On Saturday April 1, more than 100 former members of Fairfield choral groups — spanning seven decades of University history — gathered at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts to participate in the Fairfield University Glee Club’s 75th Diamond Jubilee Concert.
The anniversary concert was several years in the planning, said conductor Carole Ann Maxwell, DSM, P’02, and in terms of ambition, “it was like nothing we’ve ever done before.” She worked closely with associate conductor Michael A. Ciavaglia ’04, DMA, to select songs to be performed by the alumni, alongside 75 current Glee Club members. Returning singers were sent copies of the music months in advance so they could learn any pieces that were new to them.
“Some of the songs were traditional, like the Fairfield University Alma Mater and ‘Viva la Musica’,” Dr. Maxwell noted. “The ‘Prayer of St. Ignatius’ was mostly traditional; at least three-quarters of the group knew it.”
The singers also performed selections that were less familiar to them, such as Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus” and “Do You Hear the People Sing” from Les Misérables. Of these pieces Dr. Maxwell remarked, “God bless them, they learned it all!”
Accompanist Beth Palmer and the Festival Orchestra performed with more than 180 alumni and student singers at the 75th anniversary concert, conducted by Carole Ann Maxwell, DSM, P’02.
Formed in 1947, the Fairfield University Glee Club holds a special place in University history as the oldest student club on campus. In its early years, founding musical director Simon Harak and faculty moderator Rev. John P. Murray, S.J., scheduled radio performances and in-person concerts throughout the Northeast and Midwest as a way to enhance the prestige of the new Jesuit University.
Dubbed the “Ambassadors of Song,” the group performed at cathedrals, colleges, and auditoriums from Boston to Washington, D.C., and even appeared several times on stage at New York City’s legendary Carnegie Hall. Their annual concert at the Klein Auditorium in Bridgeport, Conn., became a signature University event that routinely sold out.
Bringing home top prizes in choral competitions, the Glee Club quickly established a reputation for excellence and helped put Fairfield University on the map.
When Fairfield’s campus went co-ed in 1970, the Glee Club elected to keep its membership all-male. So, their newly arrived classmates formed the Women’s Chorale and kept a separate schedule of concerts and performances.
(l-r) Mark Warren ’70, Emmett Casey ’70, and Jack Hunt ’66 represent the early years of the all-male Glee Club.
In 1981, a third choral group, the co-ed Fairfield University Chamber Singers, was created by Dr. Maxwell. Six years later – and not without a measure of discord – all three groups merged to become the Glee Club that we know today.
Dr. Maxwell is the only person to ever lead the fully integrated Glee Club. Over a span of 43 years she has led student performances both nationally and in such places as Toronto, London, and across Ireland and Italy.
This past April, a group of student singers, family members, and friends again represented Fairfield University overseas, for what Dr. Maxwell described as “three marvelous performances in Rome, Assisi, and Florence,” including a liturgy at the Vatican.
Among notable off-campus performances scheduled for the coming year, the Glee Club will sing in November at historic Old St. Joseph’s Church in Philadelphia. In February of 2024, Dr. Maxwell and the singers will accompany the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra in a performance of songs from The Music Man.
Immediately following an afternoon rehearsal, Glee Club alumni and friends gathered for an informal dinner before the concert. Among those mingling and sharing memories were Jack Hunt ’66, Emmett Casey ’70, and Mark Warren ’70 who remembered singing with founding Glee Club director Simon Harak.
Class of 2022 pals Tobenna Ugwu and Clarissa Rotonto are all smiles at the dinner.
Graduates from the ’70s and early ’80s recalled singing in separate choral groups, and the rest – scores of alumni from 1987 onward – were former students of Dr. Maxwell’s combined Glee Club.
An avid Glee Club fan, Fairfield President Emeritus Jeffrey von Arx, S.J., was on campus for the dinner, as were former club advisors and chaplains Rev. James Hayes, S.J., and Rev. Walter Smith, S.J.
“She has given her whole musical life to Fairfield,” said Fr. Smith of Dr. Maxwell, recounting the story of how he first met and hired her to direct the Women’s Chorale back in 1980. “Carole Ann was the third and final candidate to meet with and sing for the girls as part of the interview process,” he recalled. “Eight months pregnant, she climbed three long flights of stairs in Canisius Hall, walked into the interview room, and just electrified the space; it was transformative.”
Fr. Smith remembered thinking, “I’ll be so surprised if the students don’t give this woman a standing ovation.”
They did. And the rest is Fairfield music history.
For Dr. Maxwell and accompanist Beth Palmer, the concert brought back fond recollections of the hundreds of students they have worked with over the years. Seeing the familiar expressions of the alumni singers performing in front of her, Dr. Maxwell said, “the memories just flooded back.”
“They are all so individual,” she added. “I was invited into so many of their lives and watched what they did for four years at Fairfield; I remember a lot of that.”
Kevin Liniger ’18, MS’19 chats with Niamh O’Gorman ’18 and Elise Sullivan ’19.
Among the rows of alumni on the concert risers were couples like the Dressels (John and Lucia [DeFilippis] ’86), who were in Glee Club together, and their daughter (Jennifer ’15) who also sang with Dr. Maxwell. There were siblings like the Barretts (Seamus ’16, Cameron ’18, Tiarnan ’19) and the Briggs (Mary ’14 and Harriet ’16). And there were classmates who became lifelong friends, like the dozen or so from the Class of 1998.
“This evening is... a celebration of Fairfield at its very best,” said Fairfield University President Mark R. Nemec, PhD, as he welcomed those in attendance. “As the longeststanding, oldest club at Fairfield, the Glee Club is not just an extra-curricular, it is embedded in who we are and what we do.”
As is customary, the audience stood for the singing of the Alma Mater. The allmale Bensonians a cappella group then combined with some of the returning alumni to perform Fairfield’s traditional “The Men in Red,” and “Hail Stags of Fairfield,” which was composed by three alumni in the ’50s. A stirring rendition of Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus” was dedicated in memory of deceased University choral singers.
At intermission, the alumni singers left the stage to sit in the audience and enjoy the second half of the concert, featuring student performances by the women’s a cappella group Sweet Harmony, the Bensonians, and the full Glee Club.
Conductor Dr. Maxwell and Associate Conductor Dr. Ciavaglia soak in the end-ofconcert applause.
Following a standing ovation and a few words of gratitude from outgoing Glee Club chaplain Rev. Michael Doody, S.J., the anniversary concert concluded with a warm round of applause.
“Ta ta! Farewell!” Dr. Maxwell called out to the alumni in the audience. She beamed as they responded with the time-honored Glee Club members’ refrain: “Stay loose!”
Annual income from The Carole Ann Maxwell, DSM, Endowment for Choral Music provides vital resources to the Glee Club and supports financial needs related to choral music at Fairfield. To make a donation, visit fairfield.edu/give.
In Memoriam: Peter McCann ’70 (1948-2023)
Glee Club alumni often continue to share their musical talents after Fairfield. Perhaps the most well-known example of this is Peter McCann ’70, famous for his Billboard Chart-topping 1977 hit song “Do You Wanna Make Love.”
A Bridgeport native, McCann’s talents were apparent from the first week he arrived on campus and performed at a freshman orientation talent show. That year, he formed a vocal trio called Peter, Jimmy & George on campus and also joined the Glee Club, where he was a lead baritone.
His folk-rock band, The Repairs, enjoyed a successful regional run before being discovered in 1971 by Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham. The band moved to Los Angeles after being signed to a subsidiary of Motown Records, and McCann wrote nine of the 14 songs on their debut album, “Already a Household Word.”
Signed by ABC Records as a staff writer, McCann went on to have a long career as a songwriter, publisher, and occasional recording artist. Of the 15 Top-100 songs he wrote, the most successful was his recording of “Do You Wanna Make Love,” which climbed to #5 in the U.S. in 1977. He also wrote “Right Time of the Night” for Jennifer Warnes, which climbed to #6 in the country and was #1 on U.S. Adult Contemporary charts that same year.
In 1987, McCann moved from Los Angeles to Nashville where he continued to write and publish hundreds of songs, while lobbying for songwriters’ and publishers’ rights in Washington, D.C., and lecturing on copyright issues at universities and law schools across the U.S.
In a Fairfield publication from the ’90s, McCann told an interviewer that his days on campus prepared him well for his career. “I was taught how to think at the University,” he said. “No matter what work you get into, that’s an invaluable skill.” McCann passed away on January 26 of this year. He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Jacalyn Sheridan, and their son, Colin McCann.
