New York City Gay Men's Chorus Presents 'Vibrate' 6/4
By: BWW News Desk May. 06, 2008
Following their sell-out Carnegie Hall concert, The New York City Gay Men's Chorus launches Gay Pride month in New York with "Vibrate!" on Wednesday, June 4th and 5th at 8:00PM at F.I.T.'s Haft Auditorium (27th Street & Seventh Avenue). Presented by Big Apple Performing Arts, the special guest stars for the evening include Our Lady J and Youth Pride Chorus.
THE NEW YORK CITY GAY MEN'S CHORUS is an auditioned, 250-voice male chorus serving the gay community and the greater community at large by the performance of classical and contemporary male choral music as proud and openly gay men. In addition to their regular concert series, NYCGMC also performs at a variety of local and tri-state area functions, benefits, and performances. For 28 years, NYCGMC audiences have filled auditoriums including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls to standing room only. Unanimously acclaimed by America's leading music critics, the Chorus has sung with some of the world's brightest stars, commissioned and premiered many major works, made celebrated television appearances, and sold recordings worldwide. NYCGMC continues to serve the community each day through its education and AIDS outreach programs. Youth Pride Chorus, a free program for LGBTQ young people and their allies between the ages of 14-21, is the first program of its kind to be sponsored by an adult mentor chorus. NYCGMC has appeared with guests artists including Academy Award winners Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey, Grammy Award winners Marilyn Horne and Cyndi Lauper, Tony Award-winning actors Carol Channing, Harvey Fierstein, Faith Prince and Kristin Chenoweth and Olympic Gold Medalist Greg Luganis, as well as joint performances with Stonewall Chorale, Lavender Light Gospel Choir, Boston Gay Men's Chorus, Gay Men's Chorus of Washington D.C., Noot an der Mann (Amsterdam), and Schola Cantorosa (Hamburg) and other choruses from around the world. As the membership continues to grow and diversify, the Chorus will continue to extend its message of love, compassion, and positive examples of gay lives for many years to come.
YOUTH PRIDE CHORUS engages the individual and collective voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and allied youth ages 13-21 in the movement for social change. YPC concerts feature these young artists in exciting, high-energy performances of both classic and contemporary pop, rock, and folk songs, original choreography, and spoken word pieces. Through fun and rigorous weekly rehearsals, YPC singers train in voice, dance, song interpretation, and performance practice, developing artistic excellence and leadership skills as they prepare for public performance. YPC comprises between 15 and 30 singers and gives two fully-realized concerts per year with professional lights, sound, and musicians at top venues in New York City. With a commitment to community outreach, YPC has recently performed for organizations such as Time Warner, Credit Suisse, at the NYC LGBT Pride Rally in Bryant Park, with New York City Gay Men's Chorus at Carnegie Hall, and with Cyndi Lauper on her 2007 True Colors Tour. YPC is currently preparing for their upcoming concert May 14th and 15th at Wings Theatre in the West Village and a July performance at the GALA Choruses Festival in Miami. Youth Pride Chorus was formed in 2001 as a collaborative effort between the NYCGMC and the Youth Enrichment Services Program of New York's LGBT Center. Under the direction of Wes Webb, YPC is accompanied by Matthew Fetbrandt and facilitated by Youth Enrichment Services program staff. All young people ages 13-21 are welcome. No prior performance experience is necessary to join.
Before her solo act invaded New York's underground music scene, OUR LADY J (aka Jonnah Speidel) musical directed and performed with some of NYC's most colorful talents in hot spots including Alice Tulley Hall, Birdland, Carnegie Hall, Caroline's on Broadway, The Cutting Room, Feinstein's at the Regency, Joe's Pub, Makor, The Metropolitan Room, Radio City Music Hall and The Town Hall. As a pianist, she has accompanied the NYC Gay Men's Chorus, American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and the Mark Morris Dance Group, where she was a featured performer in the MMDG Music Ensemble. As a composer, she scored Bertolt Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle for NYU's Steinhardt School of Continuing Education and is composing the musical-in-progress, The Gift. Jonnah also teaches music with Rosie's Broadway Kids, Rosie O'Donnell's Musical Theatre Education Program, dedicated to providing quality instruction in music and dance to New York City public school students. "Our Lady J can be seen on Wednesdays June 18th, July 16th and August 20th at 8:00pm at the Zipper Factory (336 West 37th Street), performing all original music with The Pink Champagne Orchestra and The Train-To-Kill Gospel Choir. www.ourladyj.com CHARLES BEALE (Music Director) Prior to arriving in New York, Charles Beale was Music Director of the London Gay Men's Chorus from 2002-2007. Originally trained as an organist, he studied music at Cambridge and later jazz at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he won the Rose Morris Prize as a composer and jazz pianist. Charlie has a stylistically diverse and active freelance performing career. He recently directed members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in an improvised performance at one of London's major concert halls. His playing has also included national radio broadcasts as a classical pianist, a jazz organ concerto with the UK's National Youth Jazz Orchestra, West End theatre work, playing and arranging credits on albums and singles by pop and dance artists including Whitney Houston and Adeva, and regular jazz in and around London, with the likes of Bobby Wellins and the Frank Williams African Jazz Quintet. He was an active member of the Association of British Choral Directors, where he gave clinics on improvising and swing with choirs. He co-wrote a new Voiceworks book for OUP and has written a number of arrangements for Fabers acclaimed Choral Basics series. Charlie also has a burgeoning career as an educator and academic specializing in jazz. He taught jazz at the Royal College of Music in London, where he was Area leader for Aural training, Professor of Jazz Piano and director of the Royal College of Music Big Band. Since completing his Ph.D. in 2001, he has written a critically acclaimed book Jazz Piano from Scratch and a number of important academic articles, including the chapter on Jazz Education in the recent Oxford Companion to Jazz. He was Lead Jazz Consultant to the Associated Board for ten years, helping design new syllabi, train and moderate examiners and facilitate workshops and seminars for teachers, and was nominated for a Jazz Parliamentary Award in 2005 for services to jazz education. In the past four years, he has toured internationally, adjudicating, examining and doing ABRSM jazz workshops for teachers in the UK, the US, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.
DAVID EDELMAN (Executive Director) joined the NYCGMC in March of 2005 having most recently served as Executive Director of Contemporary American Theatre Company in Columbus, Ohio. He has also served as Associate Producer at Olympia Dukakis' Whole Theatre, Managing Director of the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey and Managing Director of the Delaware Theatre Company. David has long volunteered his time in many civic, political, and community organizations. In the 1980's he served two terms as President of the New Jersey Theatre Group, the statewide association of professional theatres and was a founding Board member of ArtPride, the state's arts advocacy organization. David served as President of the Board of the New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Coalition, was an early organizer with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and volunteered for GMHC in the early 1980's. David has served on numerous boards and committees including AIDS Delaware, Sister Cities of Wilmington, the Wilmington Arts Commission, Wilmington Riverfront Business Improvement District, Wilmington Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, the Brandywine Valley Cultural Tourism Planning Committee, the Ohio Department of Education's Arts Standards Advisory Committee, HRC-Columbus' Membership Committee, and served as founding President of the Delaware Liberty Fund, an LGBT political action committee. He is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, earned an MFA in Acting at Rutgers University, and completed the Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management program at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
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