The Glee Club is one of the top choral ensembles at Penn State and considered to be one of the best of its kind in the country.
Led by Dr. George C. Butz, the Glee Club begun their touring tradition in 1889 going to the nearby towns of Bellefonte, Tyrone, Huntingdon, Altoona, Clearfield, Philadelphia, and Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Following Butz’s direction, the Glee Club fell under the new leadership of Frank Peabody Atherton in 1889, followed by E.F. Davis in 1890.
By this time the Glee Club had grown to about fifty members and included the select group, the Varsity Quartet.
The Glee Club began a transition from strictly comedic repertoire to begin singing more Renaissance pieces and English madrigals; however the novelty and humorous selections remained.
Spratlan began a new Glee Club tradition of regularly joining with women’s choruses in joint concerts.
For 35 years, until 2005, Trinkley continued many Glee Club traditions including the spring break tours and varied musical selection.
Dr. Kiver also began a new tradition, In Low Voice (formerly, Men of Song), where many growing young men were invited from across the region to spend a day with the Glee Club to experience collegiate music making which, over the years, grew to include more and more middle and high school students every year.
In 2024, the Penn State Glee Club celebrated their 135th anniversary with a reunion concert at Eisenhower Auditorium on Saturday, October 26.