Ah, Sunday
Jun. 21st, 2010 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisSunday was busy. Not as busy as Saturday fortunately but it was active.
In the late morning, we headed to Baltimore for their pride festival in Druid Hill Park. I like Baltimore's pride festival a lot: it's community-based, set in a fantastic park and is a friendly, social environment. Too many other city festivals have become out-of-control huge, expensive, corporate and generic. I'll stick with Baltimore's format, thank you very much.
We had a good time visiting with various friends, enjoying some food & drinks and generally lazing about as we had no work commitments this year. Ah, what a change for us!
By 2pm, we were on the road for home, enjoyed a quick nap and were off again to the final concert of the Lesbian & Gay Chorus of Washington DC. After 26 years, the LGCW has collectively decided to wind down their affairs. I've heard that it's been too difficult and expensive in recent years to keep & build an audience, a roster of singers and a slate of sponsors & advertisers all while paying for concert & rehearsal space, music and such.
I've had limited contact with any chorus for at least five years now. Choral music never was my thing but it was a way of being a productive individual within a community of volunteers for a worthy cause. When I started with the Toronto Gay Men's Chorus in 1990 or so, there was a great and vital need for any openly gay performance groups to provide a focus for the LGBT community, to provide a gentle path for those just coming out and to act as a political force against anti-gay bigotry. Over the past 20+ years, I think purposes #1 and #3 have faded off; while providing a path to coming to grips with being gay is still worthwhile for many, the LGBT choruses are not the only venue as they used to be. In short, I'm inclined to think these days that the entire gay choral movement has largely run its course --ironically, by succeeding at its goals. The LGCW is now done because, well, it's largely succeeded at its stated goals and now is the right time to bring it to a close.
There were 21 singers on stage with guest appearances by Not What You Think, Nuance, Nan Raphael and Suede. LGCW alumni in the audience were invited onstage for the final number, effectively transferring 50% of the audience to the stage.
It was much like many prior LGCW concerts in the past --which might go a long way to explaining the dwindling audience. When I left the concert, the only tune I could remember and/or hum wasn't sung by the chorus but by one of the invited ensembles. The chorus has been good at singing but kinda sucked at entertaining. I'm delighted they're musically & vocally skilled but do they seriously want to compete against the vast number of big-name professional choruses in their particular field of artistry? If I wanted unsingable artsy-fartsy high concept music, there are larger groups performing in superior venues with better acoustics.
There was a commissioned piece included in the program. IMHO, less than 10% of all commissioned works actually are worth the paper they're written on. Yes, it's important to commission new works otherwise we'd never get even the few gems which are occasionally produced. Yes, having paid for it, one should probably actually perform it at least once. But there's no reason at all to bring mediocre pieces back for a second run: if it sucked in the first run, let it die a deserved death in a filing cabinet. I'm sure a number of music professors could analyze the selection and demonstrate how sublimely beautiful it is, but if the audience's attention is drifting, what does that say about the product?
BTW, if you have only 21 singers, there should be time enough to work on diction. And if they're not strong enough to make themselves heard over the piano, then have the piano cut back a little. Think chamber music rather than Wagner's ring cycle: subtlety and gentleness should be one's watchwords.
And can everyone please just put "Everything Possible" into stasis for a few decades. It lost its charm after the first 15,821 concert performances. Let go of it for a generation or so.
After the concert and reception, we dined at Mr Henry's down the street with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
markgarciachris and timcub. Much food and hilarity ensued... we gotta do this again some time soon!
And no evening would be complete without some form of dessert so we cut through Bethesda on the way home to enjoy gelato at a shop we had noticed last month. I had a lime gelato that made my tongue curl in ecstasy... heartily recommended!
In the late morning, we headed to Baltimore for their pride festival in Druid Hill Park. I like Baltimore's pride festival a lot: it's community-based, set in a fantastic park and is a friendly, social environment. Too many other city festivals have become out-of-control huge, expensive, corporate and generic. I'll stick with Baltimore's format, thank you very much.
We had a good time visiting with various friends, enjoying some food & drinks and generally lazing about as we had no work commitments this year. Ah, what a change for us!
By 2pm, we were on the road for home, enjoyed a quick nap and were off again to the final concert of the Lesbian & Gay Chorus of Washington DC. After 26 years, the LGCW has collectively decided to wind down their affairs. I've heard that it's been too difficult and expensive in recent years to keep & build an audience, a roster of singers and a slate of sponsors & advertisers all while paying for concert & rehearsal space, music and such.
I've had limited contact with any chorus for at least five years now. Choral music never was my thing but it was a way of being a productive individual within a community of volunteers for a worthy cause. When I started with the Toronto Gay Men's Chorus in 1990 or so, there was a great and vital need for any openly gay performance groups to provide a focus for the LGBT community, to provide a gentle path for those just coming out and to act as a political force against anti-gay bigotry. Over the past 20+ years, I think purposes #1 and #3 have faded off; while providing a path to coming to grips with being gay is still worthwhile for many, the LGBT choruses are not the only venue as they used to be. In short, I'm inclined to think these days that the entire gay choral movement has largely run its course --ironically, by succeeding at its goals. The LGCW is now done because, well, it's largely succeeded at its stated goals and now is the right time to bring it to a close.
There were 21 singers on stage with guest appearances by Not What You Think, Nuance, Nan Raphael and Suede. LGCW alumni in the audience were invited onstage for the final number, effectively transferring 50% of the audience to the stage.
It was much like many prior LGCW concerts in the past --which might go a long way to explaining the dwindling audience. When I left the concert, the only tune I could remember and/or hum wasn't sung by the chorus but by one of the invited ensembles. The chorus has been good at singing but kinda sucked at entertaining. I'm delighted they're musically & vocally skilled but do they seriously want to compete against the vast number of big-name professional choruses in their particular field of artistry? If I wanted unsingable artsy-fartsy high concept music, there are larger groups performing in superior venues with better acoustics.
There was a commissioned piece included in the program. IMHO, less than 10% of all commissioned works actually are worth the paper they're written on. Yes, it's important to commission new works otherwise we'd never get even the few gems which are occasionally produced. Yes, having paid for it, one should probably actually perform it at least once. But there's no reason at all to bring mediocre pieces back for a second run: if it sucked in the first run, let it die a deserved death in a filing cabinet. I'm sure a number of music professors could analyze the selection and demonstrate how sublimely beautiful it is, but if the audience's attention is drifting, what does that say about the product?
BTW, if you have only 21 singers, there should be time enough to work on diction. And if they're not strong enough to make themselves heard over the piano, then have the piano cut back a little. Think chamber music rather than Wagner's ring cycle: subtlety and gentleness should be one's watchwords.
And can everyone please just put "Everything Possible" into stasis for a few decades. It lost its charm after the first 15,821 concert performances. Let go of it for a generation or so.
After the concert and reception, we dined at Mr Henry's down the street with
markgarciachris and timcub. Much food and hilarity ensued... we gotta do this again some time soon!And no evening would be complete without some form of dessert so we cut through Bethesda on the way home to enjoy gelato at a shop we had noticed last month. I had a lime gelato that made my tongue curl in ecstasy... heartily recommended!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 04:26 pm (UTC)Mark-the-Ex used to be on the board of the Oakland-EastBay Gay Men's Chorus (known by its snappy abbreviation, EBGMC) and it was every kind of small town, immature, high school organization you could think of. What a horrible experience. I was the Chorus Widow, which was somewhat insulated from the goings on.
[ Apparently during their first Christmas concert of the first season they were together, they stood up in front of the audience on risers at the front of the beautiful church. Someone had forgotten to take his insulin, and just as they were about to start, he vomited all over the three people standing in front of him and on their music. Then he passed out. After they revived him, cleaned up, and were about to start, the same guy passed out again. They called 911. The concert didn't start on time. ]
A couple of years ago I was asked to join the board for a local gay chorus. I showed up at the job interview and met the entire board and they asked me a bunch of questions. Then they asked me if I had any questions. I had read their promotional materials and their website and I'd had lunch with a few of their current board members. So I asked: What is the purpose of this organization?
They couldn't answer. So I tried to elaborate. Are you just a few guys who get together twice a week and like to sing and go on retreats? Or are you the best chorus in the Bay Area known for musical ability? And if that's the case, how many people get cut during a year for not knowing the music or not showing up at rehearsals or not knowing how to read music? Are you a cutesy choir whose only gimmick is a Christmas gig doing a sendup of "I saw Daddy kissing Santa Claus"? Or do you focus on sacred music? Or musicals? Or spirituals? Or showtunes? Is the idea of this organization to make money or break even? Do you tour? Do you give any money back to the community? What's your corporate sponsorship plan? How do you measure yourselves?
They all just looked at me. "Well, uh, we like to sing and put on concerts." So I smiled and asked, "So tell me why that's worth charging $20 for a ticket. What are you selling? And what's the growth over the next five years? Because let me tell you, from what I see of the other local choruses, there's a lot of competition for those dollars. So what's the plan?"
The two guys who sponsored me looked pretty unhappy. One gent stood up and gave me a long Julia Sugarbaker speech, complete with wavering voice and tears running down his face, about how he drives 30 miles to come to practice and he feels safe and loved in this community. He went on and on about how I was attacking them.
I just laughed and said, no, I'm not attacking you. I'm asking you what kind of organization you are and I don't think you have an answer. You have a wonderful music director but I'm guessing you all just vote on the songs, right? And tickets get sold through friends and family, right? Then why do you spend thousands of dollars on your member retreats? What gets accomplished other than a vacation? There are community health organizations who need that money: can't you just forego the retreat and hand them the money? At least you'd be doing some good—if that's part of your mission.
And so on. After a while, they thanked me for my time and I left. A couple of days later they offered me the position and asked me if I could join them on their retreat to be held in three weeks. I told them no—not because I don't believe in them, but because I don't have the background to overcome their issues. I'm good at making things run well, but I don't have the skills to do what they need.
Apparently at the next board meeting they got into a heated discussion and the Julia Sugarbaker guy quit the chorus. The retreat was postponed for six months while the board regrouped and tried to decide what it wanted.
I hope it was me.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 06:42 pm (UTC)I have twice sat through Singing Out!'s rendition of the truly dire Magnetic North. It is six minutes of new-agey muzak with a barely discernible (and certainly not hummable) melody, with words that sound as if they were penned by a bureaucrat for the Yukon Dept of Tourism. I mean really: "the geese smile as they pass"? (Geese have lips to smile with?) "The Yukon's for everyone, let's make it last"? This has all the schoolmarmish clunkiness of the old licence plate slogan
"Ontario: keep it beautiful".
Come to think of it, I had the same problem with that dreadful Songs for Bobby [was that the name? About the kid who couldn't deal with being gay and familial rejection and jumped off a bridge.] The chorus did what they could with that, too, but it was schlocky words set to non-melodic "music". Dreck, in other words.
I find this sort of -er- music to be off-putting. Sows' ears, from which there really isn't much profit in even trying to turn into silk purses.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 08:23 pm (UTC)Yes, please. That was our NMGMC encore for several years. I was dead tired of it as a singer. After the new chorus director came aboard 3 years ago, he chose some other songs for encore use.
Then he went to GALA and found out about "Everthing Possible." Thinking it was new and fresh and exciting, he brought it to the chorus not knowing that we had already done it to death. I don't think it made it onto the program!
But what did they end the concert with recently as an encore?
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 08:28 pm (UTC)Now if we can get that same discussion going within gay square dancing. I could write quite a document about that, but I think I'd best not right here. Needless to say, I think most of the original reason(s) for gay square dance clubs has gone away.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-21 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-22 01:20 am (UTC)Speaking of Good Songs For Gay Choruses...
Date: 2010-07-08 02:58 am (UTC)It's the Boston GMC version of Monty Python's Every Sperm Is Sacred. And just to make things more relevant to you, there's interaction between the conductor and the ASL interpreter about a minute in (maybe you can tell me what the interpreter is actually signing ... is the interpreter getting "embarrassed"?? I'm asuming it was pre-arranged stage business).
On re-reading this, and you mentioning Suede, I though "oh, the only time I saw the Washington chorus, Suede was one of their guests" ... and then I realised that it was the end-of-day concert at the time of the Millennium March on Washington, ie ten years ago. oh MY how time flies.