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Boston Gay Men’s Chorus Wins Award from Massachusetts Teachers Association for Community Outreach
The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus announced at its annual fundraising gala that it has received the 2008 “Creative Leadership in Human Rights Award” for its High School Outreach Program from the Massachusetts Teachers Association. In addition, the BGMC announced that it has received a $6,000 grant from the American Composers Forum to commission a new piece of music about diversity to be used in High School Outreach concerts.
The announcements were made on Saturday, May 3rd at Crescendo, the BGMC’s annual fundraising event which attracted more than 400 guests to The Roxy Ballroom to support the BGMC’s mission of creating a more tolerant society through the power of music. BGMC Executive Director Steven Smith estimated that the event raised $100,000 for BGMC programs and outreach. At the event, the BGMC also debuted a new 8 minute video documentary about its outreach efforts. The video can be viewed at www.bgmc.org.
At Crescendo, Smith announced that the BGMC had won the human rights award from the Massachusetts Teachers Association. In the award letter, Gladys Durant, chair of the MTA Human Relations Committee, stated “committee members are particularly impressed with the Chorus’s contributions and support for gay and lesbian high school students through the High School Outreach Project. Many have observed the impact the Chorus has had in reducing discriminatory behavior and stereotyping and improving the climate in high schools for gay and lesbian students in Massachusetts.” The BGMC’s High School Outreach program provides free concerts to benefit the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) programs in area schools while bringing the Chorus’s message of diversity and tolerance to school communities.
“We are honored by the MTA’s recognition,” said Steve Smith. “For those of us that grew up and came out without the support of a GSA, it is a gift for us to be able to bring our voices and our support to the next generation of GLBT citizens. We’ve sung at seven high schools so far and at every concert we are amazed at the hard work that students and educators are doing to make schools a safer place for GLBT youth.”
In a related award, the BGMC also received the first Community Partners grant from the American Composers Forum, based in Minneapolis, MN. The Community Partners project was created specifically to support gay or lesbian choruses in expanding their audiences by engaging new voices and exploring new outreach initiatives. The $6000 grant will allow the BGMC to commission an original composition about tolerance and diversity to use in its school outreach programs. As part of the grant process, the American Composers Forum is conducting a national RFP to find a composer for the project. The work is expected to be premiered by the BGMC sometime in 2009.
Reuben Overcomes Health Challenge
Reuben and the Chorus have overcome an unexpected challenge this winter. In February, Reuben was diagnosed with hairy cell leukemia, requiring him to step back from Chorus duties for a month to undergo chemotherapy and then recover his strength from the treatment. We are pleased to report that he’s doing great and his prognosis is excellent. Last night was Reuben’s first night back on the podium since February and he was met by waves of love and support from the members of the BGMC.
"There is no way for me to tell you how hard it has been to be away from the chorus this past month. It nearly drove me crazy when they took off to sing a concert in Hartford and I had to sit home but what I found I really missed were the rehearsals - that's where all the fun happens! I was determined to get back in time to conduct this magnificent new piece we have commissioned at Symphony Hall and all the love and support I got from so many people helped me do it! I am feeling great and my doctors have given me the green light to resume my normal activities. Boy did last night’s rehearsal feel great!"
During Reuben’s absence, the Chorus administration sprang into action and engaged Ellen Oak as guest conductor. Long time BGMC patrons will recall that Ellen conducted the BGMC in December 1997 prior to Reuben moving to Boston in winter 1998. “We needed someone with the artistic skill and self-assurance to step into the breach and to keep us moving forward while Reuben recovered,” said executive director Steve Smith. “Ellen was our first choice and she has done a magnificent job with the music and with instilling confidence during an uncertain time. We’re grateful to have her as part of our family.”
This concert is the 10th anniversary of Reuben’s debut with the chorus. “This was always going to be a special concert with the Liebermann commission,” said Reuben. “But after what we’ve been through this winter it really means the world to me and the guys of the Chorus to sing it for you. There are so many great concerts ahead of us and I’m just glad to get back to work.”
Notes on the April concert from Reuben
Words & Music. Can there be anything better? Imagine what that combination can do. Our concert will bring you powerful words and gorgeous music, words that I hope will awaken in every one in the room the desire to stand up and fight for things that we should never have to fight for and music that will inspire your soul to dream of a land where “civil liberty” is not just a catch phrase but a reality. In the Bush-Cheney era, it feels like speaking out has become a dangerous thing to do and that personal liberty is under attack. This concert is a chance for us to use our voices quite literally to sing about the American traditions of civil liberties and freedom of expression.
I spent my childhood listening to my mother tell me that I had to study history because “it is only in our past that we find our future.” Then something strange happened – I started to understand what she meant. And so to Lowell Liebermann’s magnificent setting of the words of Walt Whitman. Although written over a century ago these words resonate as if written yesterday. Whitman sings of Pride, Love, Faith and Protest – values that could not be more important today. I celebrate myself and sing myself is Whitman’s version of I am what I am! The second movement is a meditation on mankind’s need to form connections to other people, the need to be part of the web that connects all humanity, while the third movement asks us to look around and find our faith in our own lives—in our own world.
The final two movements, For Matthew Shepard and Protest, take us out of our comfort zones. After an opening section in which Whitman’s text seems to depict the atrocities that took place in Laramie, For Mathew Shepard is a hymn to mankind’s ability to transcend evil and to find the inherent goodness in all of us. And in the stirring final movement Whitman seems to mount a speakers box in Boston Common, thunderously exhorting us to stand up for our own rights, to speak out passionately when our leaders seem misguided, and ultimately to believe in a future in which the inherent dignity of all human beings is celebrated by “the love of comrades, the life-long love of comrades.”
If history teaches us anything it teaches us how easy it is to become complacent, to let someone else speak for us. I hope that our music inspires you to sing and to dance, to laugh and to cry, but most of all, to go out and make your voice heard!
BGMC Honored by Outmusic Award Nomination
The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus was honored to be a nominee for a national 2006 Outmusic Award in the “OutMusician of the Year” category. OutMusic is a national network of GLBT musicians and supporters working in all genres (www.outmusic.com). The nomination in this prestigious category was selected by an open vote of all OutMusic members and is in response to the BGMC’s historic tour of Europe in June 2005, particularly its news-making performance in Poland as the first openly gay group to ever perform in that country. BGMC was the only non-solo performer nominated in this category.