CHORAL COLLABORATION: The Ndlovu Youth Choir, familiar to many from its appearances on the television show “America’s Got Talent,” is being hosted by the Princeton University Glee Club on Saturday, October 26 at Richardson Auditorium.

By Anne Levin

Each fall, Princeton University’s Glee Club presents a concert at Richardson Auditorium with the glee clubs of either Harvard or Yale. It was Harvard’s turn this year, but the date — October 26 — conflicted with another event the Cambridge, Mass., club had on its schedule.

Gabriel Crouch, a professor of music at Princeton and the director of the glee club, found out about the conflict last summer.

“I was racking my brain for an alternative, and I started to look at the itineraries of international choirs,” he said. “The idea of collaboration has always appealed to me. I happened to notice that the Ndlovu Youth Choir was doing a concert at Carnegie Hall on October 27. I thought maybe there was a chance I could get them to Princeton the day before. And it all worked out.”

The Princeton University Glee Club is presenting the Ndlovu Youth Choir at Richardson on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 ($5 for students). Visit princetongleeclub.com.

The two choirs couldn’t be more different. “They are amplified, choreographed, costumed, and backed with a band,” Crouch said. “It’s designed for a big auditorium or stadium experience. We are essentially a classical choir, without amplification or anything like that. So this will be an interesting combination of cultures.”

Familiar to many from its multiple appearances on the television show America’s Got Talent, the Ndlovu choir sings songs in all 11 South African languages. Their repertoire includes ancient tribal chants, gospel, contemporary Afro-Pop and jazz, as well as original songs describing African life with a call for African unity, according to the website for the show.

“They do some of the most polished, uplifting, generally impressive group singing you could see anywhere in the world,” Crouch said. “Our singers are hugely excited.”

The Princeton University Glee Club includes about 100 members, most of whom are undergraduates. “They come from every conceivable academic walk of life,” Crouch said.

The Princeton club is hosting the Ndlovu choir. “We’ll open for them, do a short set of four pieces at the beginning of the concert, as a sort of welcome gesture,” Crouch said. “Then we’ll give the stage to them, and they’ll perform for about 45 minutes. We will close the concert by doing some things together — workshopped pieces they will teach us during the day. We’ll learn all the music in that session.”

Founded in 1874, the University club tours internationally and performs a repertoire ranging from Renaissance motets to 21st century choral commissions. Recent collaborations have been with such groups as Tenebrae, Roomful of Teeth, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

“Those collaborations always seem to be the experiences that live with [members] the longest,” Crouch said. “I think it is an important part of the mission of the glee club to expose them to musical experiences and styles which lie outside of what I’m trained in. I’m very keen for them to have experiences with other kinds of music-making.”