The Spelman College Glee Club has maintained a formal reputation of choral excellence since it began in 1925.  It is an organization that is open by audition to all students of the Spelman College community.  The Glee Club’s repertoire consists of secular choral literature for women’s voices with special emphasis on traditional spirituals, music by African-American Composers, music from different cultures, and other commissioned works.

The Spelman Legacy of song is inextricably entwined in our institutional history.  The founders of Spelman College, Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles, possessed more than a desire to open a school for Black women and girls in the post-slavery South.  They desired to establish and teach a curriculum that ensured a well-rounded educational experience. Therefore, instruction in music was introduced into the course offerings early on.  Miss Giles, an accomplished pianist, taught music lessons prior to moving to Atlanta.  Had it not been for her divine calling, she might very well have had a career as a concert pianist.  Yet, the prospect of founding the school that would become Spelman beckoned both Miss Packard and Miss Giles.  To help fund the move to Atlanta, Miss Giles sold her beloved piano.

This legacy is embodied in the Spelman College Glee Club, which is the primary performance organization of the College.  The Glee Club sings for most major campus events, including Founder’s Day Convocation and Baccalaureate and Commencement services.  Generations of young women, including those who major and minor in music, as well as those focusing on other areas of study, have given their time, talent, and energy in exchange for membership in this special elite group embedded within the Spelman sisterhood.

The beginnings of the Glee Club can be traced back to 1882, just one year after the college opened.  In this year, the first joint concert of the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary (Spelman College) and the Atlanta Baptist Seminary (Morehouse College) was held.  This effort evolved into annual music performances and continues today as the Spelman-Morehouse Christmas Carol Concert held every December. 

In 1911, Kemper Harreld joined the faculty of Morehouse College, where he established a Glee Club and orchestra.  A renowned concert violinist and conductor, he developed a reputation for excellence in classical and folk music.  Harreld became a member of the Spelman music faculty in 1927, and was chairman of the music departments of both institutions for twenty-seven years.  It was during Harreld’s first year at Spelman that President Florence M. Read initiated the first Christmas Carol Concert by the Morehouse and Spelman Glee Clubs in the newly built Sister’s Chapel.  Over the years the Christmas Carol Concert has become the perennial highlight of the Christmas season in Atlanta and is presented by both the Spelman and Morehouse College Glee Clubs.  The audience swells to

over 10,000 for the three-night celebratory concert, and the national television broadcast is widely viewed throughout the country.

The Glee Club has had the unique opportunity to perform, on a number of occasions, with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and sing with such musicians as Jessye Norman, Indra Thomas, and Audra McDonald.  Each year the Spelman College Glee Club, in coalition with the Morehouse College Glee Club and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra participate in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday celebration; a concert that is broadcasted worldwide.  The Glee Club has also been featured on “Performance Today” for National Public Radio.  Major annual performances of the Spelman College Glee Club include the Christmas Carol Concert, the Spring Concert Tour, the Spring Concert and most recently added, the annual Spelman-Morehouse-Tuskegee Glee Clubs in a Black History Month Celebration.

The Spelman College Glee Club has traveled throughout the country performing for a variety of audiences.  The Glee Club has performed in concert halls such as Fanueil Hall (Boston), the Brooklyn Academy of Music (NY), Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Spivey Hall (Atlanta), Symphony Hall (Atlanta), and in churches, high schools, colleges and universities around the country.  The choir’s international travels have brought them to places such as Brazil, Canada, and Italy. 

In recent history, the Spelman College Glee Club performed Gershwin’s opera, Porgy and Bess with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Morehouse College Glee Club under the bat

on of maestro Robert Spano.  Immediately following Porgy and Bess, Spring Tour 2005 brought the Glee Club to the west coast for the first time in nearly 30 years.  The Glee Club left an impressionable mark in several cities including Denver, Los Angeles, and San Bernadino.  The Sixth Annual James Weldon Johnson Festival of Spirituals in April of 2005 featured all four of the Atlanta University Center Choirs under the direction of infamous composer and conductor Roland Carter.  Later that same month, the Spelman College Glee Club had the privilege of performing at the Closing of the Romare Bearden exhibit at Atlanta’s High Museum of Arts.  Also, the Spelman College Glee Club sang at the blessing/consecration of the reopening of Sister’s Chapel in September 2005.

In terms of leadership, Willis Laurence James succeeded Professor Harreld on the Spelman faculty upon his retirement.  At the untimely death of Dr. James in 1966, Dr. Grace Boggs Smith, a ten-year member of the Spelman faculty assumed the chairmanship of the Music Department until the end of the academic year. Dr. Roland Allison joined the music faculty as professor of music in 1967 and also took on conductorship of the Glee Club, a position he held until 1989, with the exception of a one-year absence during which Mr. Aldrich Adkins was director.  Under Dr. Allison’s watch, the Glee Club concretized extensively.  Annual tours took the group to numerous states.  Their performances were heralded as the most daring and demanding vocal forms of the times.

Following Dr. Allison’s watch, Dr. Ruth B. Stokes served from 1990 to 1991.  Dr. Norma Raybon guided the Glee Club from 1991-1999.  Dr. Raybon’s tenure saw expansion and innovation where the Glee Club range of musical repertoire was concerned. After her departure, current director and Chairman of the Music Department, Dr. Kevin P. Johnson took the head of the Glee Club. Dr. Johnson continues to uphold the eighty year tradition of choral excellence while amazing and inspiring all those who come in contact with the Glee Club with their musical flexibility and diversity.