Free Concert with the Harvard Glee Club in Birmingham

Harvard Glee Club & the Birmingham Youth and Young Adult Fellowship Choir
Monday, March 16, 2026 | 6:30 PM
Free Admission

Join the historic Harvard Glee Club, America’s oldest collegiate choir (founded in 1858), under the direction of Andrew Clark, for an inspiring evening of choral music in collaboration with the Birmingham Youth and Young Adult Fellowship Choir, conducted by Ahkeem Lee.

This dynamic program spans centuries and styles, with selections ranging from early American and Renaissance works by William Billings and Samuel Webbe, to masterworks by Brahms, Madetoja, and Carl Orff. Audiences will also experience powerful 20th- and 21st-century voices including Florence Reece, Stephen Sondheim, Trevor Weston, and Brandon Williams, alongside spirituals and newly arranged works written especially for the Harvard Glee Club.

From sacred choral traditions to contemporary social commentary, this free concert celebrates the enduring power of music to unite generations and communities.

HARVARD GLEE CLUB REPERTOIRE TO BE SELECTED FROM:

Chester (1770/1778) | William Billings (1746-1800)

Glorious Apollo (1787) | Samuel Webbe (1740-1816)

L’amour de Moy (15th century) traditional | arr. Alice Parker (1925-2023)

Alto Rhapsody, op. 53 (1869) | Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

De profundis (1925) | Leevi Madetoja (1887-1947)

Which Side Are You On? (1931) | Florence Reece (1900-1986)

Not While I’m Around from Sweeney Todd (1979) | Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021)

These Things Shall Never Die (2013) | Brandon Williams (b.1984)

Selections from Bonhoeffer (2015) | Thomas Lloyd (b.1952)

My Lord What a Morning | Traditional Spiritual

As Children Walk Ye in Gods Love | R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943)

arr. For the Harvard Glee Club by Marques L.A. Garrett (2025)

Sounds (2024) | Trevor Weston (b. 1967)

selections from Carmina Burana (1937) | Carl Orff (1895-1982)

The Harvard Glee Club, America’s oldest collegiate choir, is a tenor-bass choral ensemble founded at Harvard University in 1858. Guided by the four cardinal virtues of glee, good humor, unity, and joy, the Glee Club aims to cultivate and sustain the art of tenor-bass choral music across centuries of tradition. The ensemble performs at home at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre and on both domestic and international tours, with recent performances across Western Europe, the Dominican Republic, Korea, Japan, and throughout the United States. A student-run and -managed 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the Glee Club provides members opportunities for leadership and arts management including planning tours, organizing concerts with collaborating universities, and marketing performances. While traditionally drawing on repertoire from the collegiate, folk, and sacred choral traditions of Europe and North America, the Glee Club has also commissioned contemporary composers representing a broad array of experiences and styles, including Bongani Magatyana, Molly Joyce, Karen Thomas, Morten Lauridsen, Robert Kyr, and Sir John Tavener. The Glee Club features a student-led a capella subset, Glee Club Lite, which further broadens this rich repertoire with music from the popular, musical theater, and jazz traditions.
To learn more about the Harvard Glee Club, visit www.harvardgleeclub.org.

Andrew Clark is Director of Choral Activities and Senior Lecturer on Music at Harvard University, where he leads the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, Harvard Glee Club, Radcliffe Choral Society, and other ensembles, and teaches conducting, choral literature, and music and disability studies. Since 2010, he has guided the Harvard Choruses in acclaimed performances at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, and internationally across Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.

Committed to equity, access, and community engagement, Clark has built partnerships with schools, correctional institutions, healthcare facilities, shelters, and senior communities. He has organized residencies with distinguished artists including Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Sweet Honey in the Rock, and has commissioned and premiered more than fifty new works, launching the Harvard Choruses New Music Initiative to support student composers.

Praised as “first rate” (Boston Globe), his ensembles have collaborated with major orchestras and artists including the National Symphony, Boston Pops, Handel and Haydn Society, Stephen Sondheim, and Dave Brubeck. Previously, he led the Providence Singers and Tufts University choral program. Clark holds degrees from Wake Forest, Carnegie Mellon, and Boston University.

In June 2015, three friends came together with a vision. While preparing for their first year in college, they organized a back-to-school concert to help the community. They called their former school classmates, friends, family, and church members to form a choir for the occasion. The result became “The Birmingham Youth Fellowship Choir.”  On the night of July 24, 2015, the choir held its first concert and donated over 200 school supply bags to students across the Birmingham Community. Initially, the choir was organized for the one-time event, but after overwhelming acclaim, it continued. 

The founder and choir director is Ahkeem R. Lee. The choir’s membership comprises over fifty dedicated youth and young adults across the Birmingham Metropolitan Area. The choir has opened for Former Senator Doug Jones, Bishop Marvin Winans, Tamela Mann, and Maurette Brown-Clark, and has performed at conventions and events such as the Gospel Music Workshop of America and the Atlanta Hawks. 

In 2022, the choir officially changed its name to the Birmingham Youth & Young Adult Fellowship Choir to represent its growing membership. Most recently, the choir was featured on America’s Got Talent Season 20, earning Simon Cowell’s Golden Buzzer. The choir is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to provide a creative space for youth and young adults to develop and share their musical talents through proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Ahkeem Lee, Director

Ahkeem Lee is an educator, choir director, nonprofit leader, and historian from Birmingham, Alabama. A lifelong member of the Historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, he developed a passion for history early—beginning as a tour guide for visitors at just eight years old. He specializes in African American Studies, with a particular focus on the Civil Rights Era and Birmingham history. Ahkeem earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from Birmingham-Southern College (2019) and a Master of Education in Higher Education from the University of West Alabama (2020).

Two weeks after graduating from Ramsay High School in 2015, Ahkeem founded the Birmingham Youth & Young Adult Fellowship Choir, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization he has led for nearly 11 years. The choir recently appeared on Season 20 of America’s Got Talent, earning the Golden Buzzer from Simon Cowell and advancing to the Semifinals, and has released new music including an original single and a collaboration with Grammy Award-winning artist Chris Tomlin. Ahkeem is employed in the Division of Student Affairs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he advises the Blazer Mentorship Collective—a large mentorship program specializing in supporting underrepresented students through connection, leadership development, and campus resources. He is passionate about uplifting the next generation through gospel music, history, and education.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

First Presbyterian Church Of Birmingham, 2100 4th Avenue North, Birmingham, United States

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