Monday, July 21, 2008

Gay La La

I spent the last week in Miami at a conference for Gay and Lesbian choruses from around the country, and a few international choruses as well. An amazing 5,000 people attended. My own chorus, the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles, only had 86 members attend out of our more than 200 members, so you can imagine the total number of singers there must be if 5000 came to the conference. Back in the late 1970s when the first gay and lesbian choruses were being formed, including Los Angeles in 1979, the then existing chorus formed GALA as a means of supporting the movement and encouraging other cities to form their own singing groups. The conference included performances by choruses from many major cities, as you'd expect, but also dozens of small choruses from small cities around the country as well.

The week was great fun, both in meeting a bunch of friendly people from around the country, a great chance to socialize with members of my own chorus who I often only see at rehearsal and never really get to talk to, very educational in watching what other chorus do, both what I liked and didn't like, some great music, a lot of heart, one great day at the pool, and one great evening at south beach with a full moon coming up out of the darkened water.

1 comment:

Robin Edgar said...

I was thinking of seeing if the Mormon Tabernacle Choir might like to add my adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan's 'The Major General's Song' to their repertoire but fell free to have a go with it yourself or with your chorus Rev. Rick. BTW You might like this too. I hope that your arm is on the mend, and that you will recover as fully as possible ASAP.

Regards,

Robin Edgar