Harvard Choruses

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The Harvard Choruses are three choral ensembles at Harvard University, consisting of the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum (respectively a men's, a women's, and a mixed chorus.) Each year the three Harvard Choruses combine to perform a large choral-orchestral work.

Contents

The Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus is an adjunct member, consisting of both Harvard students and members of the broader community, and serving in part as a training chorus for the other groups.

The Harvard Choruses are under the direction of Harvard's Director of Choral Activities, Andrew Clark.

History

The all-male Harvard Glee-Club, the oldest university choir (collegiate glee-club) in America, was established in 1858 by the president of Harvard’s Pierian Sodality and several of their college friends. [1] Archibald T. Davison was the Glee Club's first conductor and he served as choirmaster there before joining the Harvard Music Department in 1910. The members, a combination of undergraduate and graduate level students, are predominantly known for singing the Harvard Fight songs at university events and their four cardinal virtues: glee, good humor, unity, and joy. [2] In 1899 the Radcliffe Choral Society was established as a treble choral ensemble. [3] The group is student run and managed. More recently came the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum which boasts the only co-ed membership of the three groups, and focuses primarily on early-Renaissance music.

Until 2016, the Harvard Choruses were commonly known as the Holden Choruses or Holden Chapel Choirs, names derived from the choirs' original rehearsal and office space at Holden Chapel in Harvard Yard. [4]

The choir groups are known for being competitive within the three groups themselves, yet there is a fraternity-like bond within the male Glee club and the unique groups themselves convene for social activities that allow close bonding and networking opportunities.

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Holden is an Australian subsidiary of General Motors.

Collegium Musicum

The Collegium Musicum was one of several types of musical societies that arose in German and German-Swiss cities and towns during the Reformation and thrived into the mid-18th century.

Glee club Musical group or choir group

A glee club in the United States 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 to have in American high schools from then on.

The Harvard Radcliffe Chorus (HRC) is the largest mixed choir at Harvard University and has a diverse membership consisting of faculty members, staff, community members, and both undergraduate and graduate students. HRC was founded in 1979 and continues to perform twice a year as of 2018. HRC usually performs its master concerts at Sanders Theatre at Harvard University, one of the many venues in the Boston area with high-quality acoustics. When a large pipe organ is required for a masterwork, such as Berlioz's Te Deum, the chorus performs in a large church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Harvard Glee Club Choral ensemble

The Harvard Glee Club is a Tenor-Bass choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1858 in the tradition of English and American glee clubs, it is the oldest collegiate chorus in the United States. The Glee Club is part of the Harvard Choruses of Harvard University, which also include the treble voice Radcliffe Choral Society and the mixed-voice Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. All three groups are led by Harvard's current Director of Choral Activities Andrew Gregory Clark.

Jameson Neil Marvin is an American choral conductor, composer, arranger, and editor who from 1978-2010 directed the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum and has also taught choral conducting at Harvard University. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Music from the University of Illinois, a Master of Arts in Choral Conducting from Stanford University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has worked with Howard Swan and Robert Shaw, and his students have gone on to lead major choruses throughout the country. With the Holden Choruses, he has made nearly a dozen appearances at conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, including six national conventions. His academic specialty is the music of the Renaissance, and he serves as principal editor of the Oxford Music Renaissance series. Marvin retired from Harvard at the end of the 2009-2010 academic school year.

The Harvard–Radcliffe Collegium Musicum is a mixed chorus at Harvard University, composed of roughly 50 voices from undergraduate and graduate student populations. Founded in 1971 to coincide with the coeducational merger of Harvard and Radcliffe College, Collegium drew from members of the Harvard Glee Club and the Radcliffe Choral Society to form a smaller mixed group that could represent Harvard on tours. Although Collegium used to perform primarily early Renaissance music, its repertoire now draws from centuries of a cappella and orchestral selections. Together with the (tenor-bass) Harvard Glee Club and the (soprano-alto) Radcliffe Choral Society, it is a member of the Harvard Choruses.

Radcliffe Choral Society Choral ensemble

The Radcliffe Choral Society(RCS) is a 60-voice treble choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1899, it is one of the country's oldest soprano-alto choruses and one of its most prominent collegiate choirs. With the tenor-bass Harvard Glee Club and the mixed-voice Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, it is one of the Harvard Choruses. All three groups are led by Harvard Director of Choral Activities Andrew Clark. The RCS Resident Conductor is Meg Weckworth. RCS tours domestically every year and travels internationally every four years.

Cornell University Chorus

The Cornell University Chorus was founded in 1920, initially as the Cornell Women's Glee Club. The Chorus is a sixty-member treble choir, with repertoire including masses, motets, spirituals, classical, folk, 20th-century music, and traditional Cornell songs. Aside from its constantly changing and increasing selection of choral music for treble voices, the Chorus also performs major works with the Cornell University Glee Club such as Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Handel's Messiah, and Bach's Mass in B Minor and St Matthew Passion.

Robert Kyr

Robert Harry Kyr is an American composer, writer, filmmaker, and Philip H. Knight Professor of Music Composition and Theory.

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.

Elliot Forbes

Elliot Forbes, known as "El", was an American conductor and musicologist noted for his Beethoven scholarship.

Frank Scott Albinder is a conductor of male choral music. A former director of Chanticleer, Albinder currently conducts the Washington Men's Camerata, the Woodley Ensemble, and the Virginia Glee Club, and is president of Intercollegiate Men's Choruses, Inc., a national association of men's choruses. Albinder designed the concept and chose the repertoire for Chanticleer's Grammy Award winning album Colors of Love. Albinder holds degrees in conducting and vocal performance. Perhaps his best known work is the vocal solo of Loch Lomond, featured on the Chanticleer album Wondrous Love. He is a past president of the Alumni Association of Pomona College in Claremont, California. Albinder lives and works primarily in the District of Columbia.

Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra

The Notre Dame Symphony Orchestra is the primary orchestra of the University of Notre Dame. The orchestra is an ensemble of 70-80 players devoted to the orchestral music of the 18th through 20th centuries. The orchestra is open to all members of the Notre Dame community; non-music majors who wish to continue instrumental performance during their college careers are particularly encouraged to participate. The orchestra currently rehearses on Tuesday evenings and presents three campus concerts in the Marie DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts. The orchestra also occasionally takes off-campus tours.

Donald Loach is Associate Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Virginia where he taught courses in music history and theory, and conducted numerous student choral ensembles including the University of Virginia Glee Club, University Singers, and Coro Virginia. In the Charlottesville community, he was for many years music director of the Charlottesville/Albemarle Oratorio Society now called the Oratorio Society of Virginia and of the senior choir of St. Paul's Memorial Church. In retirement he continued to teach general music courses, primarily for older students, through the UVa School of Continuing and Professional Studies and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. His principal field of scholarship centers on the history of Renaissance Music.

Andrew Keith Wailes is an Australian conductor and music director. Winner of the Australasian International Choral Conducting Competition in Brisbane in 1999, he is the current Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Melbourne University Choral Society, and Music Director and Conductor of the Box Hill Chorale. From 1999 to 2020 he served as Artistic Director of The Australian Children's Choir, and for a decade was Director of the Australian Catholic University Melbourne Campus Choir. He is a former President of the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association, and is a former Artistic Administrator and Artistic Director of The Chamber Strings of Melbourne.

The Ohio State University Men's Glee Club is an all-male choral ensemble at The Ohio State University. Officially founded in 1875, the Men's Glee Club is one of the oldest student organizations on Ohio State's campus and one of the oldest collegiate glee clubs in the United States. The group has garnered many accolades, most notably winning Choir of the World 1990 from the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.

Joyful Noise (chorus)

Joyful Noise is a chorus of fifty adults, ages 17–75, with physical or intellectual disabilities and acquired brain injuries. Founded in 2000 by Allison Fromm, director, and chorus member Elizabeth Fromm, the ensemble is hosted by Bancroft, a support program for those with disabilities in southern New Jersey and Delaware. Joyful Noise's mission is to foster an atmosphere of community, acceptance, and teamwork in which members can discover their voices and express themselves through music. Cathy Sonnenberg and Rob Kennan serve as associate director and Delaware director.

Scott Arthur Tucker is an American conductor. He is most widely known as the artistic director of The Choral Arts Society of Washington, a position he assumed in 2012, and as the director of choral music at Cornell University from 1995-2012.

References

  1. "Harvard Glee Club | About". harvardgleeclub.org. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  2. "Inside Harvard Choirs | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  3. "About". Radcliffe Choral Society. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  4. "History". RADCLIFFE CHORAL SOCIETY. Retrieved 2021-06-04.