Clubs (alumni) host Club (Glee)
In the true spirit of Eleazar, the Dartmouth College Glee Club ventured forth once again into the "wilderness" beyond the Hanover Plain for its annual spring tour in March. The entourage of 60 students, plus new director Louis Burkot, traveled up and down the East Coast during the eleven-day tour, singing for alumni clubs from Hartford, Conn., to Durham, N.C. Selections for the concerts ranged From sacred Renaissance motets to English and American folksongs, and from the choruses of Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus to the ever-popular Dartmouth songs, for a program both diverse and enertaining.
What is it like for an alumni club to sponsor a Glee Club concert? According to Alan Dessoff '57, president of the Dartmouth Club of Washington, D.C., "It is a very challenging, yet fun and worthwhile undertaking that requires a great deal of detailed planning. Thanks to very dedicated committee members, every detail was taken care of." Dessoff said that their concert was promoted primarily through mailings to the 1,700 D.C. alumni and to the parents of students and prospective students in the Washington area. It was also publicized at various club functions for a few months preceding the concert. Dessoff attributes the success of the D.C. concert in part to the extensive publicity. "We promoted the concert site (Wolf Trap Barns a brand new concert hall), the date (a Friday evening), the new director, the new sound of the Glee Club, and the Dartmouth songs," he said. "And, overall, we advertised the concert as something to bring your families and neighbors to." As an example of the concert's universal appeal, Dessoff noted that one of the club members had brought as a guest a Soviet diplomat who was so swept up by the excitement and the emotion of the singing which reminded him of his home in Russia that he had tears in his eyes.
Sponsoring a Glee Club concert is an expensive, as well as a time-consuming, undertaking. The majority of the cost is due to the rental fee for a concert hall and the Glee Club s concert fee. But the D.C. concert was sold out a week before the concert date, and the Club could probably have sold the hall out a second night judging from the number of people who were turned away. After payment of all the necessary fees, the club was left with $1,400 in profits, which were deposited in a scholarship fund for Dartmouth students from the Washington area.
Another aspect of the alumni clubs role in the Glee Club's concert tour involves housing the members of the Glee Club. This always proves to be one of the most rewarding aspects of the tour for the students as well as for the alumni. This year, as usual, the students were given first-hand expbsure to the history of the College and were made to feel right at home through the gracioas hospitality of the alumni. Conversely, housing the undergraduates provided the alumni with a link to the Dartmouth of the present and gave them the opportunity to further strengthen their ties with the College.
This year's Glee Club tour was one of the most successful the group has had since its last years under former director Paul Zeller. Under Zeller's direction, the Dartmouth College Glee Club attained national prominence in the late forties and fifties by singing on the Ed SullivanShow, winning several Glee Club competitions, and performing a six-week engagement at Radio City Music Hall. Instrumental in the success of the annual concert tours is David Orr '57, associate secretary of the College. He has been helping the Glee Club plan its annual tour since 1964, working in conjunction with the alumni clubs and the director and officers of the Glee Club.
Memories of this year's tour are sure to remain vivid for both the members of the Glee Club and the members of the audience. In a congratulatory letter to the Glee Club, DessofF wrote: "I just want you to know what a spectacular hit you were. . . . Your concert in Washington was absolutely first-rate and the 'bravo' shouts you heard from the audience were genuine. Those of us . . . fortunate enough to have been part of the capacity audience . . . will remember that evening for a long time." The responses such as these from alumni all along the way made the tour a very satisfying musical and personal experience for the members of the Glee Club. It is most rewarding to try to convey, through the sheer joy of singing, some of the magic that makes Dartmouth so special, and to prove that the spirit of Dartmouth is indeed "undying" and forever "miraculously builded in our hearts."
Maria Laskaris, a member of the class of 'B4, isbusiness manager-elect of the Glee Club.
