Glee Club Takes Scarlet Pride on the Road in Upcoming European Tour

Brandon Williams is preparing students to perform in some of Spain and Portugal’s most prestigious venues on his first trip as their conductor

The members of Rutgers Glee Club, dressed in their signature gray blazers and red-and-black striped ties, are standing at attention in McKinney Hall on the College Avenue campus for a photo shoot before class. Brandon Williams, their professor and conductor, is arranging them as carefully as he would arrange music.

“Victor, would you switch with Nate?”

Williams scrutinizes the ensemble. He points to one student. “Your button is lopsided.” And to another. “Help him with his collar here.” And to the group as a whole. “No smiles now, more stoic.” The students, a jovial bunch, take it down a notch and face the camera, looking like the dignified, respectful artists that they are. Perfect. The camera clicks. Done.

Before the students are even back in their seats, Williams begins vocal exercises. As he leads them through a warm-up of sustained vowels, the singers develop a rich, resonant sound, their voices blending so seamlessly that Williams interjects, “Great job!”

Since the founding of Rutgers Glee Club in 1872, generations have gone through similar rehearsals in a quest for musical excellence reflected in the ensemble’s motto, “Ever-changing, yet eternally the same.” Williams, associate professor and director of choral activities at Mason Gross School of the Arts, became director of Rutgers Glee Club in 2023, after the retirement of Patrick Gardner, who led the group for 30 years. 

This year he is helping the Glee Club prepare for one of its most cherished traditions: a concert tour abroad, which takes place every four years. This time, the singers will tour Portugal and Spain for 12 days in May. “They’re not going there just to eat and sit on the beach,” Williams said. “They are there to perform in some really prestigious and historic venues.” The trip is subsidized by Glee Club alumni, reducing the cost for current members. “Some of the most devoted and loyal alumni that we have at Rutgers are Glee Club alumni,” Williams said. “They care deeply about the choir.”

Williams, who reveres both tradition and innovation, takes his responsibility leading the Glee Club seriously, and his students know that. “Dr. Williams holds us to a high standard,” said John Rutsky, a senior who joined the Glee Club’s baritone section as a freshman. “He’s easy to talk to, but he runs a tight ship.”

Membership in Rutgers Glee Club and Kirkpatrick Choir, which Williams also leads, requires an audition as well as enrollment in class. “Check your body position,” Williams advises, as the Glee Club embarks on a first reading of Mozart’s “Little Masonic Cantata” from 1791. The students sit up straighter.

Williams has been laser-focused on music since his childhood in Illinois, growing up in a family that listened to R&B and gospel. “The first music education I received was sitting in the pews of my church,” he said. “There was a strong tradition of using your ears to learn music, the aural tradition, and creating harmonies and fitting your voice in with others.” He became serious about the discipline of music in high school, where he further realized that “music takes work.”

He delved into music theory and voice and piano lessons. “I don’t see it as a gift,” he explained. “Music is a skill that can be taught and learned.” Williams went on to earn degrees from Western Illinois University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Michigan State University.

Williams taught music at middle and high school levels for 10 years in St. Louis, where he also taught at Maryville University and was a conductor for the St. Louis Symphony IN UNISON Chorus and the St. Louis Children’s Choirs. He likes to say he teaches “ages eight to 80.”

“At its core, there’s not a difference,” he said. “People want to be engaged and they want to know that you care about them. It doesn’t matter if you’re in kindergarten or if you’re a college senior. People appreciate that you’re competent, and that you have the skills to lead. You start by meeting them where they are, and then grow from there, especially in classes where there are music majors and non-majors.”

Rutgers Glee Club, a tenor-baritone-bass choir, is predominately comprised of non-music majors, as is Voorhees Choir, the soprano-alto ensemble based at Douglass Residential College, which Williams led for seven years, strengthening the group to the extent that it was selected “not once, but twice” to perform at the Eastern division of the American Choral Directors’ Association conference. “It’s a really big opportunity and recognition in the choral world,” Williams said. “I was quite proud of the work we did together to get there.”

William Berz, Professor Emeritus of Music at Mason Gross, described Williams as “a phenomenal musician, a great leader and a terrific choral conductor.”

“His energy is just infectious,” Berz continued. “When I was still director of the department, he was conducting Voorhees, and that group just shined. He did everything right, and the students loved and respected him. So I know the same thing is going to happen with the Glee Club and Kirkpatrick.”

Most members of Kirkpatrick Choir are music majors, so Williams has led them as if they were the choral equivalent of a varsity team. “I intentionally made it smaller, from 70 people to about 47,” he said. “It’s a smaller group of singers who have stronger musicianship skills, and more control over their vocal mechanisms.”

For the spring semester, Rutgers Glee Club will be working on material for concerts on campus, including a performance with the Kirkpatrick and Voorhees choirs on March 13 at Nicholas Music Center, as part of 50th anniversary celebrations for Mason Gross School of the Arts, before their focus turns to their trip abroad.

Glee Club members highly anticipate the spring tour. Rutsky, a communications and human resources major, said he joined Glee Club because “I wanted to expand my musical excellence. I wanted to be more engrossed in this world. And now I’m getting the chance to sing in European cathedrals.”

Rutgers Glee Club, he said, has given him some of his closest friends and a sense of home on campus. “When I get tired from school or work, I can come here and feel at ease,” Rutsky said. “It’s a brotherhood.”