Archibald Thompson Davison

Archibald Thompson Davison (11 October 1883 – 6 February 1961) was an American musicologist, conductor, composer and music educator.

Davison was the first faculty conductor of the Harvard Glee Club, which under his direction from 1912 to 1933 came to be regarded as the best amateur chorus in the U.S. Davison (known as "Doc") transformed the Glee Club from a small, informal, and rowdy group that performed popular tunes to a more serious group, which toured the U.S. performing a more serious repertory:By the end of the ‘teens, HGC was singing sacred and secular pieces from the renaissance times till the present, folk songs from around the world, and college songs and had ceased its relationships with the mandolin clubs and popular music.

[1]The Glee Club would go on to introduce modern French works scored for men's chorus, especially those of Poulenc and Milhaud to their repertories and to audiences around the United States.

The group would tour the United States and, along with the Radcliffe Choral Society began performing regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, an association that would continue into the 1970s.

As a result, the Harvard Glee Club went on to become a premier training ground for conductors, directors and other music professionals.