Retreat Blurb from a Newbie!

A new Glee Club member Sharif Vakili describes his experiences and memories from our 2012-2013 retreat!

The yale glee club retreat has been one of the most uplifting and emotionally rewarding experiences I've ever had at Yale. And I mean that as a senior who's in his first and sadly last year with the group. The people in the glee club have been so unbelievably welcoming, sweet and interesting. They constantly emit positive energy. And in it's contagious. I'm pretty sure if a grade A dirtbag joined a rehearsal with us, either he'd lose his capacity to be douchy or maybe he'd just explode.

Beyond the special goodness of the glee club members that made the retreat so pleasant, the cool little events we did and the spirit we approached them with really added to the retreat. I always looked forward to rehearsal and was super excited to get started, to sing, to learn, and of course, to hear Jeff give his various inspiring, memorable (remember-- every entrance you miss is an entrance you'll never be able to get back), insightful, and funny speeches. Really, it's just been addicting. Sure, we might find ourselves stressed with other commitments and thoughts floating around in our heads, but it's pretty easy to tell that everyone consistently looks forward to and gets excited about rehearsals . And the stuff we did outside of rehearsals nicely complimented that: singing songs of Yale around s'mores, playing the "I have a neighbor" game, eating impressively delicious food, and square-dancing in the barn to old cassettes for several hours with no hydration and limited ventilation.

Looking back on our retreat has been bittersweet. But bittersweetness is a reliable indication of a kickass time.

I'm super excited to see what the next few months are going to bring.

-Sharif Valiki

Thanks so much Sharif! We are so happy to have you in our Glee community!

Ten Songs of Yale you didn't know about

Bram Wayman '09 delves into the depths of songbooks past. The views shared here in no way represent the official opinion of the YGC Blog nor the YGC... & c. & c. & c.* Though clear favorites stand the test of time, and the old song books of Yale are full of the high stupidity of yesteryear, a few gems that aren't often — if ever — sung today stand out for me. Some of these songs are beautiful, some hilarious, and some downright offensive, but they all deserve a second look, and I'm not convinced all of them should have fallen out of use. I'm no expert on the history of Yale songs, and have only picked from a few books, but here are ten songs of Yale that still bring a smile to my face. 1. "Old Tom Wilson." TTBB. One of Barty's cleverest arrangements, this piece is a song from the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. It features vocal banjos, vocal beer-chugging that gets longer each time the jug goes around, lyrics such as "Big fat ga...

SPRING TOUR DAY 1: San Diego

The first stop on our tour was to sunny San Diego! We drove there after a night in LA, stopping on the way to reflect in the breathtaking Self-Realization Fellowship Gardens in Encinitas, and then to sink our toes into the sand for the first time at Coronado Island. Ashby Cogan '14 writes about our first concert of tour: After a couple hours soaking up the sun and ensuring a prosperous quarter for the MooTime Creamery, the Glee Club boarded the buses to the First Presbyterian Church of San Diego for rehearsal and joint concert with the Whiffenpoofs. We speedily rehearsed our program, which included many pieces we had not sung in a while. Among them, terrifyingly, was a 24-part canon we had not performed since December. With fewer than fifteen minutes to review it we ironed out our missed entrances and proceeded through the program. Pre-concert energy levels varied—personally I felt like the jetlag monster had just scraped me off the bottom of its shoe—but as we got ...

Vuvuzelas @ Harvard

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...

Beijing Day 1: Vocational School

Hey guys! Here are a few videos documenting our outreach event with the Beijing Vocational School. This school is dedicated to providing free education to the children of migrant workers, many of whom without this program would never receive education, become migrant workers, and continue to live below the poverty line. The YGC was so honored and touched to share our love of music and performance with these students, and we wish them the greatest success in all their endeavors! Entering the school The students at the vocational school performing - I Can Fly and a Chinese pop song YGC performing 'Neath the Elms and Raise Your Voices YGC and Students sing Little Innocent Lamb together! More to come of our first day in Beijing!

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