Purdue Varsity Glee Club:
New York City Tour
November 9-13, 2005
This Veterans' Day, the Purdue Varsity Glee Club is honored to perform at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops Orchestra. The concert, which features several traditional patriotic selections as well as Blitzstein's Airborne Symphony, will be a tribute to both the veterans of America and the late Skitch Henderson, the recently deceased founder and conductor of the New York Pops. Check here throughout the week for pictures of the men and journal entries from this momentous and exciting trip!
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
New York, New York. For some of us, it is a new experience. For others, it is familiar territory. All of us will agree, however, that this trip to New York will be unlike any other. Through some small adventures (flight delays), we all made it to the Beacon Hotel on 75th and Broadway at about 7:00 pm. It is a wonderful hotel, right next to a theatre and right across from a market. We immediately left for dinner at Trattoria Dopo Teatro near Times Square. It was a great Italian restaurant where we had a basement room to ourselves. Whenever we would sing, people left their tables and crowded the stairs to see us! That led to some fun moments. We also had a reunion with Gerritt Vandermeer, a Glee Club alum who now lives in New York. We left the restaurant, took the subway back to the hotel and settled down for the night.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Well, it's right to business. We started the day at Riverside Church where we met Rob Fisher, the man who was chosen to conduct the show. He was very excited to work with us after all that Mr. Henderson had so graciously said. We rehearsed with the orchestra for a while and was introduced to William Hurt, the actor who is to narrate the Airborne Symphony. Both were great people, easy to work with, very professional, the epitome of what we are trying to be. After a short break, we moved to the Nave of the church, what we gathered to be the sanctuary. We have not seen such a beautiful cathedral interior since our United Kingdom tour! There we had a rehearsal with both Rob and William. This is where the show really started taking shape. We finally knew what the orchestra was going to be doing. We then went to Rockefeller Plaza to take a tour of NBC studios. There we met Gwyn's aunt, Bambi, who took us on a great tour. Dinner was on our own, after which we met with the New York University Glee Club, a group of men who sang during their college days who share a love of music and a desire to keep singing, much like us, just a little older. We had a great time singing and connecting with them. When we finally left, we went back the hotel and settled down for the second night.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Its the big day! We walked over to Carnegie in the morning, settled ourselves in, and rehearsed by ourselves for a bit. After a quick lunch, we rehearsed with the orchestra and William for the last time. The show was really coming together. Our excitement just continually built as show time drew closer. The performance was amazing! It was so special to see Mrs. Henderson speaking with an audience that knew Skitch so well. It was really cool to see the Pops play while Walter Cronkite directed them. It was awesome to hear the crowd erupt every time we finished one of the songs that Skitch chose for us. And that was just the first act! The Airborne was the peak of the show, for us and for everybody there. It was such an emotionally charged performance; one that we will never forget. It was such an honor and a priviledge to be a part of that show. I sincerely believe that we have left a standard of excellence here, just like the Glee Clubs before us, one that future Glee Clubs can build on. We all met at Planet Hollywood in Times Square after the show to celebrate and then went our seperate ways for the night, though it will be an early morning tomorrow.
Saturday November 12, 2005
If the early bird gets the worm, we were due for a lot. After the late night, we left the hotel at 6:10 am to go to Fox News Channel's studio. Ba-Na-Na, Voiceovers, and Lighthouse, led by Chris and Isreal, ran into the set at the top of the show to surprise the two female co-anchors on Fox and Friends Weekend while Julian Phillips (another anchor and a Purdue graduate who gave us this opportunity) watched with amusement. The rest of us peeked through the windows to see what was going on. Soon after, Julian greeted us outstide and congratulated us on all that we had accomplished. He brought out a camera crew and we sang "Hail Purdue" live to bring the show back from a commercial break. He left them there and later, we did our rendition of "Stars and Stripes Forever." It was so cool! Most of the parents that went to New York were there with us, and we know that many others were watching. We had most of the rest of the day free. Many went to the great Broadway shows throughout the day. Other common activities were shopping, visiting Ground Zero, and just generally enjoying the city. We met back at Times Square at about 10:30 pm. We drew quite a crowd just standing there, and then we started singing! It was so much fun. It was surprising to find that many people had seen us walking around the city or riding the subway at some time during our trip (we do stand out in a crowd I guess). We like to imagine that we set the whole city buzzing with our presence. We certainly entertianed that crowd at Times Square. It was so much fun; a great chance to meet people and show them that there is more than corn in Indiana. We sang for about an hour, then had the rest of the night free.
Sunday November 13, 2005
Well, our trip is over. Time to go home. We split up in three groups and took three different flights home. I don't think we will really every realize the magnitude of what we were able to accomplish in New York. We are still trying to let the fact that we were featured at Carnegie Hall sink in. We appreciate all of the people that supported us by going to the show and being with us in New York. We also really appreciate all the people that gave something to make this trip what it was, from connections to names to money, all of it is so appreciated. Thank you. We would also like to thank Rob Fisher and William Hurt for treating us like professionals and sharing their great talents and gifts with so many people, including us. We especially thank Skitch Henderson for invinting us in the first place, for recognizing the uniqueness of our program and our dedication to excellence and entertainment. Thank you.