A Gift of Song to Rutgers Students
Recipients of endowed scholarships for students in the Rutgers University Glee Club and the Kirkpatrick Choir share their love of music with family, friends, and alumni at the festive Christmas in Carol and Song Concert, a 67-year-old campus tradition.
W.J. Brad Bradhering enjoys attending the annual Christmas in Carol and Song concert at the Kirkpatrick Chapel, which is decked out for the holidays with glistening trees and holiday greenery, on the Rutgers–New Brunswick College Avenue campus. A special moment each year is meeting students who benefit from a scholarship named after his late husband.
“Each student story is unique and has touched me,” he says. “One of the things I find most rewarding is the number of students who are first-generation college graduates and how these scholarships have made a difference in their academic endeavors.”
The concert—which is held in early December and regularly sells out—brings together the voices of many Rutgers students in the Rutgers University Glee Club and the Kirkpatrick Choir, including recipients of the Dan Kluchinski Memorial Endowed Scholarship, which Bradhering established, and the David Drinkwater Endowed Scholarship, whose donors support the arts in memory of special people in their lives.
Bradhering, president of Creative Media in Rocky Hill, New Jersey, established the Dan Kluchinski scholarship in his late husband’s name for Glee Club members enrolled at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Kluchinski CC ’85, who died of cancer in 2017 at age 54, spent his career at Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station as a professor and agricultural agent. He originally worked at Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County, and then as associate director of Cooperative Extension and chair of the school’s Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Kluchinski sang with the Glee Club and traveled to Europe on an international concert tour. “His Glee Club experiences were some of the high points of Dan’s four years at Rutgers,” Bradhering says. “He felt Glee Club was more than just singing—it prepared him for the future.”
Drinkwater Originated Christmas in Carol and Song
David Drinkwater, a retired professor, conductor, and mentor at Rutgers University who shared his passion for music, art, and entertainment with everyone around him, established the scholarship in his name while he was still alive in 2012. Jonathan Mills, Drinkwater’s husband and a retired nonprofit executive, has been active in efforts to build the fund balance since Drinkwater’s death in 2021 at age 92. “I am in awe of the generosity that so many people have demonstrated through their contributions over the years,” Mills says.
Drinkwater was hired as a Rutgers organist in 1955 and took over direction of the Kirkpatrick Chapel Choir from 1957 until 1987. He established the annual Christmas in Carol and Song services in 1958. He also took the choir on performance tours abroad, served as accompanist to the Glee Club and assistant conductor of the Rutgers University Choir, and became the first director of the Rutgers Queens Chorale. He retired from teaching in 1994 and was appointed Professor Emeritus of Rutgers.
This scholarship is offered to Mason Gross School of the Arts vocal majors. “I was never a student at Rutgers but feel very much a part of the Rutgers community,” says Mills, who lives in North Brunswick, New Jersey. “It has been a thrill to meet the Drinkwater scholarship recipients. Their enthusiasm and love of choral singing are inspiring, and I hugely enjoy attending their concerts.”
Student Joy in the Chapel
Students smile widely as they enter the chapel for the concert, adorned with lush greenery and poinsettias. Holding candles, they proceed, singing to a large, enthusiastic audience at four performances in December. The concert includes holiday classics “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” “O Holy Night,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
Jordan Esmond Calderon, a vocal performance major from Boonton, New Jersey, walks into the chapel with a candle illuminating her face. “I am very grateful to receive the scholarship,” she says. “It really shows that hard work does pay off and that your talent and musicality are validated through your hard work, and just all of your love of music through the scholarship.”
Music has always been an important part of Calderon’s life since she was a toddler, as her father was a K-12 music teacher and her mom is an English teacher. “Music has been a super influence in my life, and it’s the reason why I am here today.”
Rutgers means community and family to Calderon. “Mason Gross is a family where everyone knows each other,” Calderon says, adding she appreciates everyone’s “dedication to be in the choir and how hard they work to bring out the best that they can be.”
During the concert, Jordan stands next to Kai Cleary in the Kirkpatrick Choir, another Drinkwater Scholarship recipient and a senior Mason Gross music education major from Long Valley, New Jersey. The scholarship makes a significant difference to Cleary’s family, which has three children in college at the same time. “The scholarship is a massive help,” Cleary says.
Cleary, who performed with the American Choral Directors Association National High School Mixed Honors Choir, relishes the renowned music program at Mason Gross. “The level of musicianship that is encouraged within this school is something I never could have imagined.”
Cleary, who also plays the mellophone, is a drill advisor of that section for the Marching Scarlet Knights, and a representative to the Rutgers Undergraduate Student Assembly. “All of these different avenues of leadership and support and motivation and community really have shaped who I am as a person,” Cleary says. “It means doing what I thought I never could have and being able to celebrate so much learning here in so many different avenues.”
Evan Purification, a senior Glee Club member from Hackettstown, New Jersey, and a recipient of the Dan Kluchinski scholarship, is also having an extraordinary experience at Rutgers.
“I think Rutgers gave me the greatest opportunity to really find the community of friends, of people that I share so many interests with,” says Purification, who is studying landscape architecture at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. “It is such a large school, so you are guaranteed to find a place to fit in. The Glee Club felt like the perfect fit for me, and I have made lifelong friends.”
He says the Christmas in Carol and Song concert is one of the highlights of the year for the singers.
“I like the idea of a single voice, multiple voices coming together to create one unified sound,” Purification says. “In band we have a bunch of different instruments, and they will come together to create a very wide and varied tone, but with a choir, all the voices work together to create one singular sound. And I think it's a nice feeling to feel like I'm a small part of that larger sound.”
Victor Velasquez of Jersey City, a junior food science major at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, is the other current recipient of the Kluchinski scholarship who says that he is impressed with the Glee Club’s prestige and history. “My favorite part about singing in the Glee Club is the connection that I build with so many people,” Velasquez says.
Preparing Singers for the Future
Rutgers and Mason Gross Associate Music Professor Brandon Williams, director of choral activities, says that the scholarships provide financial support that allows students to focus more fully on their academic and musical commitments.
“By easing the burden of personal expenses, students can dedicate more time and energy to rehearsals, performances, and their overall development as musicians, which directly strengthens both the Glee Club and the Kirkpatrick Choir,” Williams says.
Bradhering says he is thrilled with how the endowed scholarship has supported students for eight years and will continue.
“These scholarships were created to provide a continuing legacy to Dan and his time at Rutgers, his involvement in the Glee Club, and his commitment to education and mentoring,” Bradhering says. “We discussed what was important to us and how to make a difference in the future and decided that providing student needs-based scholarships would be the most beneficial in helping students experience all that Rutgers has to offer.”
Support Mason Gross School of the Arts Students
Please consider a gift to our scholarship fund. Your contribution ensures that our student artists are successful at Rutgers and beyond. To learn more, please contact Director of Development Denyse Reed at denyse.reed@rutgersfoundation.org.
