de-rol-rol-rol Fol-de-rolNewsletter of the Yale Glee Club Associates Summer 2010 150th’s Key Signature: Gala Feb. 11-13 Weekend By Clay Kaufman and Rita Helfand It’s almost here!!! For the last few years we’ve been telling you about our plans to celebrate the Yale Glee Club’s 150th anniver- sary, and the celebration starts this coming year! Would those thirteen singers who got together 150 years ago ever have dreamed what they started? Now, there will be many events happening throughout the year (see below), so depending upon where you live, you may get multiple op- portunities to celebrate. You’ll hear more details as events draw near, but let’s start with the biggie. If you haven’t already marked your calendars, please do so now. The REUNION WEEKEND will be Songbooks, Glee Club Series the weekend of FEBRUARY 11- 13, 2011. What better way to cel- ebrate the weekend before Valentine’s Day! As we’ve mentioned Carry Yale Songs World-Wide before, this weekend will include: By Linus Travers and Tim DeWerff • the ‘traditional’ reunion weekend filled with what else In its 150 years of existence, the Yale but time for a lot of singing (including TTBB and SATB Glee Club has given thousands of young men— choruses) and a concert and, for the last four decades, fortunately, • lectures from famous choral conductors women—opportunities to sing good music in • panel discussions from YGCA alums marvelous venues with talented directors and, • the debut of the documentary we have commissioned occasionally, superlative orchestras. Bravo! Yale’s • a special reception and dinner in Commons choral singers have truly benefitted form a singu- • Dance the night away larly intense tradition. That’s looking inward, celebrating the We’ve also heard rumors that the old Banjo club may get resur- impact of this experience on thousands of Yale’s rected, hmmm . as well as a few other surprises. For those singers. But two other elements of the tradition who haven’t sung with Jeff Douma yet, you’re in for a real treat. have had immeasurable impact on hundreds of But perhaps the biggest treat of all is seeing all of your fellow thousands of non-Yale singers throughout the glee club alums! Which gets us to our next point: world: The Yale Songbook and G. Schirmer’s Yale Glee Club Series. CALLING ALL ALUMS! The weekend will be even more Ten or more generations of collegians extraordinary if all of our alums return. We would like to ask have drawn from the Yale Song Book many former YGC Presidents, business managers, tour managers to of the works they have performed in concert halls, common rooms, bars, on ships and trains, continued on page 6 continued on page 6 And Then Into The World We Come . Bill Flanders ‘55 Awarded YGCA President Clay Kaufman ‘84 2010 Yale Glee Club Medal Wow. The 150th Anniversary year is finally upon us. What a privilege and honor to be part of it, “Deep River” specialist and the and what excitement there is in anticipation of the Glee Club’s prime Washington, DC, many events you will read about in this edition of insider, Bill Flanders ‘55 received Fol-de-Rol. the Yale Glee Club Medal from As a springboard to the 150th anniversary YGCA President Clay Kaufman at year, we enjoyed a wonderful singing dinner the 2010 Singing Dinner in New in New York City in March. We “sang in” York. Flanders, also a member of distinguished new members to the YGCA board the famed 1955 Whiffenpoofs, for of directors, recognized the Yale seniors whom decades has been instrumental and we welcomed into YGCA, and acknowledged the vocal in supporting choral and à superior contributions of Bill Flanders ’55, who cappella music in the DC area. received the Glee Club Medal. Bill created a local alumni chorus in Washington DC back in 1985 (which my brother and I both joined for In or Near DC?—You’re Invited to Join the a wonderful concert with the Glee Club at YGC-Plus on Jan. 7, 2011, in Bethesda Georgetown University), and the group is still Do you have plans for Friday January 7, 2011? going strong. He has Do you know anyone in the Washington DC vicinity who also been a board would enjoy a musical extravaganza and one of the finest member of YGCA for music halls in the area? the past six years, Send them to Strathmore Arts Center in Bethesda contributing his wisdom to hear the Glee Club, the local alumni chorus and re- in significant ways. nowned Cole Porter interpreter, pianist and entertainer Thank you, Bill! John Eaton ‘57 (www.eatonpiano.com). There will be The many decades Bill has devoted to other special guests (possibly including the Whiffenpoofs). music began as it did for many of us at a very Strathmore seats 1800, and is a beautiful new young age. Each summer I witness the value of hall that serves as a local residence for the Baltimore exposing children to music when my family works Symphony Orchestra. This ambitious undertaking befits with a group of local kindergarten through 5th such a momentous occasion, so help us spread the word! graders who spend six weeks learning Broadway tunes, and perform them for family and friends. This year features songs from the Cole Porter musical “Anything Goes.” It is amazing to see even the youngest out of songs to sing, she pulled out a recorder for each of children enjoy the rhythm, lyrics and music, and my brothers and me and we started over, playing each song so rewarding to hear parents say “my child sings together. The trips never seemed long to us (and my mother those songs over and over again on the way was very patient!). home!” Just a few years after the Yale Glee Club was founded Isn’t that the power of song that we wish 150 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln gave his 2nd to inculcate in young children so that they grow Inaugural Address in the midst of a terrible civil war. What did up to be Glee Club singer? I remember long car he choose for the final metaphor of his remarkable speech, rides in the New York area, where I grew up. My designed to bring the Union together and end the years of mother sang every song she could think of with strife? Why music, of course. He concluded, us, in order to pass the time. And when we ran “The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and “Fol-de-rol (de-rol-rol-rol),” the newsletter of the Yale hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the Glee Club Associates, ought to be published twice chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will yearly at New Haven, CT. be, by the better angels of our nature.” Publisher: Clay Kaufmann ‘84 Editor: Linus Travers ‘58, ‘59MAT Music has a remarkable power to bring out the “better angels Layout & production: it depends of our nature,” and that is certainly something for us to For news, items, questions, quibbles, and advertising celebrate together in this anniversary year. matters, please contact the editor: 70 Centre Street, Milton, MA 02186; [email protected]. Clay Kaufman ‘84 For address change and subscription information, President, YGCA please contact the Yale Glee Club office: PO Box 201929, New Haven, CT 06520; [email protected] 2 In Senior Year . YGC President’s Note YGC’s 2010-11 Leadership Teams Danny Townsend, President 2009-10 It is with mixed emotions that I write this note, my last act as Officer Corps, 2009 – 2010 President of the 2009-2010 Yale Glee Club. The year has been a very good one, but as soon as I finish telling you about it, I will be President: Emily Howell fully accepting my status as a YGC Alum. Manager: Rachel Wilf Of course, as Mark Dollhopf ‘77 recently informed us before we began our summer tour, the technical Stage Manager: Dylan Morris definition of a Yale Alum is anyone who has completed just one semester of any degree- Social Chairs: Eli Mitchell-Larson and granting program at Yale (making every Jenny Witthuhn current Glee Clubber an alum, at least in the AYA’s eyes). Coming to terms with being an Wardrobe Manager: Ben Robbins alum, then, is something I’ve been unwitting- Publicity Chair: Mari Oye ly engaged in for the last seven semesters. Since the Winter issue of Fol-de-Rol, Archivist: Samantha Sanders the YGC has been engaged in antics both usual and novel. Our mini-tour in January Domestic Tour Managers: Arshia Chatterjee and took us to the City of Brotherly Love, where Abigail Droge a performance with the amazing St. Thomas Gospel Choir left several YGCers wonder- International Tour Kate Carter and ing whether we could add ornate hats to the Managers: Claire Paulson wardrobe of the Glee Club, or at the very Outreach Manager: Adam Fishman least include some Gospel tunes in our repertoire. Our mini-tour managers, Kate Carter and Claire Paulson, 150th Anniversary Jasmine Dyba did a wonderful job in Philadelphia, and we’re excited to see what Reunion Chair: they put together in their role as managers for next year’s interna- tional tour. Once we got back from mini-tour, the normal retinue of spring semester projects began in earnest. Our February concert was conducted by Dale Warland, a choral legend who reinforced the feeling in the YGC (or in my mind, at least) that in the far-off Alumni Coordinators: ‘01 Cariann Chan land known as “Minnesota,” cold weather somehow breeds an inor- ‘02 Julianne Parolisi ‘03 Kat Kunz dinate number of warm personalities and musical talents.