Welcome!

Family Weekend Concert, 2019

Dear Class of 2027,

Congratulations and welcome to Yale! We are so excited to meet you and to share our experiences as members of the Yale Glee Club. On this page, we’ve tried to answer your most pressing questions about the Glee Club, including: what is the Glee Club? (It’s a choir!) Is it like the TV show? (Not really!) Should I audition? (Yes!) 

You’ll also find greetings and testimonials from some of our current members. Together, we represent forty different majors, fourteen residential colleges, four class years, and a variety of musical backgrounds. We are united by our love of singing, and by the friendships we’ve made through the Glee Club!

The Yale Glee Club is Yale’s principal undergraduate mixed chorus and oldest musical organization. Originally a group of thirteen men from the class of 1861, today we number over eighty members and are open to all genders. Our repertoire includes large choral orchestral masterworks, contemporary choral music (including frequent premieres of newly commissioned works), folk music of the world, and much more. We are led by our faculty conductor, Jeffrey Douma, and our leadership also includes a large and enthusiastic group of student officers. 

In normal times, we rehearse twice a week, Monday and Wednesday evenings from 7 PM to 9 PM, and give several on-campus performances over the course of each semester. Annual tours are also an important part of what we do; recent trips have taken us to South Africa, Mexico, the UK, and Kenya. Our tours are heavily subsidized by the Glee Club, and additional financial aid is available to all members, so no member needs to miss a tour for financial reasons.

The vast majority of our members are able to balance multiple extracurricular interests, including membership in a cappella or other singing groups. We hope that the Glee Club will enrich, and not limit, your experience at Yale! 

To hear from current members firsthand about their experiences in the Glee Club, click here!

And to listen to past recordings and watch videos of previous performances, click here and here!

Be sure to check our Audition Information page during the summer for more information, dates, and sign-ups, and check our news page for our audition information sessions and office hours. 

We look forward to meeting you!

Jeff Douma sits at piano while directing seated members of Yale Glee Club

Image of Glee Club members in rehearsal. Two members are smiling toward the camera.
 

Image of two members of the Glee Club smiling and holding oversized silver balloons spelling YGC

Image of four Glee Club members standing in front of a castle like structure while smiling for the camera

Glee Club members gathered in a field and smiling for the camera