May 2013 - UGC Home

May
Enharmonic Notes of the University Glee Club
Hambone Cup Winners, 2013
Sons of the Whiskey Rebellion, from left:
Tyler Hirshey, Mike Ogurick, Keith Crowningshield, Jack Dorer
From the President
3
From the Editor 4
UGC All-Stars
6
Newbies8
Dearly Departed
8
Hambone Cup
9
Afterglows10
Club News
11
Club Activities
11
2013
2 Squeak & Squawk
From the President
On May 11, 2013, the University Glee Club of New
York City will return to Alice Tully Hall for our
238th Members’ Concert and to close our 119th
season. The board of the UGC is also in transition.
Our May concert will be my last as President, and
I admit that I hate to give up this job.
It has been an honor to serve the UGC for the
last two years during which we welcomed
39 talented freshmen. We hosted the awardwinning Dartmouth Aires at sold-out Alice Tully
Hall in January 2012 and returned to Carnegie
Hall in January 2013 for the first time since our
centennial celebration in 1994. The UGC opened
that gala concert with the world premier of When
Thou Commandest Me To Sing, a commissioned
piece by the renowned Stephen Paulus. We were
also joined on stage by three impressive and
highly entertaining guest groups: the Harvard
Glee Club, U.S. Naval Academy Men’s Glee Club
and the string ensemble, Solisti.
Of particular importance at Carnegie Hall, we
launched a $1 million fund-raising initiative
intended to conclude with our 125th anniversary
in 2019, and we announced the establishment
of the John Low Baldwin Chair in honor of our
beloved conductor from 1961 to 1999. Our
current conductor, Francisco Nuñez, is fittingly
the first to occupy that seat.
These notable accomplishments were carefully
conceived by a forward thinking Board of
Directors to which I am deeply grateful. Indeed,
so many members of the UGC community,
including loyal spouses and significant others,
continually work behind the scenes in the best
interests of the UGC, and the fair winds that
we are currently enjoying are a tribute to their
collective efforts.
In my final essay as
President of the UGC, I
would like to add some
personal thoughts.
When I joined the
UGC in 1985, members
uniformly wore dark
business suits to
rehearsal, and there were several revered singers
who had joined our merry brotherhood in the
1920’s and 1930’s. One gentleman in particular
could recall a time when the streets around St.
Patrick’s Cathedral were an unpaved and muddy
mess, and I was duly impressed.
As I grew more familiar with my fellow singers, I
learned that many led happy lives of great vitality
and accomplishment while other men quietly
suffered from unemployment, serious health
concerns, or sad personal situations. I also noted
that individual circumstances could quickly turn,
and yesterday’s champions might encounter
unanticipated challenges while the sun often
broke through the clouds for others.
Throughout all the vicissitudes of life, however,
I observed that the members of the UGC stand
firmly together, a band of brothers cemented
by our shared love of song and, of course, the
occasional beer.
The older gentlemen of that era are largely
gone, and the middle-aged men of the 1980’s
are now our elder statesmen. Business suits
are scarcer, and the faces at rehearsals have
changed. However, our fundamental spirit
remains unaltered. The UGC is a constant
continued on next page
May 2013 3
From the President
…continued
institution by which each of us can measure the
changing seasons.
At our May concert, we will honor two individuals
who have stood the test of time. Accordingly,
we congratulate Foster Conklin, a first tenor and
1983 graduate of Boston University, for having
attained 25 years of active membership with
the UGC. Moreover, Phil Olick will be lauded for
50 years of active membership. Phil is a 1957
graduate of Columbia University and a former
President of the UGC who is also well known for
his love of the UGC’s Hairy Legs Shows. He is an
accomplished pianist and an outstanding bass.
We heartily congratulate him and wish him a life
Sans Souci.
It is no accident that the current program for
Alice Tully Hall draws heavily on our greatly
beloved historical repertoire. Francisco Nuñez
leads us forward with new and exciting
arrangements, but we also hold our traditions
dear. We look back, and we look forward, and we
stand as one.
On behalf of the UGC Board, I send best
wishes to you and your families for a relaxing
summer, and I also thank you for this marvelous
opportunity to serve as your President.
Your Brother in Song,
Mark S. Johnson
President
University Glee Club of New York City
From the Editor
New Challenges for
the Old UGC
Art Meyerson
The UGC, while
continuing to fulfill its
mission to further the
cause of male choral
singing, is also committed to change. That
change is represented by newly written pieces
we sing, by recruitment of new members who
are often talented musicians, by joining with
other choruses with whom we’ve never sung
before, by recruiting members of minorities and
by challenging ourselves to improve our musical
abilities by personal effort and the efforts of
our conductor. Francisco is an extraordinarily
talented multi-voice coach as well as a wonderful
composer/conductor.
During the fall semester 2012-13, we once again
undertook a set of challenging pieces and
despite the difficulty of learning so much new
music, we pleased our audience who could
compare us with both Harvard and Navy, our
guests at Carnegie Hall. We did more than hold
our own. For the spring semester of 2013, Tom
Isley and the music committee have presented
another challenge which is to sing most of the
pieces without the aid of the scores. No one in
the present club can remember if that was done
in the last five decades. Do some mourn for the
black books? Should we stretch ourselves in this
way? Aren’t we an amateur group? Does this new
task set a differentially high bar for some group
of members?
continued on next page
4 Squeak & Squawk
From the Editor
…continued
I’ll address these questions one at a time. First, I
believe that Francisco and the music committee
are seeking to bring our performances to the
highest level we are capable of achieving. I don’t
know anyone who doesn’t share this goal. In
addition, Francisco never tires of reminding us
about how badly we look during a concert when
we, heads bowed, are focused on the music and
not on the conductor. Of course, in addition to
the poor appearance, reading the score while
singing keeps the singer from the necessary
attention required to focus on the conductors
tempo, rhythmic cues and signals for entrances,
whether of sections or tutti. Thus, the music’s
presence often causes poorer performances of
the pieces than otherwise might occur.
new things, especially words but may include
music. That is not universal but a number of
our older members and even some younger
ones have expressed their dismay over this new
challenge. Should this issue represent a valid
reason for retaining the use of the music for
some or all of our repertoire? Perhaps for some
of the most difficult pieces in terms of music
and/or words but this semester’s experiment
appears more than worthwhile. Those who
have more difficulty will have to work harder
and, if necessary, recede into the background,
mouthing the parts they can’t master. Since
those words and parts are available to be heard
on the website, working hard is not as “hard” as
it once was.
As to whether we are amateur and therefore
can be less ambitious for ourselves, I believe the
answer lies in our many concerts/performances
for the public. We have an obligation to repay
our audiences for their attendance, attention
and appreciation by doing the very best we can
in all aspects of performance which includes
both presentation and the beauty of our singing.
To look sloppy while coming on stage, to miss
the conductors cues and to look like literate
penguins when singing is not worthy of our
obligations and ambitions.
Thus, after much thought and conversation
with other older and younger members, I’ve
become convinced of the value of this vocal
experiment. I hope that we’ll all support the
decision to memorize the music by singing as
well or better than in the recent past. We owe
our deep appreciation to Francisco and the
Music Committee for stretching our ability to
perform at the highest level possible within our
collective ability.
As for the diversity of our members, there
may be some conflict between the ability of
those who are in their seventh and eighth
decades and those younger with regard to the
ability to memorize new material. It is both
a common sense observation and research
based reality that aging causes a diminution
of the average person’s ability to memorize
May 2013 5
UGC All-Stars
Barrett (“Barry”) Seaman
President Elect
By Arthur Meyerson
Barry, who was born in 1945, grew up in Oyster
Bay, New York where he attended the Brookville
School followed by Phillips Academy/Andover
in Massachusetts. He then attended Hamilton
College where he joined the Glee Club during
John Baldwin’s last year at that institution. He
graduated from Hamilton in 1967 and obtained
an MBA from Columbia in 1971.
Barry and Laura have been married for 43
years, remarkable given how young she looks.
Never mind Barry’s appearance. They raised
three daughters who are on their own and
doing quite well. In addition to his wonderful
family, he’s had a splendid, thirty year career as
a correspondent and editor for Time Magazine.
During his tenure at Time, he served in five
bureaus in the U.S. and abroad including four
years as senior White House correspondent
during the Reagan administration. While bureau
chief in Detroit from 1978-81, he and a colleague
co-authored Going for Broke; The Chrysler Story
about Lee Iacocca’s efforts to save the company
from financial disaster. In his last seven years at
Time, he served as special projects editor. He has
served as a Trustee of Hamilton since 1989.
After retiring from Time in 2001, Barry authored
Binge: Campus Life in an Age of Disconnection and
Excess based on his reporting experience on the
campuses of twelve colleges and universities. In
2008, he was given the Journalism Award by the
Research Society of Alcoholism for that book’s
6 Squeak & Squawk
contribution to the field of alcohol research. In
July, 2010 Barry became the president of “Choose
Responsibility,” a non-profit organization
dedicated to improving the way youngsters are
exposed to alcohol.
Having done a marvelous job arranging for our
last three concerts, Barry will begin his term as
president of the UGC after the Spring Concert.
Given his experience and proven ability can
anyone doubt that we’ll continue to thrive?
UGC All-Stars
…continued
David F. Smith
A Basso Extraordinaire and
UGC’s Past President (2009-11)
By Lawrence W. Boes, UGC ‘91
David F. Smith, UGC ’79 and University of
Pennsylvania ’61, was born in San Francisco,
while his U.S. Army father and family were
stationed there. In the course of a movable
childhood as an “Army Brat,” he attended
thirteen schools before Penn. David was a
member of the Penn Glee Club under its
legendary director, Bruce Montgomery, and also
sang with Bruce’s Gilbert & Sullivan Players in
Philadelphia for his last two undergraduate years.
After a stint in the Army and a year in Taiwan
as manager of an import-export office, David
eventually settled down in Manhattan with a
career in database management, development
and sales as a member (now retired) of Cuadra
Associates. For its various clients, David’s
work included developing and improving
their corporate and institutional libraries and
archives. David did the same for the UGC’s first
membership database as well as its music and
program databases.
years to count, and has three grandchildren,
courtesy of his daughter, Amanda, an Emergency
Medicine physician. He and Anne live about a
thousand yards from the kids and they both
enjoy seeing them often.
David takes pride in his accomplishments as
UGC’s president in seeing the club safely though
the recent financial unpleasantness and also
in embracing the part of our 1894 Articles that
calls for charitable works by planning additional
benefit concerts for the mutual enjoyment of
the Club and its audiences in various venues,
including a benefit for Haiti Relief at the Brick
Church, fundraisers for the Society for Ethical
Culture and the Holy Trinity Neighborhood
Center, and most notably a benefit at the New
York Masonic Hall for the Triform Camphill
Community, a therapeutic community for young
adults with special needs located in Columbia
County. Our Brother in Song, the late John
Braunschweig, made the connection between
Triform Camphill and the UGC. David says he
enjoyed enormously singing in Carnegie Hall in
January and tips his hat to Mark Johnson and his
board for pulling it off in such great style.
Steve Herbst, our enthusiastic Penn Glee Club
alum, actively recruited David and other Penn
grad singers for the UGC to make sure Penn was
well represented. David fulfilled that promise
by serving as the UGC’s basso profundo voice
in our revered and distinctive bass section for
more than thirty years (so far). David has also
been a member since 1999 of “The Ten,” one of
the Club’s premier small groups. He has been
married to Anne Mollegen Smith for too many
May 2013 7
Newbies
Dearly Departed
Chieku B. Camara
John P. Braunschweig
Cheiku attended Miami University (’08) in Oxford,
Ohio, and sang with both the Miami University
Men’s Glee Club and the Collegiate Chorale. He
also sang with an a cappella group called the
Remnants. Cheiku moved to New York to pursue a
Master’s degree in Film at Columbia University. After
completing his degree, Cheiku shifted into Higher Ed
Administration and now works in Student Affairs at
Columbia in the School of the Arts. He is very excited
to be singing with the UGC and is looking forward to
what he hopes will be a long tenure with the club.
(no photo available)
Excerpts taken from the Stamford Advocate
Kirkpatrick MacDonald
Kirk is a 1962 graduate of Yale and sings 1st tenor in
the club. He resides on the Upper West Side.
(no photo available)
Andrew Taub
Andrew is an Analyst at
Great Oaks Venture Capital
and graduated in May 2012
from Hamilton College with
a major in English and minor
in Mathematics. A native
New Yorker, Andrew has studied classical and jazz
piano, violin, and most recently picked up the alto
saxophone.
Eric Weiss
Eric joins the UGC as a
graduate of Bucknell
University in 2011. While
at Bucknell he sang in the
all-male a cappella group, The
Bison Chips. Eric graduated as
a double major in Economics
and Philosophy and currently
is roommates with fellow University Glee Club
Member, William Burkey. Eric works for Equity
Research Boutique, Wolfe Trahan, working in the
Institutional Sales & Trading Division.
8 Squeak & Squawk
John Paul Braunschweig was born on July 28, 1939
to Irma and Walter Braunschweig in Oconomowoc
Wisconsin where he spent his early years. John passed
away on Friday, April 12, 2013 at the age of 73 from
Parkinson’s disease in the town of Wilton.
He attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison
where he played tuba in the marching band. John was
a great musician and appreciator of music and donated
his time and talent to the music program at St. John’s
Lutheran Church in Stamford. He also played the electric
and upright bass, dabbled on the piano and sang in the
University Glee Club of NY for over forty years.
John loved to golf and enjoyed 25 years as a member of
Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, NY. He and his
wife had a beloved home on the west coast of Ireland
where they golfed, vacationed and celebrated all things
Irish, especially the people they came to know and love.
John was the president and CEO of Tienshan Inc. for
30 years importing dinnerware and homegoods from
China. He was one of the first westerners to forge a
business partnership with the Chinese in the early
1970’s and is considered a pioneer in the development
of Chinese ceramics for the American market. During
this time he made over 100 trips to China and hosted
numerous delegations of Chinese here in the U.S.
He was loved and respected by his colleagues and
employees for his leadership, and humanitarian nature.
John is survived by his wife of 46 years, Carole, his son
August, his daughter Katherine Silvan, her husband
Rob Silvan and their son, John River. John is also
survived by a brother Robert of Cincinnati, OH, a sister
Betty (Dr. Bernhard) Schumacher of Oconomowoc, WI,
and many extended family and close friends.
John will be remembered for his wonderful sense of
humor, generosity and love of people. He will be
dearly missed by all of his family and his friends across
the world.
Hambone Cup
Top left – Hambone Winners, Sons of the Whiskey
Rebellion (performing), from left: Tyler Hirshey, Mike
Ogurick, Jack Dorer, and Keith Crowningshield
Top right – 2nd Place Winners, O.M.F.Y., from left: Johnny
Rabe, Elliott Gumbs, Nathaniel Granor, and Rich Johnson
Middle – 3rd Place Winners, Purple Flush, from left: Mijon Zulu, Sean Pearson, Will Moller, and Adam Zamora)
Bottom – All of the Hambone competitors combined
for a joint song
May 2013 9
Afterglows
Johnny Rabe wins Channing
LeFebvre Memorial Trophy from
Director of Activities, Steve Herbst
Low Key A Cappella (including UGCers
Adam Zamora, Will Moller, and Mike
Ogurick with three outsiders)
Carole Demas
(Broadway star)
January 8
UPTOWN EXPRESS (a cappella)
March 21
Low Key (a capella)
January 10
Fresman Induction
April 4
Mark Janas’ “Classical Corner”
February 7
Carol Ann Sanita
April 11
Carole Demas
February 14
Billie Williams
April 18
Meet A Member (Marty Martinez
interviews 53 year member, Dave Weild)
February 21
Ago Agostaro (magician)
March 7
UGC Talent Contest (winner Johnny Rabe)
March 14
Holc Noble talks about his new book
on Dick Cheney
10 Squeak & Squawk
April 25
Hambone Quartet Contest
May 2
Freshman Show
Club News
• Both Russell Ames and David James, former
UGC accompanists, will attend the Spring
Concert as guests of the past presidents. Ten past
presidents each contributed to the concert and
Afterglow to honor our past accompanists.
Club Activities
The Les Meserables Medley was the creation of
Russell Ames and a month of listening to a tape
by David James who notated the piano part for
future engraving.
Richard McGlynn will solo Master of the House as
a tribute to the accompanists. Russell supported
John Baldwin, our former conductor, for over
three decades and David accompanied Francisco
Nunez for nearly a decade.
Since 1988, Les Meserables Medley entertained
the audience and this performance will be the
seventh revue.
• Jack Noonan will offically hang up his legal robe
and garner an new venue: retirement. Look for him
at the concert.
Freshman Show, from left: Charles Hagaman, Kirk
MacDonald, Thompson Davis, Bruce Sholl, and
Cheiku Camara (on floor)
Joe’s Night
May 2013 11
First Class Mail
U.S. Postage
PAID
Stamford, CT
Permit #1245
In Memoriam
J. GARY TAYLOR
After a tough battle with bladder cancer, our Brother in
Song, former second bass J. Gary Taylor, PhD, died on
April21 at age 76. He leaves Patricia, his second wife of 30
years, his sons, Geoffrey, Joshua and Adam (he was predeceased by another son, Luke), stepdaughters Wendy Moore,
Janet Solomon and Peggy Rambach, his sister, Hadley Fisk,
thirteen grandchildren and his constant helper, Mercedes
Rodney.
An Amherst graduate (Class of 1950), Gary joined the club
in 2000. He and Pat were part of the 2002 tour of Eastern
Europe. In 2005, he and Barry Seaman took over the editorship of Squeak & Squawk and moved it to the photointense, glossy format you see today.
Contributions may be made to University Glee Club of NYC,
c/o D. Doran, 91 Summit Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07304
Squeak & Squawk
Squeak & Squawk UGC Newsletter
Editor: Arthur Meyerson, MD
Art Director: Marla Laney
Chief Photographer: Steve Herbst
Contributing Editor: Eric Davidson