Music at Stevens
Within three years of Stevens’ founding in 1870, a Glee Club was formally created. Through the years the Glee and other music clubs, many led by students, havegone through numerous stages and changes. A few of the music groups in Stevens’ history include banjo and mandolin ensembles, the “Clef and Cue,” and a variety of a cappella groups. Students continue to lead their own musical projects today, from rock bands to world music ensembles to a piano club.
Music-making professionalized with the arrival of William Ondrick in 1957. The storied Professor greatly raised the profile of music at Stevens, adding several courses to the then-single academic music class (side note: Stevens now offers a Music & Technology major), and building up the Jazz Band, Concert Band, and Glee Club, which shifted from a men’s to a mixed choir not long after women were first admitted in 1971. A busy concert calendar and several LP recordings marked his long tenure. After Ondrick’s retirement in the 1990s, the enduring devotion of his many students led to renaming the Howe Center rehearsal room The Ondrick Music Room, while his family and various alumni established an annual music scholarship in his name.
After a fallow period following the Professor’s departure, new blood was brought in to re-energize music at Stevens starting in 2003. The Glee Club was renamed the Stevens Choir, and a new conductor, Dr. Bethany Reeves, took the lead and over time built up new offerings as well, including the DeBaun Voice Studio and theater projects in Shakespeare and modern drama. Today the Choir averages around 43 members, with students often joined by alumni and others from the Stevens community.
The now large and popular Jazz and Concert Bands were revived by the arrival of Gerald Ficeto around the same time, and a few years later the Stevens Orchestra was founded - a group now led by Steve Rochen. These large ensembles provide a home base for smaller break-out ensembles as well - jazz combos, brass ensembles, string quartets and more.