December 6, 1986
History
This evening the Windy City Gay Chorus begins its eighth season with “Don We Now VIII”. Numbering over 70 singers, the Chorus gives three concerts annually, including a performance at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall during Gay Pride Week.
In 1984 the Chorus won first place in the national Great American Choral Festival, sponsored by Johnny Mann. Later that year the Chorus was one of only seven groups invited to sing at the Illinois state convention of the American Choral Directors Association. The Chorus then appeared at a second ACDA function in Chicago, and last April at an ACDA regional convention in Indianapolis, where it received an enthusiastic reception from the audience.
The Windy City Gay Chorus has performed in Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Columbus, Peoria, Minneapolis, Champaign-Urbana, and in New York at a joint concert at Avery Fisher Hall with the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. While in New York City, the ensemble was hailed by the New York Daily News for creating a “thorough pleasure in tone, balance, and precision,” with the results described as “positively heroic.”
In 1984 the Chorus’s musicianship and contributions to the community were lauded in proclamations by the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Illinois House of Representatives and the mayor of Chicago. During the past Fourth of July weekend, the Chorus traveled to Minneapolis to perform at the second Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses Festival, with choruses from the United States and Canada. This year the Chorus will travel to Denver to sing with the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus at Boettcher Hall. The WCGC was one of only 25 choruses in its category to be awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for this year.
For further information about the Chorus, performances, or auditions, call 871-SING or write Windy City Performing Arts, Inc., 606 West Barry Avenue #216, Chicago, Illinois 60657.
Windy City Performing Arts 