New Glee Club To Be Formed For Freshmen

A freshman glee club will finally be formed next Wednesday, after several years of agitation for a special Yard group, it was announced last night.

Robert J. Gartside '50, will direct the club, designed for freshmen unable to attain membership in the regular Harvard Glee Club. The 25 freshmen who did achieve membership in the Glee Club this fall will also be permitted to become members of the new group.

Gartside, also assistant director of the Glee Club and the Radcliffe Choral Society, will be assisted in organizing the group by graduate manager Harry J. Kraut '54, manager of the Glee Club last year.

According to Gartside, the maximum workable group for the new society will be between 110 and 120. He hopes to accommodate all who are interested, "unless we are completely swamped."

Better Chance in '55

The new group will offer the same type of music as the regular Glee Club with a different repertoire. Gartside speculated that chances of making the regular Glee Club in the sophomore year should be much greater for those who have had a year's experience with the freshman club.

Gartside called the class of 1958, "an exceptionally good freshman class to start the new club," since the regular Glee Club has reduced its membership to 125.

The new group will practice only two hours per week. Only three tentative engagements have been planned to date. The Freshman Christmas dinner and the Brooks House party for local school children are on the agenda, along with a possible concert at Brookline High School. Manager Kraut hopes to schedule some engagements at New England women's colleges and girls' preparatory schools.