Glee Club persists through the pandemic

By Coligny Dana ‘22

The Screeching Eagles, the potential name of the Catlin Gabel Glee club, is ecstatic to resume in-person performances during the 2021/22 school year. 

Catlin Gabel School (CGS) senior Bianca Haldorsen shares how the acapella club survived the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting in 2019, the club took a huge blow once everything went virtual. 

Haldorsen explains that she and fellow classmate Issa Okamoto ‘22 started the mock glee club during their sophomore year, saying, “We were watching Glee the show...and we said, ‘we should just start a glee club’...it started as a joke at first.” 

Their Glee joke turned into an acapella dream when they began Glee Club practices in the lower Community Arts Center (CAC) music rooms.

Unfortunately, Glee Club was affected by the isolation of the pandemic; while Catlin Gabel moved fully online, the Glee Club reworked its performances. Co-leader Issa Okamoto stepped up to the plate, recording their performances and editing them together to share at online assemblies.

Haldorsen reflected on the challenges of this change.

“Over zoom, it’s hard to understand where everyone’s at [in the song], so we all listened to the same track and compiled it together and hoped that everyone sounded good.”

Now that CGS is fully back in person, Haldorsen hopes that acapella will pick up where they left off her sophomore year. 

“We’re looking to not just do acapella, but adding backing tracks and cool sounds...just having it be a really fun music and entertainment group for Catlin,” she said.

The Glee Club is hoping to do some in-person performances this year and possibly busking downtown. 

Haldorsen’s final thoughts were, “We’re trying to recruit people for acapella!” If you have any interest in joining the Glee Club, contact club leaders Bianca Haldsorsen (haldorsenb@catlin.edu) or Issa Okamoto (okamotoi@catlin.edu).