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The Princeton University Glee Club is the oldest and most prestigious choir at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, composed of approximately 100 mixed voices. They give multiple performances throughout the year featuring music from Renaissance to Modern, and also tour internationally biannually. They have performed recently with Bobby McFerrin, Roomful of Teeth, Calmus, and a collection of the world's premier oktavists. Currently the
Glee Club 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 by trios or quartets. In the late 19th century it w ...
is led by
Gabriel Crouch Gabriel Crouch is a British baritone, choral conductor, and record producer. Early life Gabriel Crouch was born on 19 September 1973. Musically inclined since the age of eight, he joined the choir of Westminster Abbey. He became the Head Choris ...
.


General information

The Princeton University Glee Club is the oldest singing group in existence at Princeton. It was founded in 1874 by
Andrew Fleming West Andrew Fleming West (May 17, 1853 – December 27, 1943) was an American classicist, and first dean of the Graduate School at Princeton University. Biography West was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania on May 17, 1853. He studied at Princeton ...
'74, who later became the first Dean of the Graduate College. The Glee Club is currently celebrating its 146th season of concerts. In 1907 Charles E. Burnham was the first professional musician to lead the Glee Club. He was succeeded in 1918 by Alexander Russell, who served until 1934, when the Glee Club became a responsibility of the music faculty. James Giddings became director in 1934, Timothy Cheney in 1940, J. Merrill Knapp in 1941, Russell Ames Cook in 1943, J. Merrill Knapp again in 1946, Elliot Forbes in 1952, Carl Weinrich in 1953, Walter L. Nollner in 1958, William Trego in 1992, Richard Tang Yuk in 1994, Robert Isaacs in 2009, and
Gabriel Crouch Gabriel Crouch is a British baritone, choral conductor, and record producer. Early life Gabriel Crouch was born on 19 September 1973. Musically inclined since the age of eight, he joined the choir of Westminster Abbey. He became the Head Choris ...
since 2010. On the eve of the
College football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...
games in 1913, the Glee Club held its first concerts with the Glee Clubs of
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and
Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
Universities, beginning a tradition of joint concerts that have continued to this day. The Princeton University Glee Club was involved in some remarkable projects in the 1930s. They gave the American Premiere of Stravinsky's ''Oedipus Rex'' with
Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appear ...
and the
Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscriptio ...
in 1931; performances of
Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...
's ''
Gurrelieder ' is a large cantata for five vocal soloists, narrator, chorus and large orchestra, composed by Arnold Schoenberg, on poems by the Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen (translated from Danish to German by ). The title means "songs of Gurre", refe ...
'' and
Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's ''
Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival ...
'' in 1932 and 1933; Bach's ''Mass in B Minor'' at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1935; and with the Vassar College Choir, gave the first United States performance of
Jean Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; – ) was a French composer and music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera ...
's ''Castor et Pollux'' in 1937. The Glee Club continued to sing with women's choral groups from Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley,
Mount Holyoke Mount Holyoke, a traprock mountain, elevation , is the westernmost peak of the Holyoke Range and part of the 100-mile (160 km) Metacomet Ridge. The mountain is located in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts, and is the ...
, and
Smith Smith may refer to: People * Metalsmith, or simply smith, a craftsman fashioning tools or works of art out of various metals * Smith (given name) * Smith (surname), a family name originating in England, Scotland and Ireland ** List of people wi ...
Colleges until a mixed Princeton chorus was formed after the advent of coeducation. From 1958 to 1992 Walter L. Nollner led the Glee Club, giving him the honor of the longest tenure of any previous conductor. Under his direction the choir traveled outside the United States for the first time, establishing a pattern of international concert tours to Europe, Asia,
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...
and the South Pacific, including two around-the-world tours. In honour of Professor Nollner's service to the Glee Club, an
endowment fund A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...
has been established in his name to assist the Glee Club with its yearly operations. The Nollner Endowment Fund was officially launched in February 1999. The Glee Club has continued their tradition of overseas concert tours (most recently traveling to Buenos Aires, Paris, Leipzig, Prague, South Africa, Spain, and Mexico) and expanded the repertoire to include more works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Glee Club presents several concerts in Alexander Hall on the Princeton campus. They perform a major oratorio each spring with professional soloists and orchestra. Recent masterworks performed include Orff's
Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent ...
, Mendelssohn's ''Elijah'', Bach's ''St. Matthew Passion'' and ''Mass in B minor'', Mozart's ''Requiem'', and Honneger's ''Le Roi David''.


References

{{Authority control Princeton University Musical groups established in 1874 University musical groups Glee clubs 1874 establishments in New Jersey