Glee Club
Glee Club Performs in Puerto Rico
VMI Glee Club Performs in New York and New Jersey
The VMI Glee Club is listed as an activity in the first VMI yearbook, the BOMB, published in 1885. In its early days, the Club performed as much instrumental music as vocal, with guitars, mandolins and violins accompanying the singing. The early entertainment took the form of minstrel shows, with formal concerts as we now know them not becoming standard fare until the 1930s.
The father of the modern VMI Glee Club was the legendary professor of English, Colonel Herbert N. Dillard, '34, who, while a cadet, was instrumental in organizing a club from informal groups which gathered on the stoops of Barracks to serenade the Corps late at night. Colonel Dillard became the Club's first director in 1941, and except for the war years, remained with the Club as its director and inspiration until 1957.
The Glee Club continues its traditional program of concerts throughout Virginia and the eastern United States for alumni chapter gatherings, recruiting dinners, conventions, Spring Tour, and numerous appearances at VMI during the year. The Club¹s small select group, "The Sentinels," concentrates on appearances at events where the full Club would not be appropriate. In addition to singing the standard repertoire, The Sentinels feature popular music and entertainment of a lighter nature.