The Chorus

It occurs to me that I’m always mentioning The Chorus in my blog and some people may not know what I’m on about. Well, I’m on about the London Gay Men’s Chorus, a group of (fairly) high renown both at home and abroad.

There are over 150 members, although not all of them sing and of those who do sing, not everyone performs at every concert. We do a wide range of shows: At Christmas we were doing a blockbuster Christmas show which filled the Barbican Hall. Shortly before that we’d performed in the Parish Church in the town of Pinner.

We also do all sorts of ‘community’ events too. These are usually smaller, more intimate and often moving events. The Chorus sang at the memorial service for the bombing of the Admiral Duncan Pub in Soho and more recently at the Holocaust Memorial Day. Often these events have some gay relevance, but that isn’t always so: In 2004 we were asked to serenade a young man and his fiancé in Trafalgar Square as he asked her to marry him! We just love that kind of thing!

The music we sing is very varied. I think that most people’s expectations when they hear that we are a gay choir are stereotypical: Abba, Cher, Barbara Streisand, gay anthems and lots of Show Tunes. Don’t get me wrong, there are elements of most of those in our repertoire somewhere, but we also have a range of classical music and more diverse contemporary pieces which we enjoy singing just as much. Doing something unexpected can often have a bigger impact on an audience than turning up in a sequinned costume and singing It’s Raining Men.

One of my favourite recollections of this is the opening of our performance at the GALA Festival in 2004. (GALA is a gay choirs association, so we were performing in front of several thousand of our peers.) We were waiting off stage as the host gave us a very witty, but undeniably camp introduction. Then, as the piano softly played our introduction, we walked slowly onto the stage, heads bowed, to begin singing almost sotto voce, the reflective opening of Verdi’s Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves. It was a very powerful moment. It caught the audience totally by surprise. Personally I think we performed it as well that day as we ever have and as the last notes died away, there was a beautiful moment of silence before the whole place exploded into cheers and applause.

I joined the Chorus a little over two years ago, in January 2003, almost by accident. I had been bemoaning my lack of any gay social life and how I hated the gay ‘scene’ over the New Year. When I got home I noticed an advert for the Chorus, saying they were having an intake evening the following day. So I went along, very nervous, and haven’t looked back since. Sure enough, I now have a wider social circle, I’ve rediscovered the joy of performing generally and singing in particular. Best of all I met Brett, my partner, through the Chorus.

So if you haven’t already, check out the Chorus website to see when our next gig is. You could also buy a few CD’s while you’re there! (I performed on the Showtime album and the forthcoming Christmas CD.)

The LGMC: Well worth coming out for!