The Yale Glee Club Blog

Here is a blog post written by one of our co-CEO's (community engagement officers), Alison Levosky, about a recent outreach event that Glee Clubbers took part in. Read below! -- About two weeks ago, a few members of the Glee Club had the privilege of traveling to City College Academy of the Arts (CCAA), a secondary school in Manhattan, where they were excited to be able to use their musical experiences to work with some of the students there. Martin Toomajian, who is a Yale alum (JE '06) and directs the glee club and the musical theatre at CCAA, reached out to the Community Engagement Officers of the YGC, Dan Rubins and I. Together, we were able to plan a very meaningful event for all involved. The day's schedule was full of both fun and serious musical work: Glee Clubbers sang a few Yale songs for the CCAA students, and then the students sang and danced for the Glee Clubbers to show their hard work in preparation for their upcoming musical,  Once Upon a Mattre...

Whew! What a semester. Finals are over, students are heading home, and the Glee Club gets a three week break before meeting again in New Haven to head over to Montreal and Burlington for Winter Tour! More about our tour plans at the end of the blog post. First, let's talk about the concerts! On Friday, December 5th, we had our annual concert at the Yale Club in New York, which is arguably our favorite concert of the semester. Not only do they feed us delicious food catered by the Yale Club, but we get to sing in front of perhaps our most friendly audience that we get all year--Yale alumni. From the Yale Club decorated for the holidays, to singing carols with the audience in-between pieces during the concert, it's a concert that really puts us in the mood for the holidays. We walked into the room singing "Deck the Hall," and then tried as best we could to cram ourselves onto the platform meant to hold a group half our size. It's a struggle every year, but we al...

After a two and a half hour bus ride, the Yale Glee Club descended upon Cambridge! We were greeted by our Harvard hosts upon our arrival, and were then shuttled off into the depths of Sanders Theatre to put away our things. For those of you who've never been, I have to say that Sanders is quite a beautiful place! The acoustics are much more friendly to us than they are at home in Woolsey, something that we figured out quickly once we began to rehearse in the space. After rehearsal we were treated by the Harvard Glee Club to pizza and salad (Although we were told earlier that we would be getting Panera...still don't know if that was a joke or simply poor planning) and then we put on our concert attire and gathered for the pep talk. What a pep talk! Dan Rubins wrote a Dr. Seuss style pep talk, in which he had a cute and/or funny line for each member of the Glee Club. If he wouldn't mind, I'd love to post it some time in the future! It was certainly a pep talk I'll n...

Wow, what a concert! Not only did we premiere three new pieces--"Telegram," "Valentine for Hands," and "The World Meets Here," but the composers, and in the case of Telegram, the poet, were all present to hear their pieces sung for the first time in front of a live audience. "Telegram" is a setting of a poem by Annie Finch, put to music by the Pulitzer Prize and Grammy award winning composer Jennifer Higdon. Although Jennifer was unable to come to the premiere, we're so glad that Annie was able to make it! Another composer, winner of the Glee Club 2014 Emerging Composers Competition, Dale Trumbore, came all the way from California to hear the premiere of her piece, "Valentine for Hands." Last but not least, we premiered "The World Meets Here" by Scarlett Zuo, the Glee Club student conductor and winner of this year's Fenno Heath Award. So many premieres! Besides the new music that was premiered, we also sang two bea...

As Freshman First We Came to Yale... On Saturday, October 11th, we had our annual Family Weekend Concert with the Yale Symphony Orchestra and the Yale Concert Band! We sang a variety of music, including the premier of a piece that Jeff arranged for us this year called, "I'll Go With You." Elias Bartholomew, a sophomore in the Glee Club, volunteered to write a short blog post about his experience. Read it below! -- Woolsey Hall, filled silent with Yale families, alumni, music enthusiasts, and ornithologists, sat waiting. We, the 154 th Yale Glee Club, ran in at a brisk clip. And, having bowed in perfect sync, we sang “Gaudeamus Igitur.” Though it is as old as the Glee Club (we know they sang it in 1861), this song rings true to me every time we perform it. “Gaudeamus” is a call to rejoice in the traditions that bring people together. Namely academia, but also, as was evident on Saturday night, music.   After reminding ourselves that music was a great tradition, we ...

This blog has been long overdue, but for those of you who haven't been following us on Facebook, this blog will fill you in on what's been going on these first few weeks of school, and what the Glee Club has been up to! First things first, I'll introduce our new officer core! President: Rachel Protacio Manager: Ellie Killiam Alumni Coordinator: Lisa Zhang Archivists: Paul Styslinger and Kiri Van Lengen-Welty International Tour Managers: Max Bryski and Marianna Gailus Mini-Tour Managers: Emma Hathaway and Jane Strauch Outreach Chairs: Alison Levosky and Dan Rubins Publicity Chair: Victoria Pierre Social Chairs: Ruthie Prillaman and Alex Turner Stage Manager: Brooke Lamell Wardrobe Manager: Zoya Afridi Student Conductor: Scarlett Zuo Assistant Conductor: Max Holman As you can see, this year we've got quite a large group! We've also created two new positions, that of Alumni Coordinator and Mini-Tour Managers. It was decided at the end of last...

It's not a strange feeling on YGC tour to suddenly find yourself preparing for banquet after what seems like no time has passed since tour started. Yale students are all too familiar to how time seems to slow down in a struggle period and have it speed right past you when things finally relax. But banquet comes at the perfect time in our tours. Wrapping up the tail end of our domestic tour, banquet is the time to reminisce over newly formed memories, catch up on the last bit of craziness before heading home, and express the much deserved thanks to the many people who really made the tour possible. Oh, and I can't forget the singing too! We revisit old songs from past years, sing current pieces, and for some sight-reading pieces that were beloved from classes before. I hope you enjoy the snippets of video I managed to catch of our banquet at the Hotel Nacional. It was just as fun as it looks! Always with glee-love, Lisa Zhang Publicity Chair