When Ben Wadley was in his seventh grade men’s chorus, he had the chance to sing with the Ohio State Men’s Glee club. Ten years later, as the president of that organization, Wadley, a fourth-year in human resources is making sure the glee club continues to provide these types of opportunities to younger students.
The group’s concert on Sunday will include a chorus from Cincinnati-area Anderson High School.
“This one is special,” Wadley said. “It’s a cool thing to get high school kids involved with a collegiate ensemble because it can be really impactful for them to realize they could continue this someday.”
Sunday’s concert will also feature a performance from OSU’s University Chorus. Adam Othman a second-year in marketing and vice president of communications for glee club said he believes that seeing all three ensembles — the Anderson High School Chorus, University Chorus and Men’s Glee Club — offers a new perspective to audience members.
“All the choirs are going to be doing similar types of choral music but genres, (messages), intentions, impacts, they will be greatly different piece to piece,” Othman said. “This concert in particular will show many different sides and facets of the choral world. From an audience perspective, it will be cool to see where musicianship takes a person and how it progresses.”
For Othman, it’s about personal experience, even while performing in an ensemble of 80 people.
“Everyone comes in every day with a very different intent and purpose,” Othman said. “Everyone wants and hopes to do something very different with the music. We all come in for different reasons, but neither is more valid.”
Wadley added that the real bond and connection is shared through the sound they produce as a group.
“We come together from all over campus three days a week for an hour just to really share our love of music together,” Wadley said.
It is this feeling of belonging that Wadley said he remembers getting a glimpse of as a seventh grader performing with the organization. He said he hopes to impress that feeling on performers from Anderson High School on Sunday.
“It’s a really special opportunity, especially looking longevity wise,” Wadley said. “This is a great way to plant seeds at a young age and hopefully have some future Buckeyes emerge from these guys.”
Men’s Glee Club will be performing Sunday at 3 p.m. in Weigel Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.
