Basking In The Glow

Last week, we were in Miami for GALA Festival 8. GALA Choruses is the association of gay and lesbian choirs, and every four years they host a week-long conference of sorts. The last Festival was in 2004 — just before I joined the OGC — in Montreal. With this year's event just down the Turnpike, it was a given that I absolutely had to go.

This Festival hosted just shy of 5,000 delegates from 140 choruses. In addition to the workshops and evening events one would expect of a conference, each of the groups had a mainstage performance opportunity — a 15- to 30-minute set in either the opera house or concert hall, each of which sat over 2,000 attendees. (By comparison, the largest audience OGC has had since I joined was in the 500-600 range.) And all the audiences were so supportive of each other, that every chorus got a standing ovation (some got one for every piece they performed).

With two halls running concerts simultaneously, it was impossible to see everything. It was hard enough to see even half. Over the course of the week, we managed to attend roughly 50 performances. (And, on the dance-music side, we attended a party sponsored by the Boston Gay Men's Chorus, where Tony Moran was one of the featured DJs.)

Some of the performance highlights:

• Opening Ceremonies, with a performance by Anne Hampton Calloway. What a voice!
• Chamber Choir of the Turtle Creek Chorale. Honestly, I prefer a more classical, choral-oriented group (like this one) than the pop and Broadway we tend to do here in Orlando. I turned to Todd and told him (half-jokingly) that we're moving to Dallas so I can audition for this group.
• Counterpoint — an ensemble from the Golden Gate Men's Chorus. This group of about 15-20 singers includes a Countertenor — an incredibly high male voice. I literally could not breathe for being so overwhelmed with how beautiful their performance was.
• Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C. They did selections from their full-length commissioned work, "This House Shall Stand: Songs Of My Family." Their 130-ish performers took the stage along with a small orchestral ensemble. The pieces were moving, both to laughter and tears. I outright cried when one of the songs, "A Wall of Glass," started with the following narration:

I stand in an empty hallway. My hand is pressed against the glass wall that separates us.

The man I love lies in a hospital bed, motionless, his eyes fixed upon my hand. I dare not move it, fearing this may be the closest I ever get to touching him again.

Keep looking at my hand. I'm here.

• Una Voce. The men's chorale from the Tampa Bay area, with another gorgeous, rich classical set. I (less-jokingly) wondered aloud how long the commute would be if I sang with them instead of Orlando.
• Heartland Men's Chorus (Kansas City). Worth their reputation. We had to choose between them and Turtle Creek (Dallas), and I think I’d have been happy either way.
• River City Mixed Chorus. They performed a full-length set piece called "Gender Blender" that their director wrote. Avant garde and fantastic.
• Seattle Men's Chorus. We knew we were in for it when the Seattle Women's Chorus filled in the balcony seats behind the symphony hall's stage. (Combined, they claim more singers than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.) Not only did the men do a riotous performance of Monty Python's "Every Sperm Is Scared" (the ASL interpreter absolutely stole the show), but the combined 300 voices of the two choruses brought tears to my eyes (again) and shivers down my spine.
• Portland Gay Men's Chorus. I was just coming out when I lived in Portland; I wish I'd known about these guys then. Who'd have guessed my home state had one of the first gay choruses in the nation? They also performed a commissioned piece, same composer/lyricist as Washington's. Absolutely phenomenal. The mezzo-soprano soloist had a voice to melt your heart.
• Dreams of Hope: A youth chorus. We initially went because we felt like the kids deserved a full audience. We were glad to have heard the talent across all the youth groups, and especially this group.
• The BEARatones. Seriously. Absolutely f'ing hilarious. And they didn't sacrifice a great vocal blend just because they were being funny. It's still all about the music, folks.
• Men Alive: The combination of classical and pop, vocal quality and choreography, to which I think OGC (in the "other" Orange County) aspires.

I know I'm leaving out some favorites — like when Atlanta did a Kander and Ebb piece that ended with the two lead soloists in a passionate kiss — but there was just so much to fall in love with. I was seriously tempted (still am) to buy the full set of archival recordings from the week — at $650 — so I can listen over and over again.

It was a truly emotional week. Partly, it was sleep depravation, I'm sure. But sharing the town with so many like-minded folks is an incomparable experience. In the hotel, on the metromover, walking between venues, we ran into friendly faces and struck up conversations with new people all the time. And I choked up every time someone mentioned their honest-to-real California marriage within recent weeks.

Of course, this week was special for me in another way. A year ago, I worried that going to Festival would have resulted in all sorts of drama from my (now) ex. Instead, I got to share the experience with my man — an incredible person in his own right, but even more so given the passion we share for music. I got to experience these concerts curled up in a seat next to him; often, his arm around my shoulder. He or I could give each others' knee a squeeze when we wanted to signal how great a performance we were experiencing. Greater still, I got to stand next to him on stage during OGC's performance. At one point, I realized that fact mid-song, and had to shut down my emotions for a moment to keep from completely losing it on stage.

I left inspired and challenged. Inspired, because it was great to see how much is possible, from groups ranging in size from three to 300. Challenged, because so many groups are doing things that Matter. Doing outreach in schools. Performing in places that are "uncomfortable." Our non-concert gigs tend to be in corporate environments or at the places where one expects us to be (Pride festivals, AIDS events, etc.). We're about to embark on a search for a new director, which also gives us the opportunity to re-evaluate the direction in which we're headed, and course-correct if necessary. A lot of our chorus members were buzzing with comments along the same lines by the end of the week, so it will be interesting to see what comes of the experience.