1996 - A GALA Festival in Tampa, Pride, Opera Grand & Not So Grand and Sing Along Sound of Music

18th Annual Pride Concert. This Pride concert took place on June 28 at Herbst Theatre. It was hosted by Donna Sachet, Empress XXX, and now one of the hosts for the TV broadcast of the San Francisco Pride Parade. The concert featured us with our guest artists SFGMC, San Francisco Winds of Freedom, VOICES: Bar Area Lesbian Choral Ensemble and we had pre-show entertainment by Equal Voices, a one year old chorus directed by a former member of LGCSF, Rick Weaver. We started the show with a Sweet Sixteen Birthday Fantasy featuring Donna Sachet to mark our 16th season. This was another great concert of cooperation with the other performing groups singing and playing wonderful music and the kickoff to Pride Weekend 1996.

GALA Festival V. This GALA Festival was held in Tampa, Florida, in July and saw an explosion in the growth of the event with 82 choruses performing during the week and the format of the Festival continuing to evolve.

Opera Grand & Not So Grand. This concert was presented on November 1 & 2 at MCC Eureka Street. Our special guests for this concert were Jose Sarria - The Widow Norton, the Derivative Duo from Seattle, and Ms. Patty Wolfe. This was a concert of favorite opera choruses from many well known operas, such as Lucia di Lammermoor, Nabucco, Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, La Traviata, Il Trovatore and Die Fledermaus. It was fun and also challenging to learn this wonderful music of all the great composers.

Sing-Along Sound of Music. Did you always want to be Maria? Captain Von Trapp? The Mother Superior? The Baroness? The Lonely Goatherd? Well now is your chance to dress up, "Climb Every Mountain" and win a prize for your efforts. We presented this show on December 5 at MCC and of course we were dressed as our favorite person from the movie. Lots of fun for us and our audience. The hills were alive with the Sound of Music on that night.

A Tribute to the Music of Elton John. This was our chorus' way to celebrate the music of one of our gay heroes, Elton John. We presented this on March 22 and 23 at the Cowell Theatre at Fort Mason. Our rehearsals leading up to the concert were a lot of fun learning the songs of Elton and putting our twist on them. At our retreat we spent time working on costumes, including decorating our own outsize glasses. This was kind of our first multimedia concert. As background for the medley of Friends and Your Song were photos of the chorus at the retreat. During Candle in the Wind were projected various images of Marilyn Monroe. The beginning of Act II featured our wonderful accompanist, Dwight Okamura, playing Funeral for a Friend. This was another concert that was great fun for us and for our audiences.