A Brief History

The Smith College Glee Club was founded in 1885 by a handful of Smithies inspired by an equivalent men's group at Yale University. The ensemble was entirely student run until 1923, when Glee Clubbers experienced both their first conductor, the eminent Russian director Ivan T. Gorokhoff, and their first performance with men (thank you, Harvard). Happily, both ventures went well. Under Gorokhoff's direction, the Glee Club's repertoire expanded from "glees," the light, fun songs popular in the early twentieth century, to include Renaissance, baroque, and classical works. The group made their radio debut in 1934 on Springfield's WBZA.

In 1945, Robert S. Brawley became director and added two more firsts for the Glee Club: their first television appearance, in November 1947 in New York City with Princeton, and their first record album, also in 1947, a joint effort with Yale.

The appointment of Iva Dee Hiatt as Director of Choral Music in 1948 paved the way for the Smith College Glee Club to become a leader in college choral music. Under Hiatt's direction, the Glee Club performed at Carnegie Hall in 1951 with Harvard and again in 1958 with Yale. They were joined locally by the National Symphony Orchestra in 1955 and asked to repeat their performance later that year in Washington, D.C. Other performances during Hiatt's tenure ranged from the Easter Sunrise Service from Radio City in New York to the Boston Pops to an eastern and midwestern U.S. tour raising $38,000 for scholarships. In 1951, Hiatt also formed the award-winning Smith College Chamber Singers.

Hiatt was followed by a number of talented directors: G. Robert Kolb (1979-1980), Theodore Morrison (1980-1986), Lucinda Thayer (1986-1995), Paul Flight (1995-1997), and the current director, Jonathan Hirsh.

Over the years, the Smith College Glee Club has performed with men from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, Cornell, Trinity, Villanova, MIT, Brown, NYU, Bowdoin, Colgate, Hamilton, Wesleyan, UVA, WPI, and the United States Naval Academy. Never forgetting our Seven Sisters, the Glee Club has also sung with the women from Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Vassar, Radcliffe, and Bryn Mawr.

Currently, the Glee Club is open to Smith women in their sophomore, junior, and senior year. Members hail from all parts of the United States and from several foreign countries, and many singers are also participants in Smith chamber groups or in Groove, the music department's a cappella group. In its 124th season, the Glee Club has conducted a successful concert tour of the mid-Atlantic, performing at Pennsylvania State University, the National Cathedral, and Princeton University, and will be spending the spring semester collaborating with the Orchestra in endeavors ranging from Mahler's Third Symphony to Capture the Flag.

Music at Smith Today

Smith has three major choral groups: the College Chorus, which is open to first-years and sophomores; the Glee Club, which is open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors; and the Chamber Singers, a smaller elite group which convenes every other year. For more information on these groups and how to audition, see the Smith College Music Department's Student Vocal Ensembles website. If you'd like more information about Smith's instrumental performing opportunities, click here. And if you'd like to learn more about a cappella at Smith (including Groove, the only a cappella group affiliated with the Music Department), visit the Student Organizations pages here. Auditions for all groups are held in both fall and spring, and you are encouraged to try out!