User:Walkertron5000/Amherst College Glee Club

The Amherst College Glee Club, founded in 1865, is a 40 voice all-male vocal ensemble, and is the oldest continuous musical organization at Amherst College. It is part of the Amherst College Choral Society, along with the Women's Chorus, the Concert Choir, and the Madrigal Singers. The club has a history of extensive international touring, having to date performed in over 40 countries. It is currently directed by Amherst College Senior Lecturer in Music Mallorie Chernin.

Founding
The club was founded as a student-directed double-quartet in the spring semester of 1865 by Amherst senior Thomas E. Babb. Though the group nearly dissolved in 1867 when all but one of its members graduated, the club managed to resurrect itself after one lone year of inactivity. It continued to flirt with dissolution - some years being quite active and successful, others quite less so - until the fall of 1876 when it came under the professional direction and training of Professor Zuchtmann, a vocal instructor from Springfield. Under his leadership the club found more firm footing, and soon became a permanent fixture of Amherst College life.

Early Accomplishments
In 1894 it became the first American collegiate chorus to travel to England. In 1925 they sang at the White House for President Coolidge, and they twice won the New England Intercollegiate Glee Club Contest - once in 1928 and once in 1934.

Coming to Maturity
In 1963 the club came under the direction of Bruce G. McInnes, former director of the Yale Glee Club. Under his charismatic leadership, Glee Club membership boomed from under 30 in 1962 to over 100 in 1965. In 1967 the club embarked on the first of several "World Tours." These tours, each lasting over a month, eventually took the Glee Club to over 30 countries and featured a number of notable performances. They became the first American chorus to sing High Mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral, and sang for many notable people, including Pope Paul VI, King Mihendra and Queen Ratna of Nepal, president Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of the Ivory Coast, Princess Sarvath El Hassan of Jordan and noted composition teacher Nadia Boulanger.

Present
The Club continues to perform both locally and internationally. In their 2007 tour to Estonia they sang for Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and President Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

International Tours

 * 1894 - England
 * 1928 - Bermuda
 * 1961 - France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland
 * 1967 - "World Tour" - France, Italy, Greece, Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, USSR, Sweden, Denmark
 * 1969 - "World Tour" - Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Nepal, Iran, Lebanon, Greece, Yugoslavia, Austria, Czechoslovakia, France
 * 1972 - "African-Asian Tour" - ?
 * 1975 - "World Tour" - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Romania, Austria, France
 * 1977 - "Latin American Tour" - ? (13 countries)
 * 1983 - ?
 * 1990 - Russia, Czechoslovakia
 * 1995 - Poland, Czech Republic
 * 1999 - Austria, Italy
 * 2003 - Japan
 * 2007 - Iceland, Estonia
 * 2011 - Greece
 * 2011 - Greece

Notable Alumni

 * Albert II, Prince of Monaco
 * Dan Brown, author
 * John Coolidge, son of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge
 * Philip Gossett, noted musicologist
 * Caleb R. Layton, U.S. Representative for Delaware
 * George Adams Leland, doctor and educator
 * Edmund Phelps, awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics