Cornell University Glee Club to belt it for Bruin audience in Schoenberg
The Cornell University Glee Club will be performing at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall Saturday at 8 p.m. The concert is part of a California tour.
Credit: CORNELL UNIVERSITY GLEE CLUB
Cornell University Glee Club
Saturday, 8 p.m.
Schoenberg Hall, $10 with student ID
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 14, 2011 12:56 a.m.
Try as she might, Sue Sylvester would be powerless to stop the glee club about to perform at UCLA.
In fact, she might just catch herself swaying along to the music in a decidedly un-Sue-like fashion, her raging bullhorn lying on the floor below her, forgotten.
Saturday night, the Cornell University Glee Club will perform in UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall as part of its tour of various California college, high school and church venues.
The all-male vocal group, which consists of roughly 60 male performers, will perform a set of pieces that includes traditional folk songs, spiritual songs and pieces by California composers.
One of these Californian composers is David Lefkowitz, UCLA associate professor of music and head of composition.
He is also a Cornell alumnus and a former member of the glee club. Lefkowitz has composed an original piece titled “Four Rubaiyat” for the glee club to perform at the concert.
According to Lefkowitz, the piece is a setting of four of Edward FitzGerald’s transformations of Persian poet Omar Khayyam’s “Rubaiyat” poems.
“A lot of it sounds familiar to most people’s ears, but it doesn’t exactly follow the rules of tonality,” he said.
Cornell’s glee club brings with it a strong sense of tradition.
According to Asa Craig, a fourth-year government and Africana studies student at Cornell and president of the Glee Club, the group was founded in 1868 and is the oldest student organization at the university, as well as being one of the very first glee clubs.
Though the group is strongly rooted in tradition, the men of the glee club come from all different walks of life at Cornell.
In fact, according to Craig, only two or three members of the group are music students.
Despite the members of the group being so varied in terms of academic and extracurricular interests, Craig said everyone in the group is united in their interest in music.
Members also said they enjoy being in the group as a way to relax.
“I think (the club) is a great outlet for me. Cornell is tough. Being a part of this organization helps relieve stress,” said Daniel Cloutier, a fourth-year biology student at Cornell.
In addition to enjoying the simple pleasures of being in the group itself, members look to their annual tours as ways of letting off steam that has built up over the school year.
“(It’s) an opportunity to get away from campus and tour with friends in the group,” Craig said.
This enjoyment of touring and performing results in a relaxed performance atmosphere.
Also part of this laid-back performance style is a subset of the glee club: a 14-man a cappella group called The Hangovers.
The group, which is completely student-run, will perform a short set in between the two halves of the glee club’s performance.
According to Lefkowitz, The Hangovers perform more contemporary and popular music with humor and choreography.
Saturday night, all of these elements will combine for a high-quality and multifaceted listening experience.
Craig said he believes there are many things to enjoy about the concert, from the energy of the all-male ensemble to the wide breadth of music they will be performing.
“We’re at the top of our game, musically,” Cloutier said.
