Any club that has been around for 140 years has reason to celebrate. But for the Virginia Glee Club, the oldest musical group and second oldest organization on Grounds, this impressive anniversary called for more major and higher key celebrations.
The anniversary was a week-long event, opening Friday night with a concert featuring the Virginia Glee Club, the Oriana Singers from Roanoke College and professional soloists. Accompanied by a full symphony orchestra, the choir sang Mozart's "Requiem" in the Cabell Hall Auditorium in an evening performance which included Assoc. Art Prof. William Bennet. The next day, alumni and members reprised their roles in several songs led by former conductors Don Loach, John Liepold, Bruce Tammen and current conductor Frank Albinder. The culminating performance of the day took place at 1 p.m. at Cabell Hall Auditorium.
"The Glee Club is known as a fraternity of talent and there is an enormous social aspect to these choruses," Albinder said. "These groups started in Wales, England, Germany and [were] made out of working groups, such as miners, so these are where the American groups came from. U.Va. is one of the oldest."
Albinder also explained that because students cannot major in performance at the University, the club offers a cross-section of students and community members.
For outgoing Glee Club President Patrick LeDuc, the club was a place where he could connect with music he grew up loving.
"One of my favorite pieces of music is 'Ave Maria' and in a competition in high school I got to sing it," he said. "When I came to the University I sang it and my mother was in the audience. I remember looking at her and seeing her crying. I'll never forget that moment."
For other members, the club offers deep connections to the University itself.
"Every time we perform the 'Good Old Song,' written by a former Virginia Glee Club member, we feel a deep connection to the University," said second-year College student Jacob Friedman, incoming president of the club. "I came to the University, and, like a lot of people, was looking for a niche. I found it here."
Saturday night the club celebrated with a banquet and former University President John T. Casteen, III was keynote speaker.
"The Glee Club and honor system are the two examples of organizations and traditions ... [which] have come out of the 1900s," Casteen said. "The Virginia Glee Club formed when the only choruses were men's groups and many of the groups on Grounds have splintered off this one. These two have survived because of student initiatives."
The club was founded in 1871, starting off as a non-organizational singing troupe. The club traces its beginnings to The Cabell House Men, formed in the 1870s. In 1895, the club became an independent organization under the McIntire School of Music.
"I'm one of the members who was under the music department, and I was in the University's third co-educational class," said Douglass List, a 1977 University graduate and chairman of the board of the Virginia Glee Club Alumni and Friends Association. "The pro quo was the Christmas concert, the central entertainment at Christmas. Another concert on the Lawn was 'Old MacDonald had a farm.'"
List's time marked the beginning of the club's growth into a mature organization.
"Some of the Virginia Glee Club's coming of age moments were in my second year, when we sang with Harvard, and in my fourth year, when we were first part of the Men's Voices, an intercollegiate men's chorus group," List said.
In 1988, the club split from the McIntire Department of Music and became the Virginia Glee Club. In 1996, Tammen, a faculty member of the McIntire Department of Music , was hired as music director.
"My best memories were of singing under Bruce; it was a magical experience," said Thomas Deal, a 2003 University graduate and president of the Virginia Glee Club Alumni and Friends Association.. "He is a giant in music."
The Glee Club later hired Albinder, Grammy award-winning conductor for a cappella group Chanticleer, as its musical director.
"The club has a long history of collaboration with other organizations on Grounds and with other universities, such as women's groups at Mount Holyoke, as well as Roanoke, Wellesley and Smith," Albinder said. "In its earlier days, the group teamed with the [Nursing School] to incorporate all ranges, from sopranos to altos and tenors, and still does with the female groups on Grounds."
As an independent organization, the club has members from many different places and generations, including University undergraduates, graduate students, alumni, community members and even high-school students.
"Our auditions are completely merit-based; your talent gets you in, and from there it's your potential," Deal said.
The club also developed alongside the University, as an organization embodying Jeffersonian ideals of self-governance.
"Students in this organization are paying their teacher - that's as Jeffersonian as it gets," Deal said. "In the early days of the University, professors would show up at Pavilions and give lectures. Students would pass around [a hat] and put money in [it] depending on what they thought of the lecture."
The club also reflected the changes in the University throughout its history.
"The '60s were defined by history-making events and the University was not immune to that," said David Temple Jr., a 1969 graduate of the University and one of the black members of the club.
"I was in choirs throughout my schooling; it was a natural transition for me to seek one out in college. The Glee Club gave me confidence and I enjoyed it. It gave me the opportunity to be less invisible and connect on a different medium. The fact that I'm here now 40 years later suggests this was a successful strategy."
With a knowledge of its own traditions and its epitome of University ideals, the club's forte clearly lies in its harmony.
"There is great camaraderie," Temple said. "Music brings us all together, to where practicing for the concert [this weekend], it felt as though we'd been practicing together for the past 40 years"
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