Popular club continues to bring students ‘Glee’

The recent buzz surrounding “Glee”'s Golden Globe award might not be the only reason for Columbians to talk about the show. For students interested in singing in a choir without the potential rejection of Columbia’s a capella scene, the Columbia University Glee Club is the next best thing.

Columbia’s Glee Club, a student group that makes no cuts for its choir, actually predates the now-famous Fox TV show of the same name. Even before the show nabbed the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series, the club gained traction as the show took off.

In a phone interview, Angela Kelichner, GS, Glee Club’s interim president, spoke about how the club gained popularity in the fall of 2009. ”In the beginning of the year, around club day, I had my name down on several clubs’ lists that I was interested in and one of them was for the Glee Club,” Kelichner said. “When some of us turned out for the first meeting it turned out they needed a whole new board because by the end of last year it had dwindled down to a single member. We realized we had to get moving or else Glee Club was going to be gone. So, we formed an interim board and I volunteered to be president.”

Kelichner named a few differences between the TV show and the reality of Columbia’s club. “The show has less members than we do. They probably top out at fifteen and we ended last semester with about fifty members. Two, they do more dancing than we do. We are looking to incorporate more dance, but we’re not sure how that’s going to fit in with everything. That’s probably the big thing,” she said.

Although Glee Club has gained many of its members through its loose association with the TV show, its most marketable quality is its inclusive nature. For students fed up with the competition of Columbia’s a capella groups, Glee Club is an accepting alternative.

“I sang in high school, and to be perfectly honest I got rejected from every single a capella group on campus, but I wanted the opportunity to sing in a choral setting,” Leonard Robinson, SEAS ’13, said.

Kelichner, too, credits the popularity of the club to the sometimes-harsh a capella cuts. “I think a lot of it had to do with the show and also just a lot of people on campus want to sing. I know there are several a capella groups but they only accept a couple of people a year. A lot of people we have went on a couple auditions and didn’t get in to a group. We take anyone,” she said.
And yet, even though Glee Club was Leonard’s second choice, he seems happy to be a part of it. “It has been one of the best times I’ve ever had,” he said. “We got to sing at the Black Candle dinner for African American Awareness. We also got to perform in the tree lighting ceremony.”