The Glee Club took its talents on tour this fall break when they performed in two concerts in Michigan, two in western New York and one in Toronto.
The all-male a capella group will also give its annual fall concert Friday at 8 p.m. in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. Stuart Streit, a sophomore member of Glee Club, said the concert in Rochester, New York, was his favorite of the five performances.
"A huge crowd turned out for [the Rochester concert], and I thought we had done a really good job," Streit said. "It was one of our first times off-book, which means we weren't reading our music while singing, which led us to engage the audience a little bit more and keep our eyes on our director, which led to us singing better."
Streit said the wide range of music in the group's concert repertoire contributed to the tour's success.
"We had some Canadian folk songs and a lot from our regular repertoire, so a lot of spirituals, some sacred music, [and] we had some Russian and German songs on this one," he said.
In addition to the Fall Tour, the group performs during spring break and travels internationally every other year, junior and Glee Club secretary Michael Shakour said. The club gives brief concerts on football weekends at the reflecting pool in front of Hesburgh Library, and it also performs longer concerts on campus.
"We perform ... main concerts [four times] a year: fall, three at Christmas, spring and then a commencement concert," Shakour said. "We'll perform anything from classical music to spiritual to jazz. ... Anything that has the words 'Notre Dame' in it we'll sing.
"We perform at least once a year with generally an orchestra and another singing group around campus or at Saint Mary's."
Senior and Glee Club vice president Tim Kenney said the fall concert program will contain much of the same music the group performed on its recent tour.
"In addition [to the tour music], for our second half we'll have a couple small groups." Kenney said. "There's one quartet that a couple of the guys organized, ... and then the Undertones do a set.
"It's a lot of fun. We've all spent a lot of time working on the music, been working on it the entire semester so far, put in a lot of rehearsal hours. It's a really strong set of music that's going to be really well-done."
Though the Glee Club has a vigorous, four-days-a-week practice schedule, Kenney said the singers don't mind because they're like a family now.
"The community has been really exciting and really just wonderful," Kenney said. "It's such a tight-knit group of guys. We really do consider ourselves a brothership. Being able to have that close of interaction ... having 80 best friends on campus, it's really just awesome."
tThe Glee Clubssells CDs,at gleeclub.nd.edu,and at the Hammes Notre Dame bookstore. CDs will also bedavailable at Friday's concert, which costs $10 for general admission, $6 for seniors and $5 for students.
Contact Emma Borne at eborne@nd.edu
