Harvard Glee Club
Encyclopedia
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
ensemble at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Founded in 1858
1858 in music
-Events:*January 25 — The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn is played at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter "Vicky," the Princess Royal, to Prince Friedrich of Prussia, leading to its becoming popular wedding music....
in the tradition of English and American glee club
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...
s, it is the oldest collegiate chorus in the US. The Glee Club is part of the Holden Choruses
Holden Choruses
The Holden Choirs are three choral ensembles at Harvard University, consisting of the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum Each year the three Holden Choirs combine to perform a large choral-orchestral work...
of Harvard University, which also include the all-female Radcliffe Choral Society
Radcliffe Choral Society
The Radcliffe Choral Society is a 60-voice all-female choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1899, it is one of the country's oldest women's chorus and one of its most prominent collegiate choirs. With the all-male Harvard Glee Club and the mixed-voice Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium...
and the mixed-voice Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum
Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum
The Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum is a mixed chorus at Harvard University, composed of roughly 60 voices, drawing from both the undergraduate and graduate student populations...
. All three groups are led by Harvard's Director of Choral Activities Andrew Clark and Associate Conductor Kevin C. Leong. The Glee Club's assistant conductor is Michael C. McGaghie.
The Glee Club was long a fixture of the Boston music scene, performing frequently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
and other ensembles, but this local prominence has lessened in recent years. However, thanks to over 80 annual spring tours to different regions of the United States and appearances at the Kennedy Center Honors and in 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...
's popular series The Unanswered Question, the Glee Club has garnered some national recognition; tours around the world have brought the group further attention. A number of notable people were members of the Glee Club during their time at Harvard, and numerous major composers of the 20th and 21st centuries have dedicated works to the group.
Founding and development
Glee (music)
A glee is an English type of part song spanning the late baroque, classical and early romantic periods. It is usually scored for at least three voices, and generally intended to be sung unaccompanied. Glees often consist of a number of short, musically contrasted movements and their texts can be...
and part-songs. The group remained small until the end of the nineteenth century, when growth in its size and on-campus profile made higher musical aspirations possible. In 1919, it invited Dr. Archibald T. "Doc" Davison, the choirmaster of Harvard's Memorial Church
Memorial Church of Harvard University
The Memorial Church of Harvard University, more commonly known as the Harvard Memorial Church is a building on the campus of Harvard University.-Predecessors:...
, to become Glee Club conductor. In 1921
1921 in music
-Events:* Clarence Williams makes his first recordings* The Harvard Glee Club takes its first trip to Europe, garnering international press attention.* Amelita Galli-Curci marries her accompanist, Homer Samuels....
, the Glee Club embarked on its first European tour, which, though not the first such tour by a college group, was the most extensive to that point. The group was officially invited by the government of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and the tour was covered by the press in the US and Europe. This tour also resulted in a spate of new work written expressly for the Glee Club by such composers as Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
, Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
, and Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
. Under "Doc" Davison, the Glee Club and the Radcliffe Choral Society
Radcliffe Choral Society
The Radcliffe Choral Society is a 60-voice all-female choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1899, it is one of the country's oldest women's chorus and one of its most prominent collegiate choirs. With the all-male Harvard Glee Club and the mixed-voice Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium...
became the choruses of choice for the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
and frequently recorded with them. Their recording of La Damnation de Faust won a Grand Prix du Disc, and a recording of the Mozart Requiem in memory of former U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
and Harvard graduate John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
received a nomination for a Grammy. The relationship with the BSO continued until the creation of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
The Tanglewood Festival Chorus is a chorus which performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops in major choral works. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus was organized in the spring of 1970, when conductor John Oliver became director of vocal and choral activities at the Tanglewood Music...
; both Club and Society continue to sing with the BSO on occasion.
Since the retirement of Doc Davison, the Glee Club has had only five conductors: G. Wallace “Woody” Woodworth, who led the group from 1933 to 1958; noted Beethoven scholar Elliot Forbes
Elliot Forbes
Elliot Forbes , known as "El", was an American conductor and musicologist noted for his Beethoven scholarship.-Life and career:...
, from 1958 to 1970, who led the group on an extensive tour around the world in 1961
1961 in music
-Events:*January 15 – Motown Records signs The Supremes.*January 20 – Francis Poulenc's Gloria receives its premiėre in Boston, USA.*February 12 – The Miracles' "Shop Around" becomes Motown's first million-selling single....
; F. John Adams, 1970–1978; Jameson N. Marvin, 1978-2010; and Andrew G. Clark through the present.
Under the leadership of Jameson Marvin as conductor of the Glee Club, the group continued to tour extensively, and was invited to a number of 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...
, invitations that were extended only through a blind audition
Blind audition
-Theatre:In the context of a theatrical audition, a blind audition is an audition for an actor where there is no script for them to read from and they have to improvise lines...
process. Most recently, the Glee Club appeared at regional conventions in Pittsburgh in 2002 and Boston in 2004 and at a national convention in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 2005. Concerts led by Marvin were favorably received across the country and around the world.
Notable alumni
Many Glee Club members and assistant conductors have gone on to become leaders of American music, including composers, choral directors, and orchestra managers across the country. Alumni of the Glee Club notable for careers in music include:- Virgil ThomsonVirgil ThomsonVirgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
, who was assistant conductor on the 1921 European tour - Elliott CarterElliott CarterElliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
, who remarked, "I owe my knowledge of music to the Harvard Glee Club" - William ChristieWilliam Christie (musician)William Lincoln Christie is an American-born French conductor and harpsichordist. He is noted as a specialist in baroque repertoire and as the founder of the ensemble Les Arts Florissants....
, also briefly the group's accompanist - Leonard BernsteinLeonard BernsteinLeonard 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...
- Irving FineIrving FineIrving Gifford Fine was an American composer. Fine's work assimilated neo-classical, romantic and, later, serial elements...
- John HarbisonJohn HarbisonJohn Harris Harbison is an American composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.-Life:...
- Hugh WolffHugh WolffHugh Wolff is an American conductor.He was born in Paris while his father was serving in the U. S. Foreign Service, then spent his primary-school years in London. He received his higher education at Harvard and at Peabody Conservatory...
- William MartinWilliam Martin (tenor)William Martin was an American classical tenor. Born in Massachusetts, he studied singing with Leveret Merrill, A Sujol, and Florence Holtzman. A graduate of Harvard University, he was for many years a member of the Harvard Glee Club. He made his professional opera debut in 1923 in the title role...
, operatic tenor - Albert K. "Nick" Webster, former CEO of the New York PhilharmonicNew York PhilharmonicThe 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"...
- Scott Tucker, current director of the Cornell University Glee Club and Chorus
- Ethan Sperry, current director of Choirs at Portland State UniversityPortland State UniversityPortland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in...
and of the Oregon Repertory SingersOregon Repertory SingersThe Oregon Repertory Singers is a mixed vocal ensemble in Portland, Oregon, founded in 1974. The choir performs a wide range of works from all time periods and languages, although over the years a special emphasis has been placed on contemporary music of the Americas.-Recordings:Since 1980, ORS...
; formerly director of Miami University'sMiami UniversityMiami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...
Men's Glee Club and Collegiate Chorale - Jeffrey Bernstein, founder and artistic director of the Pasadena Master Chorale, and former director of choral music at Occidental CollegeOccidental CollegeOccidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
- Isaiah JacksonIsaiah JacksonIsaiah Allen Jackson is an African American conductor of world renown. He has recently concluded a seven year term as conductor of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, of which he has been named Conductor Emeritus...
, director of Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra - Robert Isaacs, interim director of the Princeton Glee ClubPrinceton Glee ClubThe Princeton Glee Club is the oldest and most prestigious choir at Princeton University, composed of approximately 50 mixed voices. They give multiple performances throughout the year featuring music from Baroque to Modern, and also tour internationally every other year...
; formerly director of choral activities at the Manhattan School of MusicManhattan School of MusicThe Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition... - Noel Jan TylNoel Jan TylNoel Jan Tyl is an American humanistic astrologer and writer of many books on the subject. In the 1960s and 70s he was a bass-baritone opera singer who was particularly noted for his Wagnerian roles.-Life and career:...
, opera singer and former business manager of Houston Grand OperaHouston Grand OperaHouston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
In addition, a number of Harvard Glee Club alumni have gone on to distinguished careers in other areas. They include:
- Theodore RooseveltTheodore RooseveltTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, twenty-sixth President of the United StatesPresident of the United StatesThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.... - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, thirty-second President of the United StatesPresident of the United StatesThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
- Harry BlackmunHarry BlackmunHarold Andrew Blackmun was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 until 1994. He is best known as the author of Roe v. Wade.- Early years and professional career :...
, Supreme Court Justice and author of the majority opinion in Roe v. WadeRoe v. WadeRoe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,... - John "Jack" ReedJohn Silas ReedJohn Silas "Jack" Reed was an American journalist, poet, and communist activist, best remembered for his first-hand account of the Bolshevik Revolution, Ten Days that Shook the World...
, author of Ten Days that Shook the WorldTen Days that Shook the WorldTen Days that Shook the World is a book by American journalist and socialist John Reed about the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 which Reed experienced firsthand. Reed followed many of the prominent Bolshevik leaders, especially Grigory Zinoviev and Karl Radek, closely during his time in Russia...
, who was also President of the Harvard Glee Club - Jesse Francis "Jeff" Bingaman Jr.Jeff BingamanJesse Francis "Jeff" Bingaman, Jr. , is the senior U.S. Senator from New Mexico and a member of the Democratic Party...
, U.S. Senator from New Mexico - G.C. WaldrepG.C. WaldrepGeorge Calvin Waldrep is an American poet and historian. -Biography:Waldrep earned undergraduate and doctoral degrees in History at Harvard University and Duke University, respectively, before receiving an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa.He was visiting professor at Kenyon...
, American poet - Noam ElkiesNoam ElkiesNoam David Elkies is an American mathematician and chess master.At age 14, Elkies received a gold medal with a perfect score at the International Mathematical Olympiad, the youngest ever to do so...
, mathematician
The Glee Club today
The Harvard Glee Club is faculty-directed but entirely student-managed. Students hold the elected positions of President, Vice President, and Secretary; they also hold appointed positions such as Manager, Financial Manager, and Sales Manager. Each tour and major project, such as a large concert or production and release of a recording, has its own student manager. As such, the students themselves are in charge of selecting concert venues, managing a six-figure yearly budget, and taking care of virtually every facet of the group other than rehearsing and selecting repertoire.The Glee Club rehearses in Holden Chapel
Holden Chapel
Holden Chapel is a small building in Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University. Completed in 1744, it is the third oldest building at Harvard and one of the oldest college buildings in America.-Early history:In December 1741, Mrs...
in Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard is a grassy area of about , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...
. Built in 1744, Holden is one of the oldest college buildings in America.
The group performs most of its "home" concerts in Harvard's Sanders Theatre, which is renowned for its excellent acoustics.
Each year, major concerts include the Harvard-Princeton
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....
and Harvard-Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
Football Concerts, joint concerts that have taken place the night before these football games for more than a century; annual concerts also take place with the Radcliffe Choral Society
Radcliffe Choral Society
The Radcliffe Choral Society is a 60-voice all-female choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1899, it is one of the country's oldest women's chorus and one of its most prominent collegiate choirs. With the all-male Harvard Glee Club and the mixed-voice Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium...
at Christmas and with all of the Holden Choruses during Harvard's Arts First
Arts First
Arts First is a celebration held at Harvard University each May that includes performances or shows involving virtually every musical, theatrical, and artistic group on campus. It was founded by alum John Lithgow in 1994 as a festival honoring the enormous artistic community at Harvard, and has...
celebration in May. The Glee Club tours a different part of the United States every spring break; recent spring tours have taken the group to northern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, the Upper Midwest
Upper Midwest
The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the midwest. Although there are no uniformly agreed-upon boundaries, the region is most commonly used to refer to the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and...
, the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
, and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. The Glee Club also takes month-long summer tours roughly every 4 years. Recent summer tours have included trips to East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
(1993), Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
(1998), Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
(2002), and Central Europe (2005). During the most recent tour to Central Europe, the group performed at such venues as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Mariacki Church
St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków
St. Mary's Basilica , is a Brick Gothic church re-built in the 14th century , adjacent to the Main Market Square in Kraków, Poland...
in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, the Matthias Church
Matthias Church
Matthias Church is a church located in Budapest, Hungary, at the heart of Buda's Castle District. According to church tradition, it was originally built in Romanesque style in 1015. The current building was constructed in the florid late Gothic style in the second half of the 14th century and was...
in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, and as guests of the Kodály Festival in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and the Dvorák
Dvorák
- Dvořák or Dvorak :* Ann Dvorak , American film actress* Antonín Dvořák , Czech composer of Romantic music* August Dvorak , American psychologist, co-creator of the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard...
Festival near Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
.
The 2007-2008 season marked the 150th anniversary of the Glee Club's founding. Highlights included a week-long tour of the Eastern Seaboard and a three-day festival in Cambridge from April 11–13, 2008. Nearly four hundred alumni of the Glee Club attended the April festivities, which included the world premiere of Dominick Argento
Dominick Argento
Dominick Argento is an American composer, best known as a leading composer of lyric opera and choral music...
's "Apollo in Cambridge: A Harvard Triptych," a performance of Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms
Symphony of Psalms
The Symphony of Psalms by Igor Stravinsky was written in 1930 and was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This piece is a three-movement choral symphony and was composed during Stravinsky's neoclassical period. The symphony derives...
with the combined Holden Choruses and orchestra, seminars on a variety of musical, academic, and historical topics, and a well-attended Sesquicentennial Banquet.
The anniversary celebration continued into the summer of 2008 with a cross-country concert tour culminating in appearances at Walt Disney Concert Hall
Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Avenue, 1st and 2nd Streets, it seats 2,265 people and serves as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the...
and the Ravinia Festival.
Musical tradition
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Gesang der Geister über den Wassern, Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
's Alt-Rhapsodie, 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 A Survivor from Warsaw
A Survivor from Warsaw
A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46, is a work for narrator, men's chorus, and orchestra written by the Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg in 1947. The initial inspiration for the work was a suggestion from the Russian émigrée dancer Corinne Chochem for a work to pay tribute to the Holocaust victims of...
, and Argento
Dominick Argento
Dominick Argento is an American composer, best known as a leading composer of lyric opera and choral music...
's Revelation of St. John the Divine.
Symphony collaborations over the years have included multiple performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
(BSO) under all of its conductors since 1917, as well as with the New York
New 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 Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
s, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the Italian Radio Orchestra. Some BSO highlights include the American premiere of Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
’s Oedipus Rex, later recorded with the BSO under Bernstein, two Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
recordings - Romeo et Juliet and La Damnation de Faust, and Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
’s Requiem. In 1973, the Glee Club performed Bernstein's Chichester Psalms
Chichester Psalms
Chichester Psalms is a choral work by Leonard Bernstein for boy treble or countertenor, solo quartet, choir and orchestra...
with the composer conducting at the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
. The Glee Club now frequently performs with Boston's Orchestra of Emmanuel Music.
Finally, the Glee Club frequently performs traditional Harvard football songs, such as "Yo-Ho," "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard," "Harvardiana," "The Gridiron King," "Soldiers' Field," and "Up the Street."
Glee Club Lite
The Glee Club also has a subset called "Harvard Glee Club Lite" (or simply "Lite"). This group, which features 12-16 singers and performs pop and jazz a cappella arrangements, was formed in 1985 to give Glee Club members a chance to sing a wider range of music; Harvard has over a dozen a cappella groups on campus, and Lite allows students to experience both types of ensemble - a small, student-directed pop-driven group and a larger, faculty-led choral ensemble. At any given point in time, much or all of Lite's repertoire is arranged for voices by student members of the group.Composers who have dedicated works to the Harvard Glee Club
Another cornerstone of the Glee Club's repertoire is contemporary music; the group has a long history of commissioning or simply receiving work from prominent composers, some of whom are listed below, with the title of the work when available; each published work notes the dedication to the Glee Club on its title page:- Darius MilhaudDarius MilhaudDarius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
(Psaume 121) - Francis PoulencFrancis PoulencFrancis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
(Chanson au boire) - Gustav HolstGustav HolstGustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
("A Love Song", "How Mighty are the Sabbaths" and "Before Sleep" from Six Choruses, 1931-2) - Walter PistonWalter PistonWalter Hamor Piston Jr., , was an American composer of classical music, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University whose students included Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, and Elliott Carter....
(Carnival Song) - Irving FineIrving FineIrving Gifford Fine was an American composer. Fine's work assimilated neo-classical, romantic and, later, serial elements...
(Vultur Gryphus and others) - Samuel AdlerSamuel Adler (composer)Samuel Hans Adler is an American composer and conductor.-Biography:Adler was born to a Jewish family in Mannheim, Germany, the son of Hugo Chaim Adler, a cantor and composer, and Selma Adler. The family fled to the United States in 1939, where Hugo became the cantor of Temple Emanuel in...
(Two Songs of Peace) - Paul MoravecPaul MoravecPaul Moravec is an American composer and a University Professor at Adelphi University on Long Island, New York...
(Credo) - Leonard BernsteinLeonard BernsteinLeonard 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...
(Dedication) - Elliot Carter (Tarantella, The Defense of Corinth, Emblems)
- John HarbisonJohn HarbisonJohn Harris Harbison is an American composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.-Life:...
(Nunc Dimittis) - Virgil ThomsonVirgil ThomsonVirgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
(Cantates Licet usque Eamus) - Randall ThompsonRandall ThompsonRandall Thompson was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works.-Career:He attended Harvard University, became assistant professor of music and choir director at Wellesley College, and received a doctorate in music from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music...
(Quis multa gracilis, The Peaceable Kingdom and others) - Toru TakemitsuToru Takemitsuwas a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...
(Grass) - Morten LauridsenMorten LauridsenMorten Johannes Lauridsen is an American composer. He was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 30 years.-Biography:Lauridsen was born February 27, 1943, in...
(Ave Dulcissima Maria) - Sir John Tavener (Awed by the Beauty)
- Stephen PaulusStephen PaulusStephen Paulus is an American composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His best-known piece is his 1982 opera The Postman Always Rings Twice, one of several operas he has written for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, which prompted The New York Times to call him "a young man on the road...
(Shall I Compare Thee) - Dominick ArgentoDominick ArgentoDominick Argento is an American composer, best known as a leading composer of lyric opera and choral music...
(Apollo in Cambridge) - Carol Barnett (One Equal Music)
- Frank FerkoFrank FerkoFrank Ferko is an American composer.Ferko played piano from childhood, and worked as an organist and conductor in his teens. His first compositions were primarily liturgical in nature, with Lutheran composer Richard Wienhorst being an early influence...
(O Coruscans Lux Stellarum) - Charles Fussell (A Walt Whitman Sampler)
- Tarik O'ReganTarik O'ReganTarik O'Regan , full name Tarik Hamilton O'Regan , is a British composer, partly of Algerian extraction. His compositions number over 90 and are partially represented on 22 recordings which have been recognised with two GRAMMY nominations. He is also the recipient of two British Composer Awards...
("Se Lamentar Augelli")
In addition, the Glee Club's conductors have a long tradition of dedicating folk song arrangements and editions of Renaissance vocal pieces to the group; Jameson Marvin's arrangements are published primarily by Oxford University Publishing and Earthsongs.