Homepage

The Yale Glee Club is the University’s principal undergraduate SATB choir and oldest musical organization. Led by a School of Music faculty conductor, the 85-voice ensemble is comprised of students from many backgrounds with diverse musical and academic interests and is committed to the collaborative pursuit of musical excellence as a formative component of a liberal arts education.

The Glee Club’s repertoire spans eras, styles, and cultures, while acknowledging the tradition of concert music. The group promotes new contributions to the field of choral music through initiatives that highlight historically excluded voices, expanding the boundaries of collegiate choral singing and embracing change and the reflective conversations that come with it.

The Glee Club aims to make a positive impact in our local community and beyond through musical collaborations and arts-related service work. The group strives to cultivate a welcoming and inclusive community, foster friendships and camaraderie, and prepare members with the skills and context needed for a lifelong appreciation of music-making.

As a musical organization that believes in the power of the arts and of singing in particular to build community, we stand in solidarity with the millions in our country and around the world who have spoken out in recent days against the senseless murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers, and against the long, painful legacy of institutionalized racism that remains woven into the fabric of our society and has resulted in countless injustices, named and unnamed, against Black people and other people of color. Black Lives Matter.

We join other arts organizations around the country in committing to singing works by creators of color in every public performance during the upcoming academic year and to maintaining and broadening our commitment to diversity in programming in future seasons.

As an organization cognizant of its history and institutional privilege, we commit to educating ourselves about the historical and cultural context of our repertoire and our role in singing it.

We recommit ourselves to maintaining, strengthening, and expanding our partnerships within our local community, to devoting significant financial resources in the upcoming year and in future years to these efforts, and to encouraging our alumni to donate to these efforts as well.

And we urge members of the Yale Glee Club community and the broader choral community to take action both as individuals and as organizations by donating, contacting your elected representatives, signing petitions, or getting involved in local organizations that promote justice, equity, and inclusion.

June 2020