Rutgers University Glee Club
Encyclopedia
Founded in 1872, the Rutgers University Glee Club (RUGC) is the eighth oldest Glee Club
in the United States of America, a nationally recognized men's chorus based at Rutgers University
, in New Brunswick, New Jersey
. It is currently conducted by Dr. Patrick Gardner.
The Glee Club, based as it is equidistant to Philadelphia and New York City, has a long history of participating in the musical life of both those cities. The group tours frequently, both domestically and internationally; has been featured on a number of commercial recordings; and has commissioned notable works for men's chorus.
The Rutgers University Glee Club traces its roots back to 1872, making it among the oldest glee clubs in the country. Strongly attached to the history of Rutgers University, the Glee Club's early repertoire was dominated by songs of school spirit and the emerging collegiate sport of football
, which by tradition began in New Jersey
at a game between Rutgers and Princeton University
.
After the tenure of beloved director Howard McKinney, for whom the Glee Club's rehearsal hall is named, F. Austin "Soup" Walter became director in 1946 and began to shape the group into a more serious musical ensemble. In addition to numerous appearances on campus and abroad, the Glee Club combined with the women of the Voorhees Choir as the "Rutgers University Choir". This mixed choir went on to perform major works with many of the era's most significant orchestral ensembles.
's Messe Cum Jubilo before a nearly sold out audience at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall
. In 1997, the Rutgers Glee Club released their first self-produced compact disc, Let Thy Good Spirit. This recording encompasses the club's repertory from its 1996 tour of Russia and the Baltic States
. 1998 saw the club record and release its second recording, The Bells Must Ring! which features songs of the university along with several mainstays of the club's repertoire.
The Glee Club completed a successful tour of Eastern Europe in the summer of 1999 with concerts in such venues as the St. Martin's Dome in Bratislava
, Slovakia
and the Karlskirche
in Vienna
, Austria. In 2000 the Glee Club hosted the National Seminar of the Intercollegiate Men's Choruses.
In 2002, the Glee Club once again toured Europe with concert events in the Netherlands, Germany, and France. Performances were held at a number of famous venues, culminating with a performance during the eve of Pentecost mass at the Cathédral de Notre Dame de Paris
at the invitation of the Cathedral's staff. There have also been recent concerts combined with or hosted by the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club
and the Harvard Glee Club
. In the summer of 2007, the group embarked on a tour that included a performance at the invitation of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig
. In 2011, the RUGC did a two-week, eleven-concert tour of Italy, which included performances at St. Peter's Basilica
, St. Mark's Basilica, and the Basilica di Sant'Agostino.
and the Philadelphia Orchestra
under the batons of such notable directors as Erich Leinsdorf
, Leonard Bernstein
and Eugene Ormandy
. Recordings from that era include the Glee Club as the men's section in Carl Orff
's Carmina Burana
(still available on compact disc on Sony's Essential Classics series), and the Grammy-nominated performance of Sir William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast
, both conducted by Eugene Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
More recently, Dr. Patrick Gardner has prepared the Glee Club for a number of high profile performances, including performances of Arnold Schoenberg
's Gurrelieder under the baton of Simon Rattle
and the Babi Yar
Symphony of Shostakovich conducted by Valery Gergiev
.
The group has three times performed for conventions of the American Choral Directors Association
, in 2001 in San Antonio, in 2005 in New York City,of which included the premiere of a piece by Jennifer Higdon
, and in 2010 in Philadelphia. At the 2000 convention of the Intercollegiate Men's Choruses that the group hosted, the highlight was the premiere of The Miracle, written for chamber orchestra and men's chorus, commissioned by the club from Pulitzer Prize
winning composer William Bolcom
. The group has most recently performed at the 2010 IMC conference at the University of Miami Ohio, where they performed Elliot Carter's Tarantella and Steven Sametz's Dulcis Amor.
Glee club
A glee club is a musical group or choir group, historically of male voices but also of female or mixed voices, which traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs—glees—by trios or quartets. In the late 19th Century it was very popular in most schools and was made a tradition...
in the United States of America, a nationally recognized men's chorus based at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, in New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
. It is currently conducted by Dr. Patrick Gardner.
The Glee Club, based as it is equidistant to Philadelphia and New York City, has a long history of participating in the musical life of both those cities. The group tours frequently, both domestically and internationally; has been featured on a number of commercial recordings; and has commissioned notable works for men's chorus.
Early years
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, which by tradition began in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
at a game between Rutgers and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
.
After the tenure of beloved director Howard McKinney, for whom the Glee Club's rehearsal hall is named, F. Austin "Soup" Walter became director in 1946 and began to shape the group into a more serious musical ensemble. In addition to numerous appearances on campus and abroad, the Glee Club combined with the women of the Voorhees Choir as the "Rutgers University Choir". This mixed choir went on to perform major works with many of the era's most significant orchestral ensembles.
The second century
After the retirement of "Soup" Walter in 1983, the group went through a number of directors very quickly before Patrick Gardner was appointed in 1993. Under his leadership, the Glee Club celebrated its 125th anniversary in 1997 with a performance, in combination with the Rutgers University Orchestra, of Maurice DurufléMaurice Duruflé
Maurice Duruflé was a French composer, organist, and pedagogue.Duruflé was born in Louviers, Eure. In 1912, he became chorister at the Rouen Cathedral Choir School, where he studied piano and organ with Jules Haelling...
's Messe Cum Jubilo before a nearly sold out audience at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall
Alice Tully Hall
Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. It is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assisted in the construction of the hall...
. In 1997, the Rutgers Glee Club released their first self-produced compact disc, Let Thy Good Spirit. This recording encompasses the club's repertory from its 1996 tour of Russia and the Baltic States
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
. 1998 saw the club record and release its second recording, The Bells Must Ring! which features songs of the university along with several mainstays of the club's repertoire.
The Glee Club completed a successful tour of Eastern Europe in the summer of 1999 with concerts in such venues as the St. Martin's Dome in Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
and the Karlskirche
Karlskirche
The St. Charles's Church is a church situated on the south side of Karlsplatz, Vienna. It is located on the edge of the 1st district, 200 metres outside the Ringstraße...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria. In 2000 the Glee Club hosted the National Seminar of the Intercollegiate Men's Choruses.
In 2002, the Glee Club once again toured Europe with concert events in the Netherlands, Germany, and France. Performances were held at a number of famous venues, culminating with a performance during the eve of Pentecost mass at the Cathédral de Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...
at the invitation of the Cathedral's staff. There have also been recent concerts combined with or hosted by the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club
University of Michigan Men's Glee Club
The University of Michigan Men's Glee Club is an all-male glee club at the University of Michigan currently conducted by Eugene Rogers. With roots tracing back to 1859, it is the second oldest glee club in the United States and is the oldest student organization at the University...
and the Harvard Glee Club
Harvard Glee Club
The Harvard Glee Club is a 60-voice, all-male choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1858 in the tradition of English and American glee clubs, it is the oldest collegiate chorus in the US. The Glee Club is part of the Holden Choruses of Harvard University, which also include the...
. In the summer of 2007, the group embarked on a tour that included a performance at the invitation of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. In 2011, the RUGC did a two-week, eleven-concert tour of Italy, which included performances at St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, St. Mark's Basilica, and the Basilica di Sant'Agostino.
Musical tradition
While the Glee Club still performs traditional Rutgers Songs at football games (and directed the publication of a book thereof), the group has focused as well on concert performance. Under the leadership of "Soup" Walter, the Glee Club performed regularly with the New York PhilharmonicNew York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
and the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
under the batons of such notable directors as Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
and Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
. Recordings from that era include the Glee Club as the men's section in Carl Orff
Carl Orff
Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...
's Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana (Orff)
Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana...
(still available on compact disc on Sony's Essential Classics series), and the Grammy-nominated performance of Sir William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast
Belshazzar's Feast
Belshazzar's Feast is described in the Book of Daniel. The Babylonian king Belshazzar profanes the sacred vessels of the enslaved Israelites. As prophesied by the writing on the wall, and interpreted by Daniel, Belshazzar is killed and Darius the Mede succeeds to his kingdom.There are many...
, both conducted by Eugene Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
More recently, Dr. Patrick Gardner has prepared the Glee Club for a number of high profile performances, including performances of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's Gurrelieder under the baton of Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
and the Babi Yar
Babi Yar
Babi Yar is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and a site of a series of massacres carried out by the Nazis during their campaign against the Soviet Union. The most notorious and the best documented of these massacres took place on September 29–30, 1941, wherein 33,771 Jews were killed in a...
Symphony of Shostakovich conducted by Valery Gergiev
Valery Gergiev
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.- Early life :Gergiev,...
.
The group has three times performed for conventions of the American Choral Directors Association
American Choral Directors Association
The American Choral Directors Association , headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization with the stated purpose of promoting excellence in the field of choral music...
, in 2001 in San Antonio, in 2005 in New York City,of which included the premiere of a piece by Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon is an American composer of classical music. Higdon has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto and the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto.-Biography:Higdon was born in Brooklyn,...
, and in 2010 in Philadelphia. At the 2000 convention of the Intercollegiate Men's Choruses that the group hosted, the highlight was the premiere of The Miracle, written for chamber orchestra and men's chorus, commissioned by the club from Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize for Music
The Pulitzer Prize for Music was first awarded in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer did not call for such a prize in his will, but had arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year...
winning composer William Bolcom
William Bolcom
William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...
. The group has most recently performed at the 2010 IMC conference at the University of Miami Ohio, where they performed Elliot Carter's Tarantella and Steven Sametz's Dulcis Amor.
Directors
- Loren Bragdon: 1881 - 1896
- Howard D. McKinney: 1916 - 1946
- F. Austin "Soup" Walter, '32: 1946 - 1983
- Frederic Hugh Ford: 1983 - 1986
- Timothy L. McDonald, '77: 1986 - 1987
- Robert Kapilow: 1987 - 1988
- Stephen E. Barton: 1988 - 1991
- Bruce Kolb: 1991 - 1993
- Patrick Gardner: 1993 - present
See also
- Rutgers UniversityRutgers UniversityRutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
- Rutgers University student organizationsRutgers University student organizationsRutgers University hosts over 700 student organizations, covering a wide range of interests. Governed and funded by student government, students can organize groups for any political ideology or issue, ethnic or religious affiliation, academic subject, activity, or hobby...
- List of collegiate glee clubs