History of Men's Glee Club
Early Years
The OU Men’s Glee Club traces its origins to the earliest days of the University of Oklahoma. Records indicate glee club performances as early as 1895 and 1897. Some of the early performances were offered in conjunction with some of the first OU football games and presentations by the oratorical society. In 1903, the first dean of the College of Fine Arts, Gustaf Fredrik Holmberg (1872-1936), brought the The Men's Glee Club into the School of Music, transitioning the group from a student-led club to a faculty-led academic ensemble. As such, the OU Men’s Glee Club boasts itself as the oldest musical ensemble at OU, and most likely, in the State of Oklahoma.
National Attention
The Men’s Glee Club gained national recognition under the direction of Dr. Lara Hoggard (1915-2007) when the group performed at Carnegie Hall in Fred Waring’s “Pleasure Time” National Glee Club Competition on May 30, 1942. The Glee Club finished in the top three of the competition, but because the OU singers were so outstanding in choral artistry and musicianship, the judges, including John Finley Williamson, Deems Taylor, and Peter J. Wilhousky, awarded the choir with a silver trophy for “the finest example of choral art.” Robert Shaw, then conductor of the Waring Glee Club, was equally impressed with the quality of singing by the OU men, describing their music as the best he had ever heard from a nonprofessional group of singers. A New York Times critic wrote of their performance, “from a musical standpoint, none of the others could touch that group from Oklahoma University.” Fred Waring invited the OU Glee Club to remain in New York two additional days and presented them twice on his NBC radio show to 15 million listeners, announcing that, “The University of Oklahoma Men’s Glee Club won the unanimous vote of the judges for tone quality, intonation, blend and balance, and the highest expression of choral art.
Your music is simply beautiful. You men should know that in the preliminaries we listened to 140 recordings, over a period of three months, to determine which eighth should be invited to come to New York for the finals. All recordings were identified by a number, and that number was written on the outside of a sealed envelope containing the identity of the group. After the six judges had agreed upon the top eight recordings, only then did we take this information to Mr. Waring. The eight had been carefully given points on a scale. Mr. Waring asked for the identity of the group receiving the highest number of points. At that moment we opened the eight envelopes in consecutive order. And I think you men should know that the first envelope we opened revealed the top group to be the University of Oklahoma!
- Robert Shaw to the OU Men's Glee Club
In February,1954 the Glee Club again appeared on national airwaves, performing on the CBS television show, The Ed Sullivan Show (episode #7.22). Ed Sullivan invited the Glee Club to perform again the next year, which they did in March, 1955 (episode #8.29) via remote transmission from Oklahoma City. Both performances were conducted by Mr. Chester Francis (1910-1996).
In August of 1964, the Glee Club again returned to New York City, this time performing at the New York World’s Fair under the direction of Dr. Russell Mathis (1926-2014). The Glee Club’s performing schedule included three daily performances: two at the Oklahoma Pavilion and one in the United States Pavilion.
Present Men's Glee Club (2014 - Present)
After an extended period of only intermittent activity, the OU Men's Glee Club was reactivated as a major ensemble within the School of Music with the appointment of current conductor, Dr. David Howard, Assoc. Director of Choral Activities. In addition to academic choral concerts, the OU Men's Glee Club performs off-campus engagements, including annual performances in Dallas, Texas during the OU-Texas football game festivities. In 2023, the Glee Club released an album of OU spirit songs for the first time since 1988. Fight for OKU: The Legendary OU Men’s Glee Club, is available on all streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. In June, 2024, the OU Men’s Glee Club will join the OU Women’s Chorus for a performance tour of Ireland.
Directors
Gustaf Fredrik Holmberg (1903 - ?)
William G.F. Schmidt (1917)
Dr. Lara Hoggard (1940 - 1943)
Chester Francis (1946 - 1962)
Dr. Russell Mathis (1962 - 1976)
Dr. Steven Curtis (1988)
Dr. David Howard (2014 - present)
