Georgia Tech Glee Club

The Georgia Tech Glee Club is an a cappella singing group founded in 1906 at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It is a student-run glee club currently directed by Dr. Joshua Palkki as of the Fall 2025 semester. The Glee Club sings many original arrangements and compositions arranged by former director Dr. Jerry Ulrich and by members of the group, as well as other pop music and music genres.

Georgia Tech Glee Club
Background information
Origin	Georgia Institute of Technology
Genres	Choral
Years active	September 1906 – present
Website	www.gleeclub.gatech.edu

History

Early years

The Georgia Tech Glee Club in 1917.

It is slightly unclear when a group of Tech men first harmonized and called themselves a glee club, but it is accepted that the singers represent the Institute’s oldest student organization still in existence today. "The Glee Club was first started in 1906 and was composed of some eight or 10 men who would gather every afternoon under the Academic Building and practice," Georgia Tech's student newspaper The Technique reported in an October 9, 1917, article introducing new students to campus customs and clubs. An Atlanta Constitution article dated June 20, 1907, records the group’s roots a bit differently. "One of the great social organizations that helps to make the thorny path at Tech tread easier is a musical club organized last February under the suggestive title of the 'Tech Glee Club'." These dates make the Georgia Tech Glee Club the second-oldest collegiate glee club in the Southeast.^[1][2] In the group's first few decades, the Glee Club would perform in Atlanta and in other cities in Georgia, often combining with the Agnes Scott College Women's Chorale.

The Georgia Tech Glee Club has a long history of performing around the world. In the years immediately following World War II, the Glee Club sang with USO tours in locations from the South Pacific to Korea to Europe. It appeared twice on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1953 and 1968, during which Ed Sullivan famously barred the Glee Club from singing the line "helluva engineer" in the fight song, "Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech". They also sang the song "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" during the broadcast rehearsal to huge applause, only to have Sullivan cut it from the final lineup. Despite Ed Sullivan's censorship, the Glee Club was instrumental in spreading the fame of "Ramblin' Wreck" throughout the world, as it was one of the first college choral groups to release a recording of their school songs.^[3][4] The 1970s saw a dropoff in interest and attendance, which never picked back up until after the new millennium. By 2003, the Club was nearly dead.

Rebirth

At the first rehearsal after the arrival of its next director, Dr. Jerry Ulrich (known to students as "Doc"), in 2003, the Glee Club numbered 13 singers, including at least two persons who could not match pitch. That fall semester featured one public performance on the November Choral Concert where the group was sandwiched between the Chamber Choir, the Chorale, and two student-run a cappella groups. However, under Dr. Ulrich and new student officers, growth was quick. In the ensuing three years, the group expanded to 50 singers, and performed hundreds of times in Atlanta and the surrounding region.^{[citation needed]}

In the last few years, the Glee Club has continued to grow in fame and size. In the past, the group has performed in Hawaii, New York's Carnegie Hall, Washington, D.C., Southern California, and the United Kingdom. It recorded a full studio album entitled Sing, Kindred Voices in 2006 to mark the Glee Club's Centennial year. During the COVID lockdown in 2020, the Glee Club performed a virtual rendition of the Georgia Tech Alma Mater before the 2020 Georgia Tech Homecoming game against Clemson University,^[5] as well as recorded a holiday studio album entitled White and Gold Christmas on December 1, 2020.^[6]

Post COVID-19 Crisis

Following the return to pre-pandemic protocols, membership in the club would trend lower than previous rebirth-era highs. Additionally, certain traditions including the yearly off-campus retreat would remain suspended even in the years following the pandemic. However, a non-profit organization known as the Georgia Tech Glee Club Alumni Association, or the GTGCAA, came into being in 2021^[7], which aimed to create and preserve an alumni network and to support the active member base through the hosting of alumni events and by providing scholarships to active members, on the order of $1000 per winner (of which a few were selected per year).

The trend towards malaise would be most notably underscored by the retirement of director Dr. Jerry Ulrich between the Spring 2024 and Fall 2024 semesters. This retirement would come after just one semester as acting director following a leave of absence for the Fall 2023 semester due to health-related issues. During this period he was replaced by Dr. Nathan Frank, with additional duties taken on by Dr. Jeff Albert. Following Ulrich's retirement, interim director Dr. Erika Tazawa was hired for the academic year^[8], who also took on Ulrich's role in the direction of the Georgia Tech Chamber Choir. Student reactions to Tazawa were generally positive between both groups, and an effort was made by some students to have her hired permanently.

Despite such attempts, Tazawa's employment by the Institute ended with her second semester as director. Several candidates were considered as replacements, and the job was ultimately fulfilled by Dr. Joshua Palkki, assuming the role in the Fall of 2025^[9].

That semester sported less than half of the membership at the peak of Dr. Ulrich's tenure, hovering around 20 active members (a magnitude not inordinate relative to the previous post COVID-19 semesters). Notably, this was also the first semester after the retirement of Dr. Ulrich in which an off-campus retreat with the director in attendance occurred.

With the goal of maximizing interest in the group, the officer team (in concert with Palkki) placed enhanced emphasis on rebuilding traditions and culture along with heightened recruitment efforts. This resulted in consultation with representatives from the GTGCAA for the purpose of increasing recruitments and retention via a "return to form." Additionally, the publicist role was expanded as a response to the reduced activity on all social media compared to previous years, particularly 2022 and earlier. This included efforts to retroactively publish any major performances (particularly the yearly concert held at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia) that had gone unpublished on YouTube as well as heightened activity on Instagram.

The Modern Glee Club

The Georgia Tech Glee Club performing the Georgia Tech fight song, Ramblin' Wreck, during their spring concert on April 17, 2023.

Each semester, the group performs dozens of times for a wide range of venues, such as Georgia Tech commencement ceremonies, sporting events, college recruitment programs, corporate dinners, church services, alumni receptions, and many more. The Glee Club also sings its own creatively arranged Christmas carols every winter in the Atlanta International Airport, and it will sing songs flashmob-style in the school library and Student Center during the week prior to final exams known as Dead Week.

The Glee Club is well known for its unpredictability during performances that blend rich a Capella music with irreverent humor. Its music spans many genres, including classic rock, funk, jazz, classical, folk, reggae, and collegiate. It is also identified by its unique uniform consisting of blue jeans, a white dress shirt, and a gold tie featuring Georgia Tech's mascot Buzz. This uniform is known among Glee Club members as jeans mode, with other performance attire modes such as t-shirt mode and slacks mode. The Glee Club currently has approximately 20 members as of Fall 2025, and there is no audition required to join. Its success is largely due to the group of dedicated student officers that organize most of the Glee Club's operations and finances.

See also

• List of collegiate glee clubs