Again I send greetings to all of you my faithful readers. Thanks to all of you self-professed history nerds in the chorus who have told me they enjoy reading the blog.
The Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco presents the 38th Annual Pride Concert: A Choral Gala at First Unitarian Church on June 11, 2016 at 7:00 pm. For you newbies in the chorus and for those of you who just recently moved to San Francisco, the Annual Pride Concert had been an ongoing event produced in June during Pride Week. They were started and were always a collaborative coming together of the various and talented queer choruses in the Bay Area. In the program notes, our Artistic Director William Sauerland wrote, in part, "This extraordinary and long-lasting event has been at the center of the pride festivities of San Francisco for 38 years. While over the last three decades numerous other exciting concerts and events have burst forth to celebrate LGBTQ+ pride, the Annual Pride Concert is the singular annual event that brings together multiple LGBTQ+ music organizations to create one community concert." This concert featured the Golden Gate Men's Chorus, Oakland-East Bay Gay Men's Chorus and the 4 Vocal Ensembles of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and of course LGCSF. The music that each of these groups performed this night was what they and we would be singing at the GALA Festival 2016 in Denver. In a sense this was the dress rehearsal for all of us to sing our music to the Pride Concert audience and to get their immediate feedback. The Golden Gate Men's Chorus under the direction of Joseph Piazza led off the concert. Their first selection was "Richte mich, Gott" by Felix Mendelssohn and followed with "Hosanna" from "Words of Paradise, No. 4" by Daniel E. Forrest, Jr. Their next piece was "Gogot" by Sydney Guillaume and followed by the traditional spiritual "I Know I've Been Changed" and this was followed by the traditional Igorot planting and mourning song "Chua-ay" which was sung in the Igorot dialect. Next they sang "Psalm 130: Out of the Depths" by Eriks Esenvals with text from Psalm 130: 1-8 and they ended with "Somebody to Love: by Freddie Mercury. Next on the program were the four Vocal Ensembles of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. The Lollipop Guild sang a medley of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons songs - "Can't take My Eyes Off of You," "Sherry," "Walk Like a Man," and "Let's Hang On." Then Vocal Minority sang a medley of songs by Chicago - "25 or 6 to 4," "If You Leave Me Now," "Saturday in the Park," "Just You 'n Me," and "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?" Then the HomoPhonics performed "It's Raining Men" and they were dressed in yellow rain slickers. Then SWAG came on to sing a medley of contemporary hits - "Rather Be", "What is Love" and "Treasure." The four groups then sang a Boy Band Medley - "Bye Bye Bye", "I Want It That Way'" "Back Here," "I'll Make Love to You," and "I Want You Back." Any of you boy band fans will know which group sang the originals. That was a lot of singing from the guys from SFGMC. After intermission the Oakland-East Bay Gay Men's Chorus and LGCSF were on and we both sang the same sets as we performed at the Oakland Pride & Joy in May, 2016. Check last week's blog entry to see the list of songs we sang. I am not quite sure what I will be writing about next week so stay tuned. In harmony and love, Michael Lucero
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