1pm Gloucester Cathedral
7pm With Bridgend Male Voice Choir, St Mary's RC Church, Bridgend
7pm With Wessex Male Voice Choir, St John the Evangelist Church, Oxford
In aid of Parkinson's UK.
7.30pm Benefit Concert for Footsteps. St Mary's Church, Henley
1.05pm With the Show Choir of Trinity Laban, The Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich
The Rutgers University Glee Club is one of the oldest men's choruses in the United States tracing its roots back to 1872. Its early repertoire was dominated by songs promoting school spirit and the emerging collegiate sport of football which eventually led to an entire book of Glee Club songs built over decades with a rich tradition.
As the men of the Glee Club began to form the nucleus of the Rutgers University Chorus it continued to expand to include the mainstay of the serious choral repertory today which includes performance with orchestra, including the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, under the batons of such notable conductors as Erich Leinsdorf, Leonard Bernstein and Eugene Ormandy. Recordings from that era include Orff's Carmina Burana and a Grammy-nominated performance of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, both conducted by Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Under the direction of Dr. Patrick Gardner since 1993, the Glee Club has moved to the forefront of men's choral music, performing on a national and international stage and commissioning new works from major composers. In 2000, the Glee Club hosted the National Seminar of Intercollegiate Men's Choruses, highlighting the conference with the premiere of The Miracle, commissioned from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom and premiered other new works over these years. It has been invited to perform at many national choral conventions, performances included the premiere of Jennifer Higdon's Voice of the Bard, commissioned for the Glee Club.
In 2000, the Club performed Schoenberg's Gurrelieder under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. In 2003, the club joined the Philadelphia Singers to present Berlioz's Requiem at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and in the spring of 2006, the Club joined the men of the Riverside Choral Society and Kirkpatrick Choir to sing Shostakovich's Symphonies No. 2 and 3 with conductor Valery Gergiev and the Rotterdam Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall and the Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13 "Babi Yar," with Maestro Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra also at Avery Fisher Hall. The chorus also premiered a newly-discovered piano arrangement of the first movement, joined by pianists Misha and Cipa Dichter.
The Glee Club has increased its international profile with several tours that have included concerts at significant venues across Europe. Since 1996 the group traveled to the Baltic States, Eastern Europe, Germany, France, Netherlands, and Italy. Venues highlights include the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris, the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Chartres and Eglise Saint-Sulpice in France; the Berliner Dom, Dresden's Dreikönigskirche, and the Thomaskirche of Leipzig. While in Italy the group performed at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, and San Marco Basilica in Venice.
Posted: Sat 09th May 2015