West Point - The West Point Glee Club presented its annual Graduation Concert on Tuesday evening, May 18th, at 7:30 p.m. in the Eisenhower Hall Ballroom at West Point. The concert is a traditional highlight of Graduation Week, offering a rare opportunity to hear the renowned college choir perform in concert "at home."
First organized in 1903, the Glee Club’s storied past includes sharing the spotlight with such notable entertainers as Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and annual appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show." More recent accomplishments include appearing with singer Billy Joel at Shea Stadium, performing live with country artist Trace Adkins at the 2009 ACM Awards Show, recording the PBS special "Marina at West Point," with pianist Marina Arsenijevic and the West Point Band, singing with the Opera Orchestra of New York in Carnegie Hall, performing the stirring "Stand Ye Steady" DVD, and recording the original hymn "Mansions of the Lord," for the closing credits of the Paramount feature film, "We Were Soldiers." The seventy-plus cadet members in the Glee Club are selected by competitive audition to serve as West Point’s musical ambassadors.
Under the direction of Constance Chase, and accompanied by pianist Andrea Shaut, the Graduation Concert opened with works by Damijan Močnik, Thomas Tallis, and Palestrina, ending with John Rutter’s poignant setting of the British folk song, "O Waly, Waly," and the crowd pleasing, rousing Moses Hogan arrangement of the spiritual "The Battle of Jericho."
The Cadet Showcase featureed individual talent in songs from Broadway and the American Songbook, as well as the Glee Club’s popular male a cappella group, The Knight Caps, with their doo-wop and pop standards. The concert finale featured the entire Glee Club in the military, patriotic, and West Point songs for which the choir is known around the country.
Another banner year for the Glee Club has seen it travel often to New York City and Washington, D.C., perform three times with country artist Trace Adkins, perform in honor of ADM Michael Mullen, GEN Raymond Odierno, and GEN David Petraeus, give hometown concerts in Palmyra, PA, and Freehold, NJ, perform on Ellis Island at "An American Celebration" headlined by The Charlie Daniels Band, give a joint concert with the Coast Guard Academy Glee Club in Fredericksburg, VA, and an historic, first-ever joint concert with the West Point Alumni Glee Club in Alexandria, VA. In addition, the Glee Club and the Knight Caps performed for sixteen official functions at West Point this season, not counting the scores of National Anthem solo performances its members provide for West Point athletic events.
For more information about the West Point Glee Club, please contact the COL Rodney Sturdivant, at (845) 938-3322 or visit the club web site at http://www.usma.edu/USCC/dca/clubs/GLEE.
