Choir Welcomes West Point Glee Club for Veteran’s Day Broadcast
To celebrate Veterans Day, The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square proudly welcome the West Point Glee Club for the Music & the Spoken Word live broadcast, Sunday, November 13. This will be the Glee Club’s first performance with The Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City. The program for the broadcast can be found here.
The West Point Glee Club is one of the U. S. Military Academy’s most visible cadet organizations. For over one hundred years, its members have touched audiences around the world through live performance in the nation’s finest concert halls, national network and feature film appearances, and CD and DVD recordings. Over the years, the Glee Club has appeared with the Boston Pops, New York Pops, U.S. Army Band, U.S. Marine Band, and Opera Orchestra of New York, among others. Since 1999 the Glee Club has been under the direction of Constance Chase.
At West Point, the Glee Club enhances life at the Academy through its traditional and ceremonial duties as they represent West Point and the U. S. Army at official events. Its membership is by audition. Like all West Point Cadets, Glee Club members must maintain high standards in the academic, physical, military, and character domains to remain eligible to represent the Academy. The camaraderie enjoyed by the Glee Club members in their pursuit of musical excellence is best summed up in the club’s time-honored motto: No fun without music, no music without fun!
West Point and The Tabernacle Choir History—Surprise!
Although this is the Glee Club’s first performance with The Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City, the Choir has performed previously with the West Point Band. In 2015, the Choir was the surprise guest at West Point’s annual 4th of July concert, “Music under the Stars.” Because this annual concert always drew capacity crowds, the addition of the Choir to the program was kept a secret so as not to overwhelm the already packed celebration. It was a surprise to everyone—the cadets, the general public and even the Choir members themselves! The location of the Choir’s evening performance hadn’t been announced, even to the performers, until that morning after they boarded buses for the event! It was a performance the Choir members still remember fondly. You can learn more about that performance here.