Satija '11 and Daniel Olson & Dan Thompson (the so-called "Men of 2012") write about the first day of outreach in Vallejuelo. Photos: Josh Schoenfield '10. [Daniel Olson] The day started out early in San Juan with a delicious breakfast at the hotel. We didn't know what to expect from the massive outreach project we were about to begin with children from around the area of Vallejuelo, a small village 45 minutes from San Juan. We arrived at the Centro Agro where we first met the kids. We shared a couple of songs. They sang a Spanish version of "If You're Happy and You Know It" and we sang "Gaudeamus Igitur". Shortly after, we broke up into the six classes we had prepared for the children. Over the past month, Glee Club members had been working hard on lessons in drama, dance, singing, quilting, creative writing, and film. The glee club is a multi-talented bunch and those talents really showed today. I helped teach the film class. W

Mari Oye '11, YGC publicity chair, on our arrival in Santo Domingo. A brief post about today's journey. You'll be reading accounts from many more Glee Clubbers over the next few days, as we go up into the hills of the DR to do a sort of creative arts outreach program. For now, I'll do my best to keep you up to date. I'm on the top floor of our hotel in San Juan de la Maguana, watching a thunderstorm. First impressions: This is not Florida. This is very starkly not Florida. It teems in a way that Florida doesn't. It's certainly very beautiful - we drove past fields of banana trees, tall mountains on the right, azure sea on the left. Caroline Mezger '10, from Switzerland, was especially glad to see mountains again. The flame trees reminded Rebecca Trupin '11 of Tanzania. It's also very poor. There are piles of garbage that no one picks up, and shacks of cinderblock and corrugated tin. I woke up yesterday - was it only yesterday? in Winter Park, to

Michael Haycock '12 muses on the power of music in Miami. The time is 1:39am. The place is room 403 in the Fort Lauderdale Holiday Inn Express. The task is to encapsulate the radiance of the Glee Club’s tour (so far) into a blog entry in a relatively coherent fashion. And then wake up to depart for the airport at 4:00am. Bring it on. The difficulty is alleviated by the fact that my pep talk from St. Luke’s, still bouncing around in the echo chamber of my brain, was particularly appropriate for today’s primary activity. I spoke first of the incredible bonding force Glee Club can have, forging friendships through the traumatic trial by fire of Kernis’ intricate Symphony of Meditations, the triumphant final proclamation of “Ye Shall Have a Song,” or simply series of uninterrupted hours-long bus rides. More than these, however prominent they would be (what else but confinement in a moving vehicle for extended periods of time could inspire impromptu films where getting locked in t

Rachel Glodo '12 reconnects with the YGC tour in Orlando This is probably the first blog entry written by a YGC member not on tour. As a student taking the spring semester off, I waited impatiently for my darling Glee Club to arrive in my home city of Orlando, Florida. The story is (according to people actually on tour) that the Yale Glee Club spent a good portion of their free time today in Downtown Disney, an area that locals judiciously and invariably avoid at all costs. Pros: Downtown Disney allows you to buy some truly remarkable Legos and get your picture taken with an 8-foot Mr. Potato-head. Cons: DtD refuses to off anything but over-priced food of horrendous quality and over-priced souvenirs and t-shirts, which you will regret buying immediately upon crossing the state line. Fortunately, most Glee Clubbers managed to sustain themselves on $10 spinach and artichoke dip appetizers and waited out the typical Florida thunderstorm in safety. Tonight’s concert was at the Cat

Dylan Morris '11 describes Day 4 The Yale Glee Club reconvened early Thursday morning at St. Edward's School for the three-hour drive to Sarasota. Glee Clubbers always find novel ways to amuse themselves on tour bus rides. On this ride, a group of YGCers led by aspiring filmmaker Julia Myers '12 used a point-and-shoot digital camera to make a three-and-a-half-minute film that was as silly as it was short. Arriving in Sarasota, we grabbed lunch before rehearsing in the Church of the Redeemer's beautiful sanctuary. We had a visitor at the rehearsal—Daniel Moe, the resident composer at the church and the former longtime director of the Oberlin Conservatory Choir. After hearing us sing Anton Bruckner's "Os Justi," ­­he told us that it was one of his all-time favorite pieces and praised our rendition of it. After rehearsal and a tasty dinner prepared for us by parishioners at the church, we had a free hour. Glee Clubbers stretched out on the church la

Rachel Wilf, 2010-2011 YGC manager, reflects on Day 2. Manatee sketch by Julia Myers '12. You know you’re in Florida when you start your day with an ocean swim, a walk on Vero Beach, a viewing of Michael Haycock’s sand-shark, and a breakfast accompanied by fresh-squeezed orange juice. This is the life. Our big expedition this morning was to the Manatee Observation center in nearby Fort Pierce. Sadly, manatees were in short supply. We did get to see seahorses and turtles, though, and we found out from Molly that the gestational period of a manatee equals the amount of time that she and Emily have been planning this tour (13 months). Stuffed manatee toys in hand, we walked into Fort Pierce for lunch. I ate with seven other YGCers, and our waitress first thought we were professional singers and then that we were all trying out for American Idol. She was gracious enough not to appear too disappointed when we turned out to be regular old Yalies. The day only got better when we heade

Rising senior Mari Oye describes the first day's journey from New Haven to Vero Beach. Louder yet the chorus raise, Friendship lasts when youth must fail; Jolly jolly are the days 'Neath the elms of dear old Yale! So goes the last verse of 'Neath the Elms , a Yale songbook favorite dating from 1871. This year, the Glee Club is exchanging elms for palms, and will spend twelve days in Florida and the Dominican Republic. Our schedule includes concerts with the national chorus of the Dominican Republic (advertised here ), extensive outreach, set up in part through the efforts of the Association of Yale Alumni, and, tomorrow, a chance to see manatees. I'm writing to you from a deck near the water in Vero Beach, FL. It's hard to believe that around 5:30 this morning we were all huddled amid suitcases (too many), pillows (too few) and boxes of equipment on the steps of Hendrie Hall. A bus ride and a few hours' flight later, we arrived at the airport in Orlando. Starvi

Junior Rachel Wilf describes our January weekend tour to Philadelphia. I have to admit, when I heard that Glee Club wasn’t having a winter tour I was disconsolate. Glee Club tours have given me some of my favorite memories of Yale. How could a “minitour” possibly live up to past trips? For all my reservations, our minitour to Philadelphia completely won me over. For those of you who didn’t get the chance to join us, here were some of the highlights from our time in the City of Brotherly Love: On Saturday morning we had free time to wander around our hotel in the heart of downtown Philadelphia. I took a walk to Rittenhouse Square, while others visited some of the many downtown museums. Groups went to the Franklin Institute of Science, the Academy of Fine Arts, and to the Mutter Museum. The group that went to the Mutter museum came back with the best stories, since the museum features all things human and odd (if you ever want to see over 2,000 items that have been “swallowed and re

This past November, the Glee Club, along with the Yale Philharmonia, the Camerata, and the Schola Cantorum, performed the East Coast premiere of School of Music professor Aaron Jay Kernis's "Symphony of Meditations." The new work was incredibly complex to learn and to perform, but after months of hard work and preparation, the performance was beautiful and the intricate, fascinating music was brought to life in front of a huge audience as the centerpiece of the 2009 National Choral Collegiate Organization's conference. Here, Michael Haycock '12 shares his own reflections on the piece and its meaning. Aaron Jay Kernis’ Symphony of Meditations begins with an Invocation in which the soloist, preceding the chorus’ thunderous acclamation of divine almight, ponders searchingly, “What could the heart and tongue compose, or spirit’s strength within me to suit you?” The answer, unspoken, is given in its absence, and turning from suiting something to the Lord, Gabirol’s poe