A Penn Swan Song for Monty

Bruce "Monty" Montgomery has served as the" irrepressible and delightful leader of Penn's Glee Club," begins the Resolution of Appreciation. For the past 44 years, Monty has taken the Glee Club to some 30 countries on five continents, blending musical excellence and theatrical showmanship and winning world-wide acclaim. Frequently described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "Philadelphia's Renaissance Man" he is a composer, performer, artist, writer, director, Gilbert & Sullivan authority, award-winning commercial artist, lyricist, and a Sherlockian member of the Baker Street Irregulars of New York.

Here at Penn, he has been both musical and stage director for Mask & Wig, Penn Singers, and the Penn Players in addition to the Glee Club. When he first came to the University, fifty years ago, he was the assistant director of a program called the Cultural Olympics. He then served as assistant to Penn's first director of public relations, Donald Sheehan. It was in that capacity that he served as the first editor of the then-monthly Almanac for a year before turning over the reins to Charles Lee. Then-president Gaylord Harnwell asked Monty to lead the extracurricular musical activities. The rest, as they say, is history.

He will officially retire on June 2, 2000.

And for an encore, this summer will see him both directing and conducting at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England.


Almanac, Vol. 46, No. 33, May 16, 2000

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