The Yale Glee Club Blog

Below, Calhoun Sophomore and YGC Social Chair Emily Howell details the last few days of tour - our final concert, free time in San Francisco, our tour banquet, and the journey home. Day Six (Wednesday January 7th) and Day Seven (Thursday January 8th): Top Ten YGC Activities to do in San Francisco (arranged chronologically) 10. Admire Grace Cathedral. For those who, like me before this trip, haven’t heard of Grace Cathedral, it’s an Episcopal cathedral that’s one of the pride and joys of the West Coast. (Confirmed by multiple homestays.) After our free time, walking back to our rehearsal call, I come to the top of a hill, see Grace Cathedral for the first time in full view and exclaim, “Is that where we’re singing?” 9. Sing with the International Orange Chorale. The group, directed by Jeremy Faust, shares Wednesday’s concert. We perform almost our full repertoire, the IOC performs about ten minutes worth of beautiful music, and the two choirs sing three pieces together (Georgia Stit...

California native and Trumbull Freshman Cynthia Weaver describes the journey from Eugene to Chico and our concert that evening. 5:45 AM- Wake up, tired from staying up chatting and playing board games with five other glee girls. Answer emails, take a shower, and wonder what I’ll do for the six hours on the glee bus that we have to do today. 7 AM- Packing, Breakfast, our host made us a giant Dutch Baby pancake. Playing with our host’s two daughters, ages 3 and 6. Adorable... makes me want to drop out of Yale to have kids. Or maybe not. 8:41 AM- This bus is the awesome bus (says Casey). As of now everyone is pretty much sleeping. Somehow our projected travel time morphed from 6 hours to 8 hours. So we’ll see. I’m going to try to catch some shut-eye now, too. We’re going to start watching movies at 9 AM, but I’ll probably be asleep by then. 10:15 AM- Casey woke me up at the rest stop... not that I’m bitter or anything. It’s rather cold this morning. We are apparently still in Oregon. I’m ...

Below, Sophomore Dylan Morris gives his account of our fourth day of tour. One YGCer’s Day in Eugene: 6:45am: The YGC wakes up early for the 8:00am bus to Eugene. We’re aiming to arrive midmorning; our director Jeffrey Douma is scheduled to teach a master class at the University of Oregon. We thank our Portland hosts and head to meet the bus. ~8:30am: The Glee Club buses roll out of Portland. Several Glee-ple on my (quiet) bus catch a few extra Zs. 10:45am: The YGC arrives in Eugene, Oregon, home of the University of Oregon Ducks. As a former high school cross country runner, I am excited when I spot Hayward Field, the fabled University track and field venue and the site of this past year’s Olympic Trials. While Jeff is teaching his class, the members of the YGC have a chance to explore the city. YGCers disembark and head off in packs. Fellow YGCer Mari Oye ’11 and I decide to take a running tour of the city that bills itself as Tracktown, U.S.A. 11am-3pm: The YGC explores Eugene...

Today's post comes from Rachel Wilf, a sophomore in Timothy Dwight College . The Glee Club left Astoria early this morning heading for Portland. On the way we stopped in Seaside, a small beach town on the Pacific coast. Especially for a born Northeasterner like myself, the sight of the wide Pacific in the shadow of snowy mountains was exhilarating. Some Glee Clubbers waded into the (very cold) water and others struck up an impromptu game of ultimate Frisbee—which usually happens when Glee Clubbers have any free space to run around in. After a bus ride through a snowy evergreen forest, which was definitely a transit highlight for many of us, we unloaded the buses in central Portland. Despite the chilly weather, we set off to explore Powell’s, the biggest bookstore west of the Mississippi—a bookstore as large as a city block, so expansive that you need a map to get around inside. Despite the size of the store, I kept running into other Glee Clubbers in the aisles, giving me a ch...

Today's post is written by Virginia Calkins, a junior in Pierson College and the 2008-2009 YGC Outreach Chair. 7 a.m. Seattle, WA: the Glee Club wakes up, each in a comfortable home. I embark on a walk with my host and her dog around Seward Park, admiring Lake Washington's beauty. 9 a.m. Downtown Seattle: the Glee Club disperses for a few hours of free time to explore the Pike Place Market, the Seattle Art Museum, or Rem Koolhaus' brilliance in the Seattle Public Library. 11:30 a.m . The Bus: the Glee Club loads the bus for the journey down the coast. We watch The Goonies and debate watching Free Willy, both movies filmed in Astoria. Some gleelings catch some zzzz. 2:00 p.m. Liberty Theater, Astoria, OR: the Glee Club arrives in Astoria (pop. 10,000) to discover a wonderful, historical Vaudeville theater. We rehearse, making sure to memorize the few songs we had used music for the previous night. 6:00 p.m. The McTavish room of the Liberty Theater: the Glee Club dines on...

Last night marked the first concert of tour, at Town Hall in Seattle, Washington. Below is a post from senior Bram Wayman reflecting on the experience. Tonight, I had a rare and very special experience: I heard the Yale Glee Club in concert. It's not often that we get to hear ourselves sing from the audience's point of view. Once in a while, somebody gets sick, and has to sit out for a concert, but that doesn't leave one in much of a position to listen critically or enjoyably. In my case, airline trouble and delayed baggage left me with no concert attire, and also left me free to see the Glee Club as our audiences see us. As anybody else in the group can attest, I couldn't stop smiling. I smiled through everything -- the happy pieces, the sad pieces, even the mistakes. At the risk of sounding like one of our parents, I was so proud to see all my friends on stage. After weeks of break and a single, grueling rehearsal, our concert was not just good -- it was strong. We m...

Oh, why doth time so quickly fly? With today marking the beginning of a new year and the first day of tour, it seems like the right moment to reflect briefly on the fall semester. What truly sets the YGC apart is our shared passion for singing and the strong friendships within the group. The earth may be green (YGC apple picking!) or white with snow (YGC caroling!) - but the camaraderie carries on unchanged. The fall semester has certainly proved that all eighty-four members put the "Glee" in the 148th Yale Glee Club! Each year, in the spirit of friendly rivalry, we play a prank on Princeton's Glee Club during our joint football concert. After stoically bearing Princeton's barrage of orange paper airplanes for several years in a row, some YGC members pooled their engineering and artistic talents to create an eight by eight-foot Yale "paper" airplane, which proved to be (almost literally) a show-stopper. Earlier in the semester, the Glee Club also wo...