If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m no spring chicken, but as you probably already know age is only a number. I was brought in the 50’s and 60’s and the one thing I remember every Thursday night was father always coming home late from the city (New York City) because he was rehearsing with the University Glee Club of NYC. This organization was made up of around 150 professionals who met the one requirement of having been to college, and secondly, loved to sing. My father passed in 2001, but my brother has kept the tradition alive by his side from the time he graduated from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania back in 1978.
My story is a little different, yes I love to sing as does my older sister who still sings in a choir up in Syracuse New York, but with me it was a combination of events starting with having to try out for the 7th grade choir while at a seperate elementary school, and I had always been known for singing but had a music teacher that went by the name of Mrs. Whitehouse, and I also referred to her as Mrs. Blackshack, and it had nothing to do with being politically correct because political correctness didn’t exist in my day, and before you call me a ‘racist’ know that she wasn’t Black either. That was enough for her not to recommend me for the 7th grade choir. My point here is that teachers have a big effect on a child’s life!
The second event in my life was that my chosen profession of screaming on the Floor of the Commodity Exchange in the same New York City, didn’t allow my voice to a consistent anything, and usually based on how busy the Market was on any particular day.
The University Glee Club of NYC has been around since the beginning of time, and my father had received the 50 year pin and still going as will by brother. This was a hobby for these men, and a once a week break to do what they loved to do best, and that’s sing. They also had a once a year BarberShop Quartet contest which I alway attended when my father was still alive.ll His name on a couple of what’s known as the ‘Hambone’ Cup, and the songs weren’t common barbershop fare, but personally arranged songs just for that once a year contest!
My brother emailed, texted, and called me just over the last couple of days to let me know about this concert that they’re having virtually that they always had until the coronavirus hit. They’ve always had a Christmas Concert and a Spring Concert, and always took the summers off, but let me tell you its something to behold and hear!
IF YOU BUY THE TICKET YOU’LL BE ABLE TO GO BACK TO THE CONCERT OVER AND OVER AGAIN FOR 30 DAYS SO YOU CAN SEE IT AS MUCH AS YOU WANT OVER THE HOLIDAYS!!
It’s tonight at 8EST, and if you have the time to sit around the computer/TV you should check it out….. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and let’s just see if we can all just get along once the smoke clears…. Here’s the link that will take you there, and I hope if you have the time that you take a minute of a hobby that 150 singers have been doing I have to guess for close to 100 years if not more!
CLICK THE LINK BELOW HERE ON TITLE>
University Glee Club of NYC Virtual Holiday Concert with SoHarmoniums
*Please share if you no someone who is really into this type of getting together and singing
….thanks
This picture is of my son (On the immediate right of Santa) with one of the alumni of his fraternity who just happens to be the Santa Clause that you see every year at the end of every Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade, and where my son got a chance to be part of one year. I know his real name, but have been sworn to secrecy, but you can just call him Santa!
