April 2, 2022

Program Notes

Join the Windy City Gay Chorus and Windy City Treble Quire for a curated choral exploration in support of the trans experience aimed at opening hearts and minds, fostering empathy and understanding. Featuring new music by Kyra Leigh and premiering Verum Corpus by Saunder Choi with poetry by Amir Rabiyah, Trans(posed) will remind all of us that our voices are stronger when we listen, learn, and stand together to drive change that will impact our communities and families.

Among the choral works being performed in our spring concert, trans(POSED): Songs of the True Self, are TWO WORLD PREMIERE PIECES: Verum Corpus by Saunder Choi with poetry by Amir Rabiyah and Kyra Leigh’s Love and Art.

Welcome – From the Board Chair

The idea of a mission concert resonates with the stories and heartstrings of our members all the way back to our beginnings in 1979. At that time, the gay liberation movement was growing and the mere act of joining a gay chorus and signing about our experiences required an activist mentality, not to mention quite a bit of bravery. Forty-plus years on, the world is not perfect for the LGBTQ+ community; but we have a lot more allies today than we did then. We have more positive images of our people in the mainstream. We have seen marriage equality, job protections and gained an incredible amount of ground for our voices and our experiences.

We have a long way to go. The tailwinds that have helped some in our community build happy and productive lives have not yet lifted the entire community. There is turbulence that continues to threaten the advances we’ve realized. And trans, non-binary and other peoples in our community continue to be met with unempathetic intolerance, violence and harassment, even when they are children. 

This concert is an exploration for all of us – in the audience and on the stage. We all can seek to better understand experiences that are not our own. We can sharpen our ability to listen and find empathy for those who are different from us. We can love what we may not always understand because we all share the common experience of being human. 

This is the lens I hope you’ll bring to our concert. This is our activism in 2022. This is the juncture at which art has the opportunity to open and change hearts. The music you’ll hear today is both difficult and beautiful. It spans ancient texts to the roaring twenties up through the present. More importantly, it expresses hope for the future. We’ve come so far and I hope the couple hours you’ve set aside to come and hear this concert will transport you to a new context; that your heart and mind will be transposed and you’ll embrace those who are different from you – those who you do not understand – with an entirely new level of humanity, empathy and open-mindedness. This is my wish for you. 

Thanks for being here today. Your ongoing support is what allows us to do this magnificent thing we all love.

WIth immense gratitude,
Mark Hein
Board Chair

History

The Windy City Gay Chorus and Windy City Treble Quire are the two choruses that operate under the Windy City Performing Arts non-profit umbrella and sing to inspire change, celebrate diversity and honor the dignity of the LGBTQ+ community. Each ensemble performs a variety of musical styles from classical to pop with a clear focus on musical excellence regardless of the style of music.

The choruses have a long history of performing major choral works including commissioned pieces. In September 2003, the ensembles made history by becoming the first choruses in a Gay, Lesbian Bisexual and Transgendered (GLBT) organization to sing the National Anthem at an Illinois professional sporting event, at the Chicago Free Press sponsored “Out at the Ballgame” day at U.S. Cellular Field, opening for the Chicago White Sox vs. Cleveland Indians game. 

The Windy City Gay Chorus and Windy City Treble Quire have a rich and rewarding history that has continued to find our singers performing in a number of enriching venues, including the Steppenwolf and Redmoon Theatre companies, at the opening ceremonies of the modern wing of the Art Institute, and at Carnegie Hall as part of the Susan Komen Sing for the Cure project. Members of our choruses have most recently shared the stage with Hugh Jackman as part of his concert in Chicago, performed at Ravinia with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Marin Alsop, and appeared in January at a Chicago Bulls game to sing the U.S. National Anthem. 

The Windy City Gay Chorus and Treble Quire are unique among LGBTQ+ choruses in that they perform both separately and together across a three-concert season each year. Both choruses comprise four sections, which includes tenors (1 and 2), baritones and basses for the Gay Chorus; and, sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, and altos (1 and 2) for the Treble Quire. The separateness of the choruses and their ability to work together coupled with a high degree of technical ability creates an agility that is rare among the LGBTQ+ choral movement.

Commissioned Composers

Saunder Choi is a Los Angeles-based Filipino composer and choral artist whose works have been performed internationally by various groups including the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the World Youth Choir. As an arranger and orchestrator, Saunder has written for Tony-Award winner Lea Salonga, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, and many others. As a choral artist, he sings with Tonality, the L.A. Choral Lab, Pacific Chorale, HEX Vocal Ensemble, as well as in film scores such as the soundtrack of Disney’s The Lion King (2019), Mulan (2020), and Turning Red (2022).

Click here to view the full concert program!