Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 23, 2001

Volume 29, Number 20

Sandra Boyton '74 created this poster for the Yale Glee Club's 140th reunion concert, which will feature a work by her and Fenno Heath '50, who was the group's longtime director.

Yale Glee Club salutes music's
power to mold lifelong friendships

To mark the Yale Glee Club's 140th anniversary, past and present members of the singing group will raise their voices in unison to celebrate the enduring nature of music and the lifelong friendships that can form on its behalf.

More than 300 Glee Club alumni, some from as far back as the Class of 1936, will return to campus for the anniversary performance, which has as its theme "Friendship Lasts When Youth Must Fail." The concert will be held on Saturday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m. in Woolsey Hall, corner of Grove and College streets.

The program will include a set of songs from the all-male Alumni Glee Club representing Yale College classes who graduated before 1970, in the days before coeducation, as well as a set of songs by the Alumni/ae Glee Club, representing the coeducational classes from 1971 onward. In addition, the Yale Glee Club of 2001 will perform a set of songs. In the final part of the concert, all of the groups will join together in song.

Highlights of the performance include the world premiere of "Lux et Veritas," written by Glee Club alumna and noted cartoonist Sandra Boynton '74 and Fenno F. Heath '50, another Yale Glee Club alumnus and a longtime conductor of the group. Boynton wrote the lyrics and Heath composed the music for the piece, which describes how music transcends worldly change and endures through the years.

Heath will conduct the Alumni Glee Club, while David Connell, current conductor of the Yale Glee Club, will conduct the Alumni/ae Glee Club and the Glee Club of 2001.

"One of the great things about singing is that it is something we keep on doing throughout life," says Connell. "Singing in college makes the time here so special, but what is also wonderful about the activity is that Yale singers create friendships that last for the rest of their lives. That's really what the anniversary concerts symbolize for us -- the endurance of singing and the way the activity binds us in friendship. The concert is a lifting up of the singing tradition."

Other highlights of the concert will include a special tribute to former Glee Club member Ben Cutler '26, who recently died. One of the oldest members of the Alumni Glee Club, Cutler earned fame among the group's members and their audiences for his solo renditions of the song "Serenade," a popular favorite at the alumni concerts. Members of the Alumni Glee Club will sing the song in honor of their fellow singer and friend.

Also on the program are spirituals, folk songs, traditional chanteys, religious hymns, a medley of football songs, and such traditional Yale favorites as "Bright College Years" and "Eli Yale."

"Each group of singers is singing its favorite numbers, which the members got to vote on," says Connell. "So we're covering a lot of the 'hit' songs."

General admission tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the Glee Club office, Rm. 201 of Hendrie Hall, 165 Elm St., or at the Woolsey Hall box office on the night of the concert, beginning at 6:15 p.m. For more information, call (203) 432-4136.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

New Berkeley College master named

Bollingen Prize in Poetry honors 'anguish and humor' of Louise Glück's 'Vita Nova'

Yale Glee Club salutes music's power to mold lifelong friendships

Architect Cesar Pelli to design Yale's new engineering building

Comedian Carlin shares tales from his 'very lucky' life

Yale College term bill is set at $34,030

Bentley Layton appointed to Goff chair in religious studies

Race is not a factor in the delivery of mental health services . . .

Graduate students give voice to their poetry in colloquium

Valesio group is 'an ongoing poem'

Candid close-ups are Yale police officer's hobby

Pioneering nurses will be honored at center's annual convocation

Grant to support field research by F&ES students

YUHS names new medical director

Pianist (and trained chemist) makes his faculty debut

Shakespeare-inspired music will be featured in concert by Yale Jazz Ensemble

Campus Notes