April 1–4, 1921

Sponsored by trustee Edgar L. Marston and the Cleveland and Western New York branches of the Associate Alumnae, the Glee Club gave concerts in Buffalo and Cleveland on their first concert tour. The 32 singers and accompanists where joined by Professor of Music George Coleman Gow, their director, Mrs. Gow and harpist Frances Callow ’21. The Gows served as the group’s chaperons.

After two successful concerts on the following day at Twentieth Century Club and in the Assembly Hall at the Buffalo Seminary, the singers enjoyed a day off as thier alumnae hosts took them to Niagara Falls, followed by dinner at the College Club. “Informal singing followed the dinner,” The Vassar Miscellany reported, “and a few informal speeches helped to make everyone feel the unity of Vassar, past and present.”

The following evening, in Cleveland, the Glee Club members enjoyed a concert by the Cleveland Symphony Opera in boxes provided by its founder, Adella Prentiss Hughes ’90, and the next evening, after lunching at the Mayfield Country Club, the Glee Club gave its last concert in the ball room of the Cleveland Statler Hotel. The Vassar Miscellany quoted a review from The Buffalo Courier, which declared “It was a distinct novelty to hear a full-fledged college girls glee club, and the members acquitted themselves with as much success and ablomb as their male competitors.” “One of the decided hits,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported, “was the performance of the ’Harmony Harpies’ who comprised eight members of the club, four of them plaing stringed instruments…. Three numbers of special interest were “The Rose and the Grey,” [”]Vassar in Beauty Dwelling” and “Down the Future’s Cloudy Ways,” composed by E. Townsend ’20 and which is melodious and suitable as a song of lasting qualities.”