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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1989)
Just news New York, Portland gay choruses plan joint concert aking its first appearance in the West, the famed New York City Gay Men's Chorus will join Portland's own chorus for a joint Gay Pride concert on Saturday. July I, in Arlene SchnitzerConcert Hall NYCGMC is the most celebrated gay chorus in the world. It performs regularly in Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center. Last fall it made a highly successful Huropean tour, winning critical praise with performances in London. Paris, Amsterdam, and Cologne. I Inder its music director, Gary Miller, the New York chorus has made two commercial recordings One of them, a Christmas album titled. A Festival of Song,” is the all-time best-selling record on the Pro Arte label The 110-voice NYCGMC and the 70-voice Portland Gay Men's Chorus will each perform a solo set in the concert. They will also combine for several songs, accompanied by a 9-piece brass ensemble. A varied program has been selected, ranging from short works by Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky to familiar tunes by Stephen Sondheim and Duke Ellington. Sign Language Artist Kevin Gallagher will interpret for the hearing impaired This concert is the f inal performance on PCiMC's 1988-89 season subscription series. Both choruses are completing their ninth seasons The July I concert in Schnitzer Hall is the only public performance by the New York wickedly funny song. “ I Never Do Anything Twice. Miller will conduct the combined choruses in a medley of Ellington songs, including "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swin^’.and ” 1 Got It Bad and That Ain t Good.” The concert closes with “ Jubilation,” a rousing work for double men’s chorus and brass ensemble, by John David Earnest. This composition had its premiere last year in joint Gay Pride concerts by NYCGMC and the Boston Gay Men's Chorus. Besides the New York Times, the New York M New York Citv Gax Men s Chorus chorus on the West Toast. On the following day. both choruses will travel to Seattle, where they will participate in an international festival of (JALA Choruses (Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses), singing for more than 2(XX) delegates. In a review last fall, the New York Times lauded NYCGMC’s “ superb blend,” its “ stunning reading” of a work by Bruckner, and its “ touching performance” of a Michael Callen song. Gary Miller and NYCGMC will open the second half of the concert with a new work written for them by Ned Rorem. (Rorem is an important American composer who electrified the musical and literary worlds with his candidly gay diaries, first published in the 1960s ) NYCGMC will have premiered the work the previous week in Avery Fisher Hall. Lincoln Center. David York, PGMC’s conductor, will lead the first half of the concert, directing the combined choruses in three songs, including Sondheim’s haunting ballad. “ Not a Day Goes By.” PGMC will sing several numbers by itself , including York's new arrangement of the March against racism everal dozen protesters from Portland joined 1,5(X) marchers at Hayden Lake. Idaho, in an April 22 demonstration against racism. Hayden Lake has become known as a center for racist and radical right-wing ideology because of the presence in the community of Richard Butler and his Aryan Nation “ church.” y Butler called a “ national skinhead conference” in Hayden Lake on April 21, to gather public attention for his white supremist philosophy Butler’s “ national” gathering drew only 30 participants. Citizens for Nonviolent Action Against Racism (CINAAR) of neighboring Coeur d'Alene, organized the Walk For Racial Equality in protest of Butler’s conference. “ It is our right and responsibility to stand for human equality,” said Walk organizer Lisa S ** Anderson. “ When neo-Nazi factions seek to claim the Northwestern United States as their homeland, we have to say no.” Concern in Portland was heightened last year when three “ skinheads” were arrested in the city for what is described as the racially motivated, baseball-bat beating death of Mulugeta Seraw, a black Ethiopian emigrant One of the men charged in the Seraw killing has pleaded guilty and admitted that the incident in which Mulugeta Seraw died was motivated by the victim’s race. “ Butler is a lot like the AIDS virus,” offered Mark Stucker of Portland. “ He kills people but unites his opposition.” “ Lesbians and gays were in the front of Hitler’s march to the ovens. So it should be no surprise that we are on the frontline speaking out against the Nazis in 1989,” proclaimed Patrick Haggerty of All People’s Conference and ACT-UP. — Harold Moore i ! Í ----------- Blue Earth VI * P * 4 * chorus has been the subject of profiles in Newsday, Village Voice, Mandate. Advocate — even Screw, of all places, where a review of NYCGMC’s second album, “ New York, New York.” said: “ The stout hearted militarism of conventional male choruses is mercifully absent in this album. A fresh new masculinity soars forth: *ender, strong, vulnerable, self-assured, nurturant and honest.” Saturday. July I at 8 p.m ., in Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets are $8, $12, and $15; available at the Performing Arts Center box office. 248-4496. ^ *, *> v y ' r # #w- V* 4 A Natural Food Store Mur i" ■ f ' DON’T PANIC WE’RE ORGANIC! Legends Percussives • Jewelry^ ! Crystals * I Books • Tarot Cards Shamanic Tools and Art Sacred Herbs I 3029 SE 21st (Between Powell &. 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