Last Saturday, April 25th, the Varsity Men's Glee Club performed its annual spring concert, this year entitled Glii Music. Personally, I felt this was one of the best and most meaningful performances we have given in the last few years thanks in large part to the support of the many alums that visited us last weekend.
Per tradition, we began our show with the "Illini March" and "Gaudeamus Igitur" under direction of our current president Phil Johnson. After Doctor Coleman took the stage we sang "Ubi Caritas Et Amor" and "Spaseniye Sodelal". Our assistant conductor Seung Won Cho led us in Randall Thompson's "Alleluia", and our guest soloist Jong-Hoon Cha joined us in singing "Steal Away". We closed our first section of the show with the always popular "Battle of Jericho".
The Other Guys comedy octet took that stage at that point, singing their traditional "Other Guys" introductory song and reminding the audience of the importance of our dear "Morrow Plots". Between these two pieces they entertained the audience with arrangements of James Taylor's "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" and "Somewhere Out There" from An American Tail.
After a brief intermission, we marched back in to celebrate with the audience in "Beviamo!" and to sing the "Pilgrims' Chorus" from Wagner's Tannhauser. What followed were two of our most elaborately performed pieces to date, "Ego Sum Abbas" and "In Taberna Quando Sumus" from Orff's Carmina Burana. It took the help of Seung Won Cho, Jong Hun Cha, and two guest accompanists Hue Jeung Jang and Yin Chen Weng to successfully pull the whole thing together. Our guest accompanists stayed on stage to help us close this section of the show with the strange and humorous "6 Pence".
Normally at this point in the show, Doc invites some alumni up to stage to help us sing our traditional closing pieces. This night was no exception, but the number of alumni that joined us was astounding. All of us combined easily filled the stage, and we had previous members representing Glee Club all the way back through the 40's. With such a display of support and brotherhood, we had no choice but to sing "Brothers Sing On" together. The "Big Ten Medley" went off without a hitch, but I'm afraid we didn't have any audience solos that evening. Mike Wolter led us in the "Illinois State Song", and everybody in the house linked arms to sing our Alma Mater, "Hail to the Orange".
I think we all felt a great sense of pride after marching out of the Great Hall that evening. We sang a lot of great pieces, and the support of all the alumni during meetings before the concert and during our closing pieces meant a lot. I know the Glee Club will only grow stronger over the years and I look forward to seeing where it goes.
