Type: Exhibition case

Name: University Choir and WRSU Radio

Detail: Between 1918 and 1926, Rutgers College and New Jersey College for Women (NJC) music groups performed together at holiday concerts, the University Concert Series, and with famed orchestras. These performances are amongst a handful of instances in which the student bodies of the two colleges collaborated through a shared passion and existed as one. In 1926, the University Choral Club formed. Comprised of Rutgers and NJC Glee Club members, the Choral Club was the first coed music ensemble at Rutgers University. Although the Club only lasted a handful of years, it was significant because it was the first organized group that united the colleges. It also led way to the creation of more coed groups including the Rutgers University Choir and WRSU– Radio which are still in existence today.

Type: Exhibition caption

Detail: The Rutgers University Choir was founded by Rutgers College professor and Glee director F. Austin “Soup” Walter between 1949 and 1950. The group initially consisted of Rutgers Glee Club, NJC Choir, and Voorhees Chapel Choir members and debuted with the Rochester Philharmonic at a Bach Festival in the spring of 1950. Four notable early performances include performing Bach’s “The Passion According to Saint Matthew” with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Erich Leinsdorf in 1951, singing with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in 1959, recording William Walton’s Grammy-nominated “Belshazzar`s Feast” with Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1961, and singing “Brahms’ Requiem” with the Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra on CBS as a national memorial for John F. Kennedy in 1963.