DOWN TOWN GLEE CLUB INCORPORATED

Description

It has been more than eighty years since a group of men came together on a wintry February evening on Vesey Street to form a new cultural organization which they called the Down Town Glee Club. The meeting had been arranged by two young men who had served aboard the same ship while in the U.S. Navy.

The club continues to present two concerts each year - one in the winter and one in the spring. In addition, it has always performed other special concerts. In recent years the concerts have been held in St. Paul’s Chapel on lower Broadway, not more than a block from where it all began. There are very few male glee clubs performing today. They represent a somewhat unique sound compared to the most mixed groups that abound. Popular music changed a good deal beginning in the second half of the last century. Glee club music will typically include a wide array of songs - Broadway, sacred, folk, standards, as well as more traditional choral music that’s been around for a long time.