Music & Performance
St. Ignatius College Orchestra, 1902
Music has been part of the Loyola experience since at least 1879, when the St. Cecilia Society began. Named for the patron saint of music, the group focused on vocal skill and accompanied religious events. However, few early attempts at organized musical groups lasted very long. October of 1900 saw the founding of the Glee Club of St. Ignatius College and the St. Ignatius Orchestra. The Glee Club received "thunderous ovations" for their first performances and were asked to perform for more gatherings on campus. Meanwhile, the Orchestra performed at religious events, concerts, and even as accompaniment for demonstrations of gymnastic prowess. However, by the mid-1920s, a lack of organization and of a music department left both groups in decline.
"We want a school band / Let's go. Help us out!"
Yet music had not been entirely abandoned; Loyolans wanted a school band. Students began organizing around 1925, advertising in the Loyola student newspaper for peers who could play wind instruments. In 1927, the Loyola Band was formed with 13 volunteers, at least 2 of whom couldn't play an instrument at all. After training up, with some "stick-to-it-iveness," they played for a variety of games, dinners, and ceremonies, with marching formations as well.
Loyola Glee Club, 1925
Loyola News: Sept. 30, 1925
The Loyola Band performing outdoors, 1928
The Loyola Band in "L" Formation, 1927
A Conductor at the Stand
Choral Society Rehearsal, 1955
Meanwhile, in 1927, Mr. Graciano Salvador stepped forward to lead many musical efforts at Loyola. Under his direction, the newly revived Glee Club held a joint performance with the Sock & Buskin drama club, did radio performances, and joined with "the girls of the Sociology department" to become the Loyola University Choral Society, tying the campuses together, to perform challenging pieces such as Maunder's "Cantata." The Choral Society was also a social club, holding "get-togethers" for a "most successful social season," at which Choral Society members formed a small orchestra to play their own dances.
In 1931, the musical groups on campus were remolded into the Musicians' Club, which included the Glee Club, the Dance Orchestra, and the String Orchestra. Mr. Salvador remained involved for many years, and his son, Mario, who started out as the rehearsal organist and pianist, eventually became an Arts student at Loyola and conducted the Orchestra. The groups played a variety of religious, secular, and contemporary music for their concerts and for live broadcasts on the NBC radio network.
The same year, Rev. Raymond F. Bellock, S.J. composed a new school song, "the Loyola Anthem," "a song whose need has been felt for some time," and held a contest to write a school pep song. Many versions have come and gone over the school's history as students attempted to find the right tone to express their school spirit.
The Choral Society, 1928
Loyola Dance Band, 1932
Choral Society performing a requiem, 1955
Choral Society practice, 1956
St. Anne's Glee Club and St. Bernard's String Ensemble, 1930
New Voices
The 1930s saw a variety of women's musical groups appear at Loyola, including the University College Women's Choir, St. Anne's Glee Club, the St. Elizabeth's Sodality Choir, the Mercy Glee Club, the Cecilian Choir, and the St. Cecilia Band at the St. Bernard School of Nursing. The St. Cecilia Band later became the St. Bernard String Ensemble due to "the expense of providing brass instruments and the general lack of familiarity with the instruments." Most of the members were nursing students seeking a break from their studies to rehearse and perform together. Gradually, college women were included in previously all-male groups. In the following decades, more ensembles with co-ed membership appeared, including a co-ed revival of the Glee Club in the 1960s and the Loyola Jazz Band. A mixture of all-male, all-female, and co-ed a capella groups at Loyola have included Loyolacapella, LUC Counterpoint, the AcaFellas, the Silhouettes, LUC Raag, and the Jazzuits, which have performed on campus and at events around Chicago.
Loyola's many musical ensembles have often collaborated with each other as well. Ensembles such as the Chamber Choir, the University Chorale, the Women's Chorus, Chamber Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Combo, and the Symphony Orchestra have joined forces, rehearsing and performing together in the annual Joyola holiday concert and throughout the year.
The Cecilian Choir and St. Cecilia Band, 1930
Choral practice at St. Bernard's, 1938
The Loyola Glee Club advertising during Freshman Orientation Week, 1961
Joyola Concert, 2014
Rehearsing for Joyola, 2012
Jazz Band at Joyola Concert, 2016
Loyolacapella performing at the opening of the Schreibner Center at the Water Tower Campus, 2015
LUC Raag performing during the Weekend of Excellence, 2017
Lakeshore Four Debut, 1961
Next door to Loyola's Lake Shore Campus, Mundelein College* opened its doors in 1931 and immediately attracted music students, forming an orchestra and celebrating its students' solo recitals. Students at the Catholic women's college performed throughout the school's 60-year history, from composing songs to promote the home front in World War II to playing music at anti-Vietnam War vigils.
In the 1930s, Mundelein's Verse Speaking Choir achieved national fame on radio shows broadcast from the Chicago Merchandise Mart. Other ensembles in the following decades included choirs and instrumental groups, along with drama productions, which often collaborated with nearby Loyola. Loyola students filled in men's roles in plays and joined with the women's choristers for mixed-voice recitals, while Mundelein students stepped into Loyola productions as well. Two of these collaborations brought Mundelein and Loyola students together to organize radio stations and marshal on-air performers: The Joint Radio Workshop, pioneered in 1947, and the joint WLUC AM station, started in 1968.
Mundelein College Orchestra, 1931
Mundelein choristers rehearsing with the Loyola Glee Club for the Sacred Concert, 1947
Mundelein students joined Loyola's Choral Society to perform mixed-voice pieces such as Verdi's Aida.
A trio of Mundelein musicians, 1963
WLUC Ad, 1968
Vietnam Prayer Vigil, 1968
Mundelein trio at the Red Garter, 1971
Mundelein College Singers, 1987
Treading the Boards
The Threepenny Opera, 1975
Loyola students interested in dramatic performance had, since 1900, auditioned for drama clubs on campus. What began then as the Dramatic Club became the Sock & Buskin Club in 1921, named for footwear worn by ancient Greek actors. The club became the Loyola University Players around 1932, and then the Curtain Guild by 1936, which operated until 1971. Theatre pressed on at Loyola all the while, with two or more shows each year ranging from contemporary plays to Shakespeare, and by the 1930s students could take a variety of theatre-related courses, including Acting, Playwrighting, and Play Direction.
Without a drama program, actors were drawn from all the schools of the university, who learned the craft while rehearsing each show. The club's Play Production class in the 1930s offered students a chance to direct, stage, costume, light, and serve as ensemble members in plays in the Loyola Community Theater.
1941 brought the first musical to Loyola's stage. Produced by the Curtain Guild, "On the Road," a student-written, -acted, and -directed musical. Many more followed, including Annie Get Your Gun, The Threepenny Opera, and The Fantasticks, as well as the opera Carmen, staged by the Choral Society. Meanwhile, Mundelein students put on an equally broad range of shows. Fellow students at Mundelein and Loyola reviewed their peers' performances in school papers and in annual yearbooks, critiquing, offering praise, and recording shows in dramatic photographs.
The Department of Speech and Drama, established in 1948, offered television and radio training as well, gradually expanding its offerings to include Afro-American Theatre in the 1970s, Mime in the 1980s, and a variety of costuming, make-up, technology, and production courses. In 2007, the Department of Theatre merged with Music, Dance, and Fine Arts to become the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. Since then, students have been able to major in Theatre, and minor in Theatre, Musical Theatre, or Shakespeare Studies.
St. Ignatius Students in Near the Throne, 1901
On the Road, 1942
Farce, Tragedy, and a Musical Revue, 1950
Scene from 1919 by Jackie Taylor, 1980
Performance in the Mullady Theatre, undated
Student working in the Costume Shop, 2014
Students working together in the Theatre Practicum: Electrics course, 2015
Rehearsal for Tartuffe, 2013
Rock band playing the Rambler Room, 1979
Heard Here First
Students at Mundelein and Loyola have also taken advantage of Chicago's entertainment world at their doorstep. Students reported on new stage shows such as Cole Porter's You Never Know in 1938 and Hello, Dolly! starring Carol Channing in 1966. Student reporters also followed the careers of up-and-coming performers like Barbra Streisand, who came to Chicago to perform. Ads for now-famous musical groups and reviews of performing troupes such as Second City appeared in student newspapers, speaking to the enormous variety of music and drama performances students have been able to access through the decades.
Mass media such as radio and records have allowed students to join in national and global musical trends as well. In 1964, Mundelein was hit with "Beatlemania," while later students observed that the Beatles were maturing alongside the student body. Loyola's guest bands in the 1970s and '80s included the Grateful Dead, local power pop group Pezband, and folk singer-songwriter Jim Post among the many that have played the Rambler Room.
Hunger Week, 1983
Music for a Cause
Beyond entertainment, music and performance at Loyola have served as a means to raise funds for worthy causes. Most notably, Loyola’s Hunger Week began in the 1970s and continued until 2019. The student-organized week of education and programming about hunger issues at home and abroad was punctuated by concerts, including talent shows and groups like the Grateful Dead, to raise funds to help address food insecurity.
Loyolans also turned to music to teach and learn about each other’s cultural backgrounds. Events like the International Festival and International Week gave students the chance to share and experience traditional performances from around the world. The tradition continues in the annual International Night, where students and guest performers showcase traditional music and dance alongside food from around the world.
Variety
Inspired by the changing music of their times, each generation of students has also found opportunities to perform for each other more informally. Embracing both the satirical and the serious, students at Loyola and Mundelein organized variety shows featuring solos and skits that presenting popular music, lampooning national politics, or poking fun at their own school. In Loyola's annual Variety Show, favored acts won the Iggy Prize for group or individual performances. For lower stakes, weekly coffeehouses like The Cellar hosted a mix of student and professional acoustic performers in a quieter, night club atmosphere.
The Nursing Council's Variety Act: The Boy Friend, 1962
Two award-winning Variety acts, 1963
Performers at The Cellar, 1981
Musicians at the International Festival, 1983
Yet music could also be found offstage. As early as the 1920s, students toting instruments around campus have taken the opportunity to play outside, or in the dorms, or just to annoy (or entertain) one another. A piano, guitar, record, or speakers in a dormitory has always had the potential to become a gathering place for entertaining, listening, learning, or singing along, regardless of how the genre of music has changed throughout the decades. Whether in formal ensembles, student-run clubs, dramatic performances, or jamming with friends, music and drama have been integral parts of the Loyola experience and continue to enrich students' lives today.
"A la Romeo," 1925
Group of students around a piano, 1941
Students in Coffey Hall, 1979
Students with a guitar, 1981
*Mundelein College, founded and operated by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM), provided education to women from 1930 until 1991, when it affiliated with Loyola University Chicago.