GALA Choruses Festival 2024 is Coming to Minneapolis This Summer

The GALA Choruses Festival 2024 will draw an expected 7,000 people from 122 choruses around the globe to venues across downtown Minneapolis this July for five days of singing, community-building, and fun for LGTBQ+ choristers and allies.

"We are thrilled to return to Minneapolis, where we came together in 1986 for the second-ever GALA Choruses Festival, for our first in-person festival in eight years," said Jane Ramseyer Miller, artistic director, GALA Choruses. "Over our 40 plus-years' history as an advocacy organization, GALA Choruses has watched our movement transform lives. The bonds formed at our GALA Choruses Festivals, held every four years, are crucial to the strength and vitality of that movement. With its inclusive culture and vibrant arts scene, Minneapolis is a host city we know our singers will fall in love with-and we hope the local community will have a blast at some of the free concerts filling their city with song!"

The GALA Choruses Festival is the largest LGBTQ+ choral event in the world, drawing attendees from the more than 15,000 singers and 200 LGBTQ+ worldwide GALA Choruses member organizations. Minneapolis, home of GALA Choruses member choirs One Voice Mixed Chorus, Calliope Women's Chorus, and the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus, was originally scheduled to host the GALA Choruses Festival 2020. That event was canceled due to the pandemic, and after an eight-year gap, GALA Choruses Festival 2024 will take place July 10- 14. In addition to North American LGBTQ+ choirs, the Festival will also showcase groups from China, Estonia, Finland, Ukraine, and Taiwan.

Tickets for the 200+ concerts at venues including Orchestra Hall, the Minneapolis Convention Center's Auditorium and Ballroom, Central Lutheran Church, and Westminster Presbyterian Church, are available individually or as part of a delegate pass. Check out the full schedule online. Free events include the following:

• Minnesota Mosaic at Peavey Plaza (July 10, noon to 10 pm) The action includes bands and performers from the Twin Cities, food trucks, interactive art displays, and at 5 pm, the festival's opening event, Rise Up Singing, a sing-along with over 7,000 voices! More details here.

• Choral Carnival (July 12, 7 to 10 pm) 45-60 minute rotating performances across downtown Minneapolis showcasing Twin Cities' artists and visiting GALA choruses. More details here.

Ticketed highlights include:

• Mní Sóta Sings, the Minnesota Welcome Concert (July 10, 6:30 pm and 8:15 pm at Orchestra Hall) Music from Calliope Women's Chorus, Twin Cities' Gay Men's Chorus, and One Voice Mixed Chorus plus poetry by Andrea Jenkins and Indigenous artist and activist Sharon Day.

• Legacy Blockbuster Concert (July 11, 9 pm, Minneapolis Convention Center Auditorium) Tributes to Bayard Rustin, Robert Seeley, Catherine Roma and Pauli Murray honor queer communities, social justice, and queer joy.

• Harmonies of the Sphere Blockbuster Concert (July 13, 7:15, Orchestra Hall) Voces Latina Festival Chorus, guest artists and LGBTQ composers from the Global Majority celebrate our global community.

• Rise Up Singing Closing Concert (July 14, 7:30 pm, Minneapolis Convention Center) This costumed concert event celebrates the struggles and victories of our queer community from the perspective of our many generations of GALA singers.

GALA Choruses represents the largest group of choirs in the global LGBTQ+ Choral Movement. GALA Choruses cultivates the artistic development of 15,000 singers from nearly 200 choruses in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. We serve choruses, small or large. The GALA Choruses Festival 2024 will be streamed online at https://galachoruses.org/resource/livestream/.

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