During the early years of the Yale Glee Club’s history, the group’s repertoire consisted largely of light college songs, popular songs, and folk songs. In the first half of the 20th century, under the leadership of the Yale Glee Club’s fourth director, Marshall Bartholomew, the ensemble’s repertoire expanded to embrace a broad spectrum of music from the 16th century to the present, including Renaissance motets, 19th-century part songs, and contemporary works, along with music from folk traditions throughout the world, traditional Yale songs, and occasional performances of large-scale orchestral works.
The Yale Glee Club has long been committed to the creation of new music. Notable among the Yale Glee Club’s premieres in the 20th century are Heitor Villa-Lobos’s José (1945), and Paul Hindemith’s The Demon of the Gibbet (1949). More recent commissions and premieres include works by such renowned composers as Dominick Argento, Julia Wolfe, Jennifer Higdon, Caroline Shaw, James Macmillan, Ayanna Woods, Shruthi Rajasekar, Ned Rorem, Ted Hearne, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Jocelyn Hagen, Dale Trumbore, Angélica Negrón, Hilary Purrington, Bright Sheng, Ingram Marshall, Michael Gilbertson, Jan Sandström, Joel Thompson, Christopher Theofanidis, and many others.
Choral orchestral masterworks have also been an important part of the Yale Glee Club’s repertoire for many decades. Performances in recent seasons include Verdi Requiem, Mozart Requiem, Marianna Martines Mass in C, Nunes Garcia Te Deum, Poulenc Gloria, Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, Shaw Music in Common Time, Orff Carmina Burana, Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem, Bernstein Chichester Psalms, Britten War Requiem, and Cantata Misericordium, Fauré Requiem, Haydn Missa in Tempore Belli, Missa in angustiis, and Creation, Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Nänie, and Schicksalied, Mendelssohn Elijah, Penderecki Credo, Aaron Jay Kernis Symphony of Meditations, Purrington Words for Departure, Christopher Theofanidis Siddhartha, She, and choral symphonies of Mahler and Beethoven.
The Yale Glee Club’s concert season typically begins with a series of fall concerts, including its Family Weekend Concert, joint concerts with the Princeton and Harvard Glee Clubs, and an annual performance at the Yale Club of NYC. The spring semester is typically devoted to the performance of larger orchestral works, often in collaboration with the Yale Symphony Orchestra and Yale Philharmonia. The Yale Glee Club has also for many years hosted an annual audience singalong performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and since 2002 has hosted a festival for high school choirs in New Haven Public Schools. The Yale Glee Club has performed in many iconic venues throughout the world, including Lincoln Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, Notre Dame de Paris, San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, and Carnegie Hall.