If the Men’s Glee Club had a championship event equivalent to MSU’s basketball glory, it would be performing at the American Choral Directors Association national conference.
And out of an estimated 1,000 tapes submitted from choirs around the nation, MSU’s Men’s Glee Club has been selected to perform at the conference in San Antonio this March.
“Being invited to this is the culmination of everything,” said Nathan Tykocki, sixth semester Glee Club member and Lyman Briggs science and technology studies junior. “It’s like going to the Final Four for us.
“This is our reward for hard work for years.”
The ACDA is a national organization of professional choral conductors with around 18,000 members. The choral conductors direct choirs at levels of church, community colleges and professional choirs.
“Every two years ACDA holds a national conference,” said Jonathan Reed, associate director of choral activities at MSU and choral director for the Glee Club. “It’s an amalgam of a lot of things.
“What they aim to do is to invite the best choirs from all over the world.”
At the last national conference, the Glee Club performed as a demonstration choir. However, a performance choir is a greater honor, Reed said.
To be considered in the selection process, Reed and the Glee Club submitted a tape which contained their work from the past several years.
“A little over a year before the national conference you’ve got to submit a tape which has a piece of music from this year, from last year and from the year before that,” Reed said. “So it represents three years of work on the part of the choir.”
And Jay Patton, a no-preference sophomore, said the Glee Club is his favorite class.
“Doc Reed is awesome, he just blows my mind,” Patton said. “I’ve been in marching band and jazz band, nobody’s taught like this guy. He’s really passionate about what he does.”
Patton said the trip is enhanced further by a song called, “At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners,” by David L. Brunner.
The piece was commissioned specifically for the Glee Club and will to be performed first at the concert.
After the initial years of work, the Glee Club’s final obstacle in reaching San Antonio remains funding the trip, which will be March 14 through 17.
Although the university has been extremely supportive, a portion of the $60,000 bill remains, Reed said.
To meet the remaining costs - between $10,000 and $15,000 - the 113 Men’s Glee Club members will host a benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. on February 27 at Haslett High School’s Auditorium. Cost to the public is $10.
Reed said MSU’s Glee Club may be the only non-audition choir to perform at this concert.
“For the most part, these aren’t music majors, they’re just kids who love to sing,” he said. “The students just sign up for the class and they’re in.”
