The Fearless Glee Club has arrived on campus with a name to match its purpose: a love for musical performance in a community setting.

Community connected through music

Clubs bring those with similar interests together, and sophomore vocal performance major Rebekah Burns looks forward to a place where she can continue to develop skills with people excited to do the same.

“I think being able to connect through the music is one of the most inspiring parts, and being able to grow in community and different diversities,” Burns said. “Surprisingly, there’s a lot of different ethnicities in here, so it’s gonna be really fun getting to know everybody and their backgrounds.”

Burns believes the club has already fostered community for its members after just two club meetings.

“My good friends told me about it. It’s been great! I really love the community,” Burns said. “It’s only our second day, well, second week, so it’s really fairly new right now. So everything’s just fresh and nice so far.”

Club president and sophomore worship major Jonathan Suarez, along with the other founders of the Fearless Glee Club, began the club with an idea of something they wanted to see more of at Biola, and turned it into reality for the fall semester.

“The idea was born out of a passion for more than classical music, because all of the music programs that Biola is offering mostly have a classical emphasis,” Suarez said. “And we saw that a lot of other music majors [and] non-majors had the same thought—a passion for non-classical, as well as classical—so we were like, ‘Okay, let’s just do this!’ And also, I saw the need for more music on campus, because there are not many music clubs.”

Love for performing

The club spends each meeting rehearsing a small production. Officer and sophomore vocal performance major Hailee Wachowiak shared that the first production will include skits performed by each group which will combine together to make a complete story.

“We are probably going to red-thread it, so basically make it a whole storyline, but we’ll switch off into our different stories. So that’s what our first performance is looking like,” Wachowiak said.

The Fearless Glee Club looks for students who want to perform and who have something to contribute to the club, whether or not they are musically or artistically talented.

“Basically what we want is just a love for performing—that’s what we tell people who join. We do hold auditions, so we want to see your skill level in either singing or dancing,” Wachowiak said. “But there have been people who have come up to us and been like, ‘Oh, I’m not a great singer’ or ‘I’m not a great dancer’ and we’re like, ‘That’s okay if you love stuff like this, we love to see your capabilities and your skills.’”

Vice president and sophomore worship major Brenna Ginter believes the club will continue to bring members together.

“I’m just looking forward to seeing where this club goes and the community that we form from this club,” Ginter said. “I’ve already seen it grow from just the people who are in our club. I’ve never met them before they joined us. Now I see them on campus and it’s just like a new friendly face, and they’re just really excited to have a new friend also.”