Not convinced yet? Let us help.
Ed Helms, Andy Bernard on The Office
Joe Biden, the 47th Vice President of the United States
Bill Nye the Science Guy
We have four different choral ensembles that vary in types of music, experience level, and purpose, so there’s a place for everyone!
Two of our ensembles have subset a cappella groups that make up an important part of Cornell’s a cappella community.
You gain 100 friends when you join
You travel to amazing places all around the world and within the U.S.
Social events where you can hang out with your fellow musicians
The Alma Mater and other Cornell songs will become the ABCs to you
The Chorale is a large mixed choir of both Cornell students and the Ithaca community that is the perfect place to develop vocal skills and technique.
Gain experience, grow vocally, and meet local members of the Ithaca community by singing in the Chorale!
You get to perform challenging yet exciting pieces
Sage Chapel is a beautiful place to sing in
Meet people from all class years (even graduate students) and all 7 schools from Cornell, backgrounds/countries
You can be a part of one of the oldest organizations at Cornell, The Cornell University Glee Club.
The Glee Club is a brotherhood of guys who know how to have a good time and make beautiful music.
The Glee Club has its own house in Collegetown (aka the Gamma Chi frat house) where we have a lot of our social events
It’s like Greek life except we are all good at singing and your concert attire costs less than Greek membership dues
The Chorus is a 60-person-strong treble choir that focuses on performance but accepts members of all skill levels.
The Chorus aims to empower women through music.
The Chorus and Glee Club frequently collaborate to sing SATB music, so you’ll never be stuck singing just SSAA or TTBB.
Pictures with Joe Biden, James Franco, Cornell President Martha Pollack, BILL NYE!!, etc.
GroupMes galore for your voice section, class year, entire ensemble, etc.
Get class credit and an easy A!
Getting to make beautiful music with your best friends
Rehearsals are only 2-4 hours a week so you can make it work with other activities like a cappella!
Being in the Chorus or Glee Club grants you access to auditions for our subset a cappella groups, After Eight and the Hangovers, respectively
Incredible leadership experiences.
The audition process is fun, not scary.
Auditions are about more than past experience/sightreading abilities.
Our director Robert is really good at placing you in the ensemble and voice part where you’ll fit best
Strong bonds within your class year and with upperclassmen
Many of the ensembles rehearse in the beautiful space that is Sage Chapel
Steve Spinelli, the director of the Chorale and Chamber Singers, enjoys vocal pedagogy and is a great teacher and conductor.
We get together for campus events like Homecoming and Slope Day
Slope Day shirts every year!!
Senior Days are the most fun days of the year, let’s be honest, and you’ll get to stay on campus for them even if you’re not a senior.
Singers looking for an additional challenge in terms of musicianship and personal accountability will love being in the Chamber Singers.
The Chamber Singers get to perform with virtuosic faculty of the Department of Music such as the Cornell Early Music Lab.
Sing in up to 4 of the 6 singing groups we have!
Plan a tour and take all your friends with you on it
We sing in Vespers: Carols and Lessons in December and it’s lit af
Free food!!!
Free apple juice ;)
Having a front row seat at university events like convocation and commencement
Robert Isaacs, the director of the Chorus and Glee Club, has funny jokes and uses weird metaphors that get you to sing better
When I imagine a wire going through my head I can automatically sing with amazing vibrato
When I imagine that I’m a peacock I can sing a high C with no problem
Being in a choral ensemble is an excellent place to meet upperclassmen and ask those wise sages (pun intended) for advice
Midnight Madness: Cornell-wide scavenger hunt and logic puzzle during Senior Days (aka Survivor/The Amazing Race in real life)
Learn new languages (or at least a song’s worth), like Russian, Estonian, Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, French, German, and more!
Songs in made-up languages that are so much fun to sing
Share music with kids in the Ithaca community and on tour
You will attend A LOT of BBQs
The Slope Day BBQ at the Glee Club house backyard’s mini Libe Slope
After Eight and the Hangovers have a brother-sister relationship, often having social events together and supporting the other group at concerts with posters and lots of screaming
Choir friends come to support you at a cappella concerts!
The Chamber Singers’ stunning version of Erik Esenvald’s “Stars” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My9Iuk3cez8
Although it’s not as pretty as Sage Chapel, Lincoln Hall is air conditioned in the summer and heated in the winter.
Singing in a big circle on Ho Plaza every Wednesday
You get to perform at places like the Supreme Court, the Smithsonian and Carnegie Hall
Instead of applauding, you snap
You become really good at snapping
The Hangovers are the oldest continuously running a cappella group on campus and celebrated their 50th anniversary this past year!
Mint green and black is such a cute color combination (After Eight’s colors)
“Not Cappella”: members in the choirs who don’t do a cappella have their own party while the a cappella groups have parties with their new members
Travel back in time by singing motets and fugues in the Chamber Singers.
CHARIOT!! (Weekly hangouts at the Glee Club house to sing Cornell songs and our favorite permanent repertoire)
“Strike Up a Song to Cornell” as the first song at Chariot is a tradition; singing “Fill the glasses with a song” and then clinking your glasses is so fun
Speaking of glasses, singing a song accompanied by water-tuned glasses in Bailey Hall
Being a Chorus woman and sitting in the middle of the Glee Club’s circle while they sing some beautiful song, and vice versa
Singing repertoire way too loudly and energetically because Chariot is more about having fun than sounding good
Chariot is a place to throw tuning out the window and it’s fine
Singing intense songs with stomps and claps
Having an excuse to make animal sounds because it’s part of a song
Basically partying with your friends every Wednesday
Sing for a sold-out crowd in Sage Chapel for Vespers
Open Mic Night with the Cornell Symphony Orchestra
Getting close with Chorus women through being in After Eight or getting close with Glee Club guys through Hangs
The cool way to say the Steve’s name that makes him laugh every time
*lowers voice 3 octaves* “STEEEEEEEEVE!!!!!!”
We also have the best nickname for Robert: Baba Isaacs or just Baba
Great pool for potential life partners (and musically apt hypothetical children)
The basement of Sage Chapel=Glee Club and Chorus headquarters and a well-kept secret right on Central Campus
You get to hang out in Sage Basement
You get to jam out on the piano in Sage Basement.
You get to take naps on the couches in Sage Basement.
You pretty much live in Sage Basement.
You get to study at the tables in Sage Basement.
There’s always room at the tables and friends who can lend school supplies, electronic chargers, and academic help.
Deep conversations about life in Sage Basement
Sage Basement is conveniently located close to Libe, Okenshields, and the Ivy Room.
Patty Clobers (aka Patrick Clobridge ‘19) and Johnna Margalotti ‘19 are the queen and king (respectively) of Sage Basement.
Sage Lawn is the perfect place to enjoy the sun
The Hangovers’ “You Got a C” (a parody of “Under the Sea” about Cornell’s academic rigor) is so accurate it hurts but you love to hear it anyway.
Knowing all the Hangs’ choreography and doing it along with them
Meet and sing for alums at Reunions
Vespers afterparty, Glormal (Glee Club+Chorus+Formal), and Wine Tour = we dress up and have photoshoots
CORN. NUGGETS. (At Chorus New Member Dinner at the Nines)
Automatically tick off so many things on 161 Things to do at Cornell like corn nuggets, learning the alma mater, etc.
Tackling huge major works of music and pulling it off
Sage’s acoustics are amazing
Rehearsal is an excuse to regularly get popcorn from Willard Straight
You’ll never be lonely in Intro Psych, Orgo, or PHYS 1204/MUSIC 1466: Physics of Musical Sound
Having fun at the Glee Club house at concert afterparties
The State at Stewart bus stop is a one minute walk from the Glee Club house where you can catch a bus to North Campus
Everyone respects your decisions at social events, and there’s no peer pressure.
Our leaders are open to hearing about anything that’s bothering you and are willing to take action to improve the situation
Being in a choral ensemble is the best way to send a high-quality “happy birthday” message to friends and family--in real time!
Tour burns: at a concert on tour, the entire choir agrees to change something about the music so subtle that it goes over the audience’s heads but noticeable enough to get a hilarious reaction out of our director
Since being in the choral program is the first round audition for After Eight and the Hangovers, there’s a higher standard of musical skill unique to these a cappella groups
You get to be a part of so many inside jokes
That time we put Closer by the Chainsmokers into musician’s terms: “1-2-2-1 1-3-3-1 1-2-2-1”...we could never look at it the same way
“All Star” by Smash Mouth somehow got onto the regular playlist for parties
Harmonizing while singing All Star
Automatic friends to get meals with before or after rehearsal
Gingerbread House Competition: each class creates their own Gingerbread House and the winners get massive bragging rights
(Friendly) class warfare
Getting multiple email accounts when you’re an officer--useful for those free trials!
Robert has a crazy life story and is a really interesting person (read: spinning plates)
Collaborating with the Cornell Symphony Orchestra
Making fun of the Hangs at Chariot
The Hang’s arrangement of Up the Ladder to the Roof: 3!! 4!! GAH GAHHHH
Jamming out to the Hangs’ arrangement of Fire Burning
On tour, you get to share your music with many different types of communities and meet members of those communities.
Alum connections and networking
The acoustics in Bailey Hall are top notch
The world can watch you from afar in a Bailey livestream
Watch yourself sing on a Bailey livestream
Doing complicated arrangements in After Eight because everyone’s already a good musician from Chorus
The birdman himself, James Purcell ‘18 (CAW-AWW!)
Besides being a sweet and hilarious friend who we all love, James is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to ornithology and will identify any bird for you
Where else can you meet a descendant of THE Robert Purcell of Robert Purcell Community Center??
In Robert’s words, the Chorus has a “formidable” Alto 2 section
Literally any time you meet with Robert in his office for any reason, he will make you tea.
Improving your musicianship and sightreading abilities
Buying TRAV (travel attire for tours) allows you to acquire professional, work-appropriate clothing
Earn your iconic Hangovers Rugby jersey in colors that match the members you joined with!
The choral community has a meme community of its own to rival Make Cornell Meme Again
Patty Clobers makes the hottest memes
James Purcell memes
Icy Hot memes
The way Robert gets us to make overtones in Sage Chapel by singing these words in order: Lead lid led lack lock luck load look loo
The sound of overtones in Sage Chapel omg
Flight attendant uniforms that we all love to hate
Supportive and fun alums
Being in After Eight and pretending to hate the Hangs but being the biggest Hangs groupies with matching t-shirts at Hangs concerts
Where else but at choir warm-up is it normal to make weird ghost-like noises at the same time as a bunch of other people who are also making weird ghost-like noises at the end of a long day?
You learn Cornell History like nobody’s business!
Outreach events in the Cornell and Ithaca communities allow us to connect with music lovers of all ages
Our organization is dedicated to creating a safe and inclusive culture
Being able to sing in SSAA, TTBB, and SATB choirs
You make amazing friends
Be able to come back to Cornell with your Rugby and sing with generations of Hangs alums!
Serve as an officer in a position that suits your strengths and interests
Do projects in areas you’re interested in that end up greatly helping the organization
Robert and Steve have office hours at which you can voice any concern, related to singing or not
Sing pieces commissioned just for your ensemble, and bring the music to life for the very first time.
After Overs (After Eight+Hangovers) are a community in and of themselves!
You get paid to stay for Senior Days and sing at convocation and commencement
Sing at Madison Square Garden and then cheer on the Big Red Hockey Team
Tour is a vacation every year where you get to sing with your best friends
Makes a large school smaller
Every week you get to pack away all your worries and share a music-making experience with interesting, talented, and diverse people.
