Assembled in a large, unadorned meeting hall at the University Christian Church on Cleveland Avenue, a gathering of mostly-white, all-male singers are taking direction from Gary Holt, the artistic director of the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus. Gary, the current artistic director and a warm, enigmatic presence, has also served as the former artistic director for the Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego (1992-2010) as well as in positions for both the La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe Theatre.
On this night, his stentorian voice holds sway over a rehearsal as the group enters the final weeks before their debut of Olé! Olé! Olé! Dotting the landscape are others, the vital mechanics – the costumier, the lighting designer, the stage and production managers – who help to keep this well-oiled machine humming along. The energy in the room is palpable. The intensity, as driven by perfection as it appears to be a desire to please their choral master, is etched firmly across the faces of the singers, some well into the third act of their lives, others only just beginning theirs.
The San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus, comprised of more than 130 singers, is one of the largest GALA choruses (those unique to the LGBT community) in the United States. The organization, the result of a merger in 2009 between two stylistically distinct houses – the San Diego Men’s Chorus and the Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego – has produced a prestigious and nationally-recognized troupe. (The GMCSD performed “The Star Spangled Banner” at the 2007 opening Padres game.)
Yet one visit to a rehearsal, let alone their fully-throated Web site (sdgmc.org), reminds the casual observer that something else is going on. There’s something remarkably un-Glee about the whole experience. And that something, as Gary explains, has to do with the transformational character of the chorus. “I have 25 years of experience in the LGBT choral movement watching how just being a member of the chorus can dramatically change someone’s life. We have people coming to the chorus after all kinds of things that have happened in their lives … shortly after a marriage where they were raising young children [and] through the process of self-awareness and self-discovery [realizing] this isn’t who I am. I’m going to live my life as an openly gay person and finding support in the chorus.” Gary adds, “I have watched how people’s lives have been completely transformed just through the power of music.”
And for the audience? One story in particular that he recalls, and one that reverberates with racking urgency given the flood of today’s LGBT teen suicides, has to do with the parents of a gay child. Gary was in the ticket office taking an order for a holiday program when he fielded a call from the father of a gay teenager. “My wife and I have been coming to your concerts for years but I want to bring our son this year because he’s 15 and he just told my wife and I that he’s gay. And as soon as he told us he’s gay, he locked himself in his room and won’t come out. He’s ashamed. He feels like he’s let everyone down. And my wife and I know that if we can just bring him to your concert and sit in the audience and he can look up on stage and see a hundred people proudly singing and being gay, our son will have something to hold onto … that he’ll have a great life.”
While the SDGMC can serve as either a destination or a starting point for dozens of gay men (or women) searching for personal fulfillment on any number of levels, Cheri Curtis, the president of the all-volunteer board of directors, a graceful, deliberate woman, reminds us the SDGMC is not an organization that operates in isolation. The chorus serves many community functions that make it such a vital component to the city of San Diego and Cheri’s job, in part, is to steer the organization in directions that benefit the public at large. “You heard Gary talk about the Oliver Button project (an early-education, anti-bullying campaign), we (also) talk about what sort of message we want to get out and what part of our community we want to reach and how we want to reach them. We talk about whether we want to expand our audience outside of the gay community, outside of the San Diego community … whether we want to serve under-accessed parts of our community – the Latino community, for example – [and] whether we want to take the show on the road, if you will.”
Behind us, assistant choreographer Jason Danner is rehearsing with a select group of members chosen from the chorus who will play a featured part in their upcoming Latin tribute, Olé! Olé! Olé! It’s a young, multicultural stew of twenty-or-so members including two handsome Latin men who, off in the back corner of the rectory, are brimming with confidence. They seem unburdened by the world outside, as if, without yet realizing it, they are the very anchor upon which Gary Holt, Cheri Curtis and the rest of the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus are transforming the world around them.
being a long supporter of the chorus, i don’t see where your “a gathering of mostly-white, all-male singers” came from.
and your “whether we want to serve under-accessed parts of our community – the Latino community, for example – [and] whether we want to take the show on the road, if you will.” statement only made established your bias against the chorus or Gary or even the mission these men are trying to achieve.
I agree with the previous comment on “a gathering of mostly-white, all-male singers” I’m trying to figure out why that statement was even relevant to “Unleasing the power of music” which is the title of this article. It made me want to stop reading and I wish I had.
The racial makeup of the chorus is diverse, does it have a lot of white singers, sure but that shouldn’t be a talking point in an article about the chorus and their passion for singing. And just for the record the two latin dancers are actually Filipino.
To the readers please come check out the concert. Over 100 male singers have put a lot of love and hard work to give you a great show. Cheers to the music.
@notsowhite. I encourage you to re-read the article. The second quote you identified came from Cheri Curtis and describes part of the mission of the San Diego Men’s Chorus, a component I thought was vital to the story.