With the start of a new school year, new clubs and extracurricular activities flourish, such as the brand new Athens Drive Glee Club, created by ninth grade choral students Netta Osborne and Victoria Stocker.
Glee clubs are centered around music with a gender-mix of voices that specialize in singing typically short songs that range from two to three minutes. These songs can range from mash-ups to folk spirituals and even romantic serenades. First debuted in 1787 by Harrow School in London, the musical club has since risen to prominence with the premiere of the Emmy-winning FOX show Glee in 2009. There are thousands of high school and collegiate glee clubs all around the country, and with the popularity of shows like Glee and its spinoff, The Glee Project, glee clubs are becoming more common in high schools as well.
“I would love to be a part of a group that makes a beautiful sound. When creative people come together they can make beautiful things. I like to sing and hopefully this club will make me want to sing even more,” said Kareem Hilaire, senior.
Osborne and Stocker are new members to the Women’s Chorus. The women’s chorus was started in 2005 by Athens Drive choral director Joy Clayton. As of this year, there are over 60 girls in the class. Women’s chorus is one of the three chorus classes offered at school that students can partake in, the other two being Vocal Ensemble which is an audition-only Honors chorus available for 10th to 12th graders, and Men’s chorus which is offered to male students in any grade.
“I want glee club to be a safe place where students can feel comfortable sharing their ideas and can learn how to improvise. Through ATV advertising and student advocation, our club can grow and become more well-known on campus,” said Clayton. “Music is the heartbeat of the school. It’s a great outlet for self expression. It’ll be great to watch these students collaborate together.”
The first meeting took place on September 30th in the chorus room during A-lunch. In the room, students ranging from all grades filed into the seats, filling a whole section set aside for them and even taking up extra space. There, the members shared their ideas and visions for the club as Clayton wrote them on a dry-erase board. They shared song suggestions, ideas on how to be uniformed, and ways to become more well known on campus and around the community. They are assigned to bring back ideas for songs to perform every week at their Wednesday meetings. At some point in time, the glee club will have a performance in the chorus room to showcase their progress to the student body.
“I have high hopes for this club,” said Osbourne, freshman. “Hopefully when I’m a senior, the number of kids in Glee Club will be about fifty, maybe even a little more than that. Everyone should know and want to be a part of it. Or, at least, that’s my goal.”
