University of Pennsylvania Glee Club

The Penn Glee Club is best described by our audience members.

“This magnificent musical group…blends its presentations, alternating serious music with interpretations of modern music, unfolding different scenes and dance numbers.”
-El Comercio; Lima, Peru

“Despite an ever-changing ensemble, the Penn Glee Club has sustained the highest level of excellence and given the greatest measure of satisfaction to members and audiences alike.”
-Former President Ronald Reagan

“This concert was a real Theatre Party with music to delight everyone no matter what his tastes…If this is what glee clubs are doing today, then here’s one reviewer who hopes that more find their way to our city.”
-Kansas City Star

“The young men fascinated the audience with their humor, singing, and dancing, giving a fantastic show…a universe full of music and smiles.”
-Apogevmatini; Athens, Greece

“The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club dazzled the hundreds of Cuencanos who came to the Teatra Cuenca to attend the presentation of this formidable musical group…An unforgettable fiesta, it is one that the people of Cuenca, lovers of the arts, ought not to miss!”
-El Mercurio; Cuenca, Ecuador

“The audience was moved by the delicate harmony and smoothness of the voices…For an encore, they sang, “Sakura Sakura” and “Oborozukiyo” together with the audience to great applause.”
-Chugoku imbun; Hiroshima, Japan

“Three thousand mostly young people crowded into the open-air theatre at Primorsko and stamped and shouted their approval with rhythmic clapping after every song.”
-Voice of America; Sofia, Bulgaria

“An American Show Completely in the Top Class (headline)… Thoroughly professional, very clever, and well developed… It was a sensational tempo.”
-Jydske Tidende; Aabenraa, Denmark

“The Penn Glee Club has created greater understanding between the United States and the people of South America than could be possible at this time on higher diplomatic planes.”
-New York Times

“We expected to have to review this concert with the patronizing tone of an account of a pleasant amateur chorus out to entertain its prejudiced alumni. What we found was a slick, professional performance that holds its own with any show in town.”
-Boston Herald

“Through universal music, the Penn Glee Club helped to build new grass-roots bridges of understanding…and the inherent dangers and differences in a volatile land were forgotten for a while in rich and joyous harmonies.”
-Jerusalem Post

As the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club thrives in the 21st century, it remains an institution atop the world of male choral singing. Featuring a unique blend of musical excellence and theatrical showmanship, the Glee Club has won worldwide acclaim. Under Daniel Carsello’s leadership as the Club’s Director, the Penn Glee Club continues to delight audiences of all ages. Its world-renowned and tradition-rich history began modestly in 1862, when eight undergraduate men formed the Club, making the Penn Glee Club the oldest performing arts group at the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently, the group added another eight men. The Club’s premier performance was in the chapel of Collegiate Hall at Ninth and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia for “an audience that was unusually select and large, the Hall filled to its utmost capacity.” At this concert, each man wore red and blue ribbons in his buttonhole, and thus the Glee Club became the first known Penn group to wear the University colors as part of its uniform.

The Penn Glee Club has toured internationally since 1959 and has traveled to nearly all 50 states in the United States and more than 40 nations and territories on five continents. Since its first performance at the White House for President Calvin Coolidge in 1926, the Club has sung for numerous heads of state and world leaders. One of the highlights of 1989 was the Club’s performance at the estate of Philadelphia entrepreneur Edward J. Piszek for Polish President Lech Walesa, who had recently traveled to the United States from behind the Iron Curtain. In 1990, the Club arrived in Budapest, Hungary, on the very day of the inauguration of President Arpad Goncz, Hungary’s first democratically elected president in 42 years. In 1999, several prominent Japanese executives sponsored a tour to Guam and Japan, the Club’s first tour of the Asian Pacific. Five years later, in 2004, the Club returned to Asia, this time touring China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. And in 2012, to commemorate its 150th anniversary year, the Club embarked on its first joint PGC-GCGC tour, cruising to Bermuda.

The modern Club is a reflection of its rich heritage and its contemporary character. Now in its 159th season, the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club remains, as former Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp once remarked, “one of the finest musical organizations in existence.” It proudly represents the University in its grand tradition and is equally proud to preserve its distinctive blend of choral excellence and theatrical showmanship, the hallmark of the Penn Glee Club.

We are extremely flexible. As a choral group that mainly performs a cappella, we can set up to perform in any location with whatever technical equipment is available.