David H. Connell ‘91 MUS, began his tenure with the Yale Glee Club in 1992, having served the previous year as Director of the Marquand Chapel Choir at Yale Divinity School. Also an accomplished organist, David served as Assistant Professor in the School of Music and the Institute of Sacred Music, where he created innovative and challenging courses in music literature and performance. As Director of the Yale Glee Club, he added new repertoire, particularly from contemporary American composers, while continuing to underscore the heritage and enduring spirit of the ensemble. David also served as the founding musical director of the Yale Alumni Chorus, leading the ensemble on its first two international tours. He currently serves on the faculty at the Governor’s School of North Carolina, and as Artist-in-Residence at Norfield Congregational Church in Weston, CT.
Past Directors
Widely respected as a composer, teacher and choral conductor, Fenno Heath was a mentor to generations of young singers as Yale Glee Club director, under whose inspired leadership the Yale Glee Club made the transition from TTBB chorus to mixed chorus.
Heath attended the Yale School of Music, where he earned his Mus.B. in 1951 and his Mus.M. in 1952 as a student of Quincy Porter and Paul Hindemith. He remained at Yale to work with student musicians, eventually becoming the first Marshall Bartholomew Professor of Choral Conducting. Heath brought international recognition to the Yale Glee Club through the many tours he led nationally and worldwide. Yale’s Alumni Chorus is an outgrowth of Heath’s success in creating a life-long love of song in his former singers.
Marshall Bartholomew directed the Yale Glee Club from 1921 to 1953. When he was appointed, the Yale Glee Club was a rather casual group specializing in light music; he raised performance standards, took on more ambitious repertoire, and toured widely. By the time of his retirement, the Yale Glee Club was internationally renowned. Under “Barty,” as Bartholomew was endearingly called by generations of Yale men, the Yale Glee Club became synonymous with the finest collegiate choral singing. At the time of his retirement in 1953, Bartholomew held the titles of Associate Professor of Singing, Director of Undergraduate Musical Activities, and Director of the Yale Glee Club. He was awarded an honorary M.A. in 1953 and the Yale Medal, the university’s highest alumni honor, in 1955. In living out his motto that “one of the troubles of our modern world is that there is too much talking and not enough singing,” he had in the space of twenty-three years personally arranged five major concert tours of Europe and one tour each of Latin America and the West Indies, bringing untold joy to both global audiences and the members of the Yale Glee Club who were privileged to take part in his vision of international exchange and better relations through the universal language of music. In his post-retirement years he labored on several drafts of a book-length history of music at Yale, which regrettably was never published. He remained engaged in Yale singing activities until his death in 1978, however, and was thus able to witness the furtherance and expansion of his mission by his successor, Fenno Heath. - from “Louder Yet the Chorus Raise!”: An Illustrated History of the Yale Glee Club, 1861-2011 by Timothy J. DeWerff
During his sixteen-year tenure as director, Goodale preserved the fundamental character and customs of the Yale Glee Club as established under Thomas Griffin Shepard. The roster remained at around two dozen, with the typical on-campus season schedule punctuated by annual Christmas tours by railway and the occasional spring excursion. With singing an increasingly prominent extracurricular activity at Yale, competition was thick to win one of the few slots available for new personnel each fall. More than two hundred students might audition annually for the approximately twelve new vacancies, and those who had studied voice privately were at an advantage. Rehearsals were held in the resonant acoustics of the Woolsey Rotunda, constructed for Yale’s bicentennial in 1901 and still a favorite gathering place for a cappella groups today. - from “Louder Yet the Chorus Raise!”: An Illustrated History of the Yale Glee Club, 1861-2011 by Timothy J. DeWerff
Thomas Griffin Shepard, known familiarly as “Shep” by a generation of Yale men, was described by Elmer P. Howe ’76 as “an accompanist— then almost without a rival; an inspiring conductor; a thorough musician; and a good fellow.” For thirty-two years Shep would guide the Yale Glee Club musically, broaden its exposure literally from coast to coast, and help institutionalize the organization through the stability of his lengthy tenure. - from “Louder Yet the Chorus Raise!”: An Illustrated History of the Yale Glee Club, 1861-2011 by Timothy J. DeWerff
Gustave J. Stoeckel is often considered the father of the Yale Glee Club. Born in the Bavarian Palatinate, he emigrated to the United States in 1848 for political sanctuary. Yale appointed Stoeckel instructor of vocal art, organist, and chapel master in 1854, whereupon he took charge of the chapel choir and was a general authority for all on-campus musical organizations including Cecilia, Beethoven, and the Yale Glee Club. He brought a solidly theoretical approach to his instruction, teaching students about the overtone series, church modes, and the use of solmization (do-re-mi syllables) for building sight-reading proficiency. Once these fundamentals were mastered, he taught his pupils a variety of sacred and secular songs
Stoeckel’s guiding hand was felt in the earliest days of the Yale Glee Club, since their student leader Howard Kingsbury was Stoeckel’s assistant chapel organist. Stoeckel introduced Bavarian yodels (then called “warbles”) to the Yale Glee Club as well as the iconic Yale anthem “’Neath the Elms,” which appeared in 1871. His engagement with the student ensemble was heightened when his son, Gustave Mozart Stoeckel, joined as a member of the class of 1872. Doubtless he coached the singers in vocal technique and guided them on repertoire, although any imaginings of him conducting the group in performance would be inaccurate. The Yale Glee Club was very much like today’s small a cappella groups, and its programming did not yet require the direction of a conductor.