December 20, 1987
Welcome – From the Director
To our W.C.G.C. Family:
It is exciting yet difficult to believe that we are appearing today in our ninth holiday concert. Tonight is especially significant because it is our first holiday concert at Chicago’s prestigious and historic Orchestra Hall. Many of you still remember our first meager Don We Now concert at Stages Music Hall on North Clark Street. Since that exciting day we have come a long way with our personnel, our concert halls, our musical abilities, and our guest artists – thanks to you and your support!
We are celebrating many things today. It is overwhelming to imagine the fine singers and instrumentalists that appear with us regularly. Today is no exception: members of the Pitzen Brass Ensemble; the marvelous harp and flute duo of Steve Hartman and Mary Stolper Espree; and our guest organist Roger Stanley, not to mention our own wonderful pianists, and, of course, the CHORUS – my favorite artists! We are especially excited to present our Christmas carol commission written for us by a talented local composer, Mr. Kim Lyons: A Christmas Service for male chorus, brass, organ, harp, and handbells.
Today’s celebration is really a culmination, because we are concluding a very beautiful fall season after appearing at the Marshall Field AIDS benefit at the Chicago Theater (singing with our Chicago chorus counterparts as well as with Angela Lansbury was indeed a thrill!), presenting a concert and demonstration workshop for the American Choral Directors Illinois State Convention, singing a joint concert with the Champaign-Urbana Men’s Chorus in Champaign, and for the Chicago House Holiday Fair. This has kept us performing and spreading the messages of the songs we sing to gay and non-gay communities all over Illinois. We hope you will join us for the rest of our season and feel with us the swell of excitement as we plan for our tenth anniversary season next fall.
We could not have accomplished all this alone. Singing, like love, is no good until you give it away. And isn’t that what this holiday season is all about? Thanks for sharing our music with us, and for the opportunity to help make our lives richer and better.
Richard Garrin
Music Director
History
This afternoon, the Windy City Gay Chorus opens its ninth season with “Don We Now IX”, the ensemble’s ninth annual holiday concert. Numbering nearly 80 singers, the Chorus traditionally gives three major concerts each year, and performs for a wide variety of community events, the latest being the Marshall Field Show of Concern on September 7th.
Since its founding in 1979, the Chorus has achieved national recognition and gained critical and audience acclaim for its continued pursuit of musical excellence and its dedication to the highest of artistic values. Under the baton of founding director Richard Garrin, the group has performed for both regional and state conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), most recently at the state ACDA convention in Champaign-Urbana on October 24, 1987. Windy City Gay Chorus traveled to New York City in 1982 for a joint appearance with the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus at Avery Fisher Hall. 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.”
Other Chorus tour performances have taken place in Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Columbus, Peoria, Minneapolis, and Denver. The Chorus won first place in the 1984 Johnny Mann Great American Choral Festival. In April of 1988 the ensemble will travel to Washington, D.C., to perform with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, and plans to attend the 1989 GALA III festival in Seattle. Plans currently under discussion for the ensemble’s landmark 10th anniversary celebration in 1988-89 include an alumni concert and a commission from a major American composer.
Windy City Gay Chorus has received substantial recognition from the choral industry and from government sources, including current grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, and the City of Chicago Office of Fine Arts. The Chorus is a member of Chorus America (Association of Professional Vocal Ensembles), the American Choral Directors Association, and the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA Choruses).
Windy City Gay Chorus is a not-for-profit organization incorporated in the state of Illinois. For further information about the ensemble, performances, or auditions, call 871-SING, or write Windy City Performing Arts, 606 West Barry #216, Chicago, IL 60657.
Windy City Performing Arts 