Glee Club 1974-1975 season

The 1974-1975 season of the Virginia Glee Club marked the beginnings of a significant change in the Club's direction. Conductor Donald Loach returned from his sabbatical in Italy infused with new enthusiasm for music of the Renaissance. The Club made its second European Tour, this time traveling behind the Iron Curtain to Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, before wrapping up in Vienna. The Harvard Glee Club made its first appearance in Charlottesville. The officers were Laird Boles, president and tour manager; Douglas Bennett, vice president and publicity chairman; Douglass Wm. List, business manager; Kirk Cordell, secretary; Carroll Kinsey, stage manager; and Nicholas Cooke, librarian. Louis Burkot, tenor extraordinaire, was official unofficial student conductor.

Performances[]

Tours[]

European Tour (1975)

Roster[]

This is the roster as of the Fall Concert (1974) and Spring Concert (1975), and may not reflect all participants in the season.

Tenor I: Louis Burkot, Jr., Nicholas Cooke, III, James Dunton, John Flack, John Fornaro, James Hartigan, Edward Kloberdanz, Jeffrey Morrison, Christopher Nelson, William Piper, Paul Pope, Darrell Simpson, Kirk Story, Dennis Zakas

Tenor II: Douglas Bennett, William Bowron, Jr., Michael Caddell, Mack Hagins, Kenneth Johnson, Carrol Kinsey, Jr., Christopher Loye, Timothy McLaughlin, Daniel McLearen, Kevin Meiser, James Pope, John Torrence, Richard Wingo

High Baritone: James Ballowe, Jr., Scott Bayliss, Charles Burch, Kirk Cordell, Claudie Denton, Jr., Wyatt Ewell, Charles Gentry, John Gibson, Jr., Christopher Gibson, Ellis B. Hilton, Randall Hoeflein, Patrick Hurst, Douglas Lasky, Kenneth Lawless, Duncan McCrea, John Rouse, Kim Shelton, William Thompson III, Norman Warren

Low Baritone: James Bennette, David Fredenburg, Steven Gifford, Philip Hart, Charles Haskins, Jr., Stephen Herr, John Hoffacker, Craig Leiby, John Madden, Blake Morant, James Richardson

Bass: Gary Blunt, R. Laird Boles, Michael Checknoff, Michael Crickenberger, Randolph Frye, Robert Gehlmeyer, Jr., Guy Geier, Jack Gerard, Robert Jones, Stephen Ledford, Douglass List, Daniel Listrom, Kim Nelson, Frank Poole, III, Steven Smith, David Waller, John Wampler

Memories[]

On the Tour[]

Bill Piper and [ others? (Flack says: not me - I first learned about this here) ] being on the wrong car when the overnight train from Amsterdam (Luxemburg City) to Trieste split into two parts somewhere in Switzerland. Leave it to the ROTC boys to find their way to Trieste on their own.
Drinking Italian white wine like water in Trieste.
The Loach mandatory "two aspirin and two tall glasses of water" for everyone before turning in.
One twenty something female tour guide (Katrina) (Katalin) on a bus with with forty some college guys...
The unbelievable sound of the local chorus in Zagrab (later to be engulfed in such violence) in a basement reception. How did these people make so much sound? To honor us, they did an African-American spiritual in English. Musically, it was excellent, but pronounciation was very strange to our American ears. Makes me wonder how we sound to native speakers when we sing in other languages.
Wonderful, appreciative audiences of perfect strangers.
Local delight at our performance of folk songs arranged by Kodaly(?).
The dreariness of Prague.
Industrial hotels with some hot water.
The official tour guide in Budapest gave us the official version of the city's history. She always started a talk by reminding us that Budapest was originally two cities, Buda and Pesht. Later, Katrina would give us a very different version of the post-war years in Hungary.
The feeling of being watched all the time.
Visiting Katrina's home town in the the middle of Hungary (Tata?), and her clear anxiety over whether the Hungarian authorities would dispute her Austrian passport.
Seeing a real armed border, and the feeling of being powerless passing through it.
The absurdity of Icelandic Air, whose great fares required that we get off the plane in Reykjavik to shop for sweaters since the airline did not have rights to run direct flights between the United States and Europe.
New Year's Eve 1975 in Budapest, when after dinner many of us left the tour bus, against the advise of our official Hungarian tour guide, Lili, and went to a disco with Katalin. An exciting night, particularly trying to catch cabs to take us back to our hotel.
When we arrived at the airport in Luxemburg for our flight home, the flight was late, and the airline informed us that they'd had to substitute a smaller plane. Some of us would have to take another flight. Since several members were coming down with colds, John Flack and a few others volunteered to stay behind. We were given two choices - the airline would bus us to Frankfurt to catch a flight, or we could take allied carrier, Air Bahama, to Nassau, Bahamas and from there to New York by way of Miami. We gladly chose Nassau, and lucked out further when the flight arrived after the last flight to Miami. The airline put us in a great hotel overnight, and several had a great day at the beach before continuing home. (Not me, says Flack - I had come down with the group cold, and all I wanted was home and some chicken soup.)
From Charles Gentry: "Of course I remember our tour to Eastern Europe, with a stopover in Iceland (we took Icelanic Airlines from New York to Europe!), our performances, and the hot dogs with mustard (American food!) that I think we bought from a street vendor in some eastern European city. Never did I appreciate hot dogs so much. On this tour I got an award for being inconspicuous from the Club (whoopee). Wish I could remember the name of the woman guide who accompanied us on much of the trip. Then there was our main guide, Dr. Paul Koutny, from the Institute of European Studies (I think), who had accompanied my high school choir, The North Fulton Special Choir, on much of our round-the-world tour in 1969."

The Harvard Glee Club comes to Charlottesville[]

The executive officers working through their outrage over the honorarium to committing to pay it.
The extraordinary performance they put on.
The spectacle of the piano four-hands accompaniment the football song they performed, and watching the determination in Jim Richardson's face to find an opportunity to respond.