Managing the class schedules of 35 performers and arranging vocal quartets to deliver 50 singing telegrams during the two-day Valentine’s Day period, Feb. 13-14, is a big task. But, in the effort to deliver musical messages of love across campus, the Glee Club at the University of Pennsylvania won’t be deterred.

They even delivered one to Penn President Amy Gutmann during a staff-appreciation breakfast at the ARCH Building.

Using an online tool, “When2Meet,” the Club’s operations manager, Sam Orlin, a sophomore chemistry and philosophy major from Seattle, along with Kwaku Owusu, the deputy operations manager and a freshman at Wharton from Bay Shore, N.Y., were in charge of scheduling the Singing Valentines deliveries.

All of the Glee Club singers filled out their class schedules in advance, enabling Orlin and Owusu to meet at the break of dawn to create the day’s itinerary for each group of singers.

“Whenever the singers don’t have class, they’re on call to help us out,” says Owusu. “It takes a lot of coordination on everyone’s part, and it’s ‘all clubbers on deck’ for two days.”

The Penn Glee Club first offered the popular Valentine’s Day singing telegrams in 2008, and since then the demand has grown.

Bhavish Malkani, a senior chemical engineering major from Voorhees, N.J., who has sung on Valentine’s Day for three years, likes the tradition because it brings out the essence of what the Glee Club means to him.

“I find the Glee Club to be such a great environment, and basically doing things like this for us is really fun, regardless of the logistics,” he says.

Orlin says that in the past the Club has done one-day performances when Valentine’s Day has fallen on Thursdays or Fridays, but it strained the group’s capacity to meet the number of requests.

“We had every active singer in the Glee Club involved this year. Spreading it out over two days allowed us to accommodate schedules better and divide the work evenly,” says Orlin. “The Valentines we sing are written for four voice parts, so we deliver them in quartets and, because many of the telegrams are delivered during classes, having a smaller group allows us to be versatile and not too disruptive.”

He says at any given time during the two-day window, the Club had as many as three quartets performing at different locations on campus.

“We don't have to worry a lot about musicality or dynamics of the pieces; we just have to focus on the person we're singing to,” Makani says. “It's a different feeling than what we normally do, but I think it makes it more meaningful in the process.”

This is also the third year of delivering singing telegrams for Matt Howard, a senior computer engineering major from Avon, Conn., who looks forward to it each year.

“It feels great to surprise people with joy and love,” Howard says. “Having a quartet of Glee Clubbers in ties and blazers drop in and sing for you can really make your day.”

While some well-meaning suitors have their hearts set on the Glee Club singing Penn alumnus John Legend’s “All of Me,” they limit the repertoire they offer to four songs: “My Valentine,” 1920s tune “Margie,” “After Dark” and “Honey.”

The serenades ran from 9 a.m. through 5 p.m., and Owusu says this is by design.

“The singers needed a little bit of time to rest before we go into rehearsal,” he says.

“While all of this is happening, we’re also scrambling to put the finishing touches on our show,” says Howard. “It’s hectic, but it’s a great bonding experience for everyone involved.”

Each year the spring show is an original musical revue with contemporary and choral music mixed into a dramatic storyline, Orlin explains. This year the Glee Club will offer three performances of “Where’s The Money, There’s Treble” Feb. 17-18 in the Zellerbach Theater in the Annenberg Center.

Malkani adds it’s an honor to be a part of such a deeply rooted part of arts and culture at Penn.

“I love getting the chance to help carry on this huge legacy the Glee Club has left for us over the past 154 years, and I think that the Valentines are helping to push us in that direction,” Malkani says.

The Glee Club dates back to 1862, making it the oldest performing-arts group at Penn.

According its publicity manager Susanna Jaramillo, a sophomore chemical and bioengineering major from Cranford, N.J., the group embodies Penn’s spirit and history.

“The Glee Club serves as a face for Penn, performing at various University events on campus, including Convocation, the flag-raising ceremony on Veterans Day and an interfaith gathering that took place in front of the LOVE sculpture,” Jamarillo says.