MARCH 29, 2018 - 8PM DAVIES SYMPHONY HALL PROGRAMS | 2018.03 Love Where You Live! STEVE GALLAGHER sfsteve.com M: 415-250-3779 O: 415-437-4524 CalRE#01193002 WELCOME! Welcome to Bridges: Our Musical Journey Through the South! 526 Castro Street We are beyond excited to share this evening with you. For almost San Francisco, CA 94114 forty years, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus has been doing 415.865.3650 exactly what the title of this concert indicates: building bridges. In 415.865.3655 • fax the fall, we took two choruses from opposite ends of the Bay Bridge [email protected] to the South to build even more bridges with brand-new friends, family and community members. Tonight, both SFGMC and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir come together again to sing for you, BOARD OF and share our experiences on tour with you, our Bay Area family. DIRECTORS Tonight, you will get a glimpse into our milestone nine-day Lavender Peter Drake Pen Tour to the South. Many of you helped the 300 of us make chair this life-changing trip. The reason we know it was life-changing is Skip Schneider because many of the lives changed were ours. We also know from treasurer many reports that our presence and our music left an indelible mark Keith Pepper on countless people and organizations. secretary As you will hear and see, SFGMC and OIGC delighted audiences at Glenn DeSandre twenty-three appearances across five states. The singers worked chorus president tirelessly every single day, intent on making a difference as far, wide, and deep as possible. Tonight, we add the amazing singer, Tiffany Apczynski songwriter, and activist Holly Near, who performed with SFGMC at Mike Bernard our very first public performance in 1978, and the powerful new Cammy Blackstone choral work “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” by Joel Thompson. Eric Chau These additions bring our experience on tour full circle. Kenyon DeVault André Farris Thank you for being here with us. We couldn’t do it without Sean Livingston your support! Gregory Marks Chris Padula Paul Saccone John Ybarra Dr. Timothy Seelig artistic director CHORUS LEADERSHIP Glenn DeSandre membership president Kevin Koerner Christopher Verdugo membership vice president executive director Michael Tate performance advisory committee chair PS: Do not miss the world premiere of Andrew Lippa’s Unbreakable Dave Andrade capping off our 40th season. It is the perfect way to celebrate Pride Eric Chau weekend! Join us June 22 or 23 at the Nourse Theater. Roy Eikleberry Raymond Mark Gonzales Tom Paulino Nick Weichsler Gregory J. Gorman Phillip P. Whitely chrorus ombudsmen 2018.03 • BAYSTAGES.COM | 1 photo by Gooch PROUD CO-PRESENTER OF and supporter of the lavender pen tour photo by Gooch BRIDGES PRESENTING SPONSOR LAVENDER PEN TOUR PARTNERS PRESENTING PARTNER SPECIAL PARTNER PREMIER PARTNERS THE OFFICIAL AIRLINE OF SFGMC AMBASSADOR JAMES C. HORMEL + MICHAEL NGUYEN SUPPORTING PARTNERS Let’s Go Places Since THE WOLFGANG E. GIESECKE AND WILLIAM E. VASTARDIS FAMILY FUND JOSEPH BONDI PETER DRAKE + JARED MORENO BARRY JAY BOB HERMANN + DAN JORAANSTAD 2018.03 • BAYSTAGES.COM | 3 BBB_SFGMC_032918.indd 1 3/7/18 8:13 AM LEADERSHIP BIOGRAPHIES TIM SEELIG is a conductor, singer, teacher and motivational speaker. In addition to artistic director of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, he continues a busy guest-conducting schedule throughout the US and across the globe. He is conductor emeritus of the Turtle Creek Chorale, which he conducted for twenty years, he co-founded the Women’s Chorus of Dallas, and he taught on the faculty at Southern Methodist University for fourteen years. Tim holds four degrees, including the Doctor of Musical Arts and the Diploma from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He has authored seven books and DVDs on choral technique. Recordings have been on the Billboard Top Ten and iTunes Top Ten classical charts. The PBS documentary about the Turtle Creek Chorale received the national Emmy Award for Best Documentary. He has conducted regularly at Carnegie Hall for the last twenty-five years, as well as at Lincoln Center and the Southbank Centre in London. His groups have commissioned choral works for a variety of amazing organizations including amfAR (The American image: chris turner Foundation for AIDS Research), the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (featuring Dr. Maya Angelou), and St. Jude DR. TIMOTHY SEELIG Children’s Research Hospital (featuring Marlo Thomas). Recent artistic director commissions with SFGMC include “Tyler’s Suite” for the Tyler Clementi Foundation, I Am Harvey Milk by Andrew Lippa, and #twitterlieder. Tim's first career was as a singer. He made his European operatic debut at the Staatsoper in St. Gallen, Switzerland and his solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall. He appeared as soloist in world premieres by composers including John Corigliano, Conrad Susa, and Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach). Interesting facts about him include conducting the Longest Choral Concert (Guinness Book of World Records) and carrying the Olympic torch in 1996 as a community hero. He has not run since. He is married to Dan England and is the proud grandfather of the amazing Clara Skye and Eden Mae. CHRISTOPHER VERDUGO had his first introduction to the gay choral movement at the age of eighteen when he joined the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida. Three years later, he became artistic director of Paragon Productions, choreographing, directing, and producing theatrical productions for cruise lines and hotels throughout the world. In 1999, he combined his event production background with his fundraising skills, working with the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, Miami Beach’s Winter Party Music Festival, and the Communion Foundation, and sat on the board of directors of the South Beach Gay Men’s Chorus. After moving to Los Angeles in 2003, he was selected as one of two choreographers for the Miss Universe Pageant. Soon after he left his artistic roots to focus on LGBT and social justice issues working with various LGBT nonprofits including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Equality California, the Human Rights Campaign, and GLAAD for which he produced Queer Lounge at Sundance. In 2006, he joined the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los image: shane downing Angeles as a singer and five years later was named executive director and chief executive officer. Under Verdugo, GMCLA built CHRISTOPHER VERDUGO an international reputation for musical excellence, doubled its executive director operating budget, and expanded its visibility to television and film appearances, most notably on the Academy Awards. It also expanded local education programs in Los Angeles high schools and launched a nationwide tour - It Gets Better - to combat LGBT teen bullying and suicide in rural American towns. He moved to San Francisco in 2016 to assume the role of executive director of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. 2018.03 • BAYSTAGES.COM | 5 proudly supports San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus ARTISTIC BIOGRAPHIES SFGMC STAFF CARL PANTLE is a vocal Dr. Timothy Seelig coach, accompanist, and artistic director singer who frequently works with San Francisco Christopher Verdugo Opera, West Bay Opera, executive director Opera San Jose and the Jonathan Foulk Bay Area Summer Opera chief advancement officer Theatre Institute. He is an Spencer Blank alumnus of the prestigious associate director of operations Merola Program at the & community relations San Francisco Opera Peter Zimmerman Center. Carl studied voice associate director and choral conducting at of marketing image: devlin shand Brigham Young University Wil Wright and soon after returned production manager to the Bay Area to pursue CARL PANTLE principal accompanist Mitch Galli vocal coaching and educational outreach & accompanying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He member services manager, has appeared as a vocalist with SFGMC on numerous occasions and assistant conductor appeared at Lincoln Center as accompanist for Dr. Tim Seelig in The Maren Amdal Wisdom of Old Turtle in 2011. Carl has collaborated with some of organizational consultant the finest talent Broadway has to offer including Daniel Reichard, Lynden Bair Keala Settle, Julia Murney, Alysha Umphress, and Laura Benanti. music assistant MITCH GALLI i s conductor, singer, pianist, and teacher originally from ENSEMBLE Williamstown, MA. Mitch MUSIC earned a BA in music from DIRECTORS St. Lawrence University and a master's in urban Mitch Galli HomoPhonics education, administration and policy from Loyola Dr. Ben Riggs Marymount University. Vocal Minority He was assigned to move Paul Saccone to the Bay Area in 2012 The Lollipop Guild as a corps member with Teach for America and stayed. Mitch taught at a high school in Oakland MITCH GALLI for four years, first as a educational outreach & member services manager, mathematics teacher and assistant conductor then as a choir and piano teacher. He then transitioned to a middle school in San Francisco where he taught 5th to 8th grade music for a year. Mitch has been a singing member in the chorus for three years. During his first year with SFGMC he founded the chorus’ newest ensemble, HomoPhonics, sfgmc which he still directs. He is thrilled to help develop and launch SFGMC’s new educational outreach program: RHYTHM (Reaching @sfgmc Youth Through Music) which has visited three high schools this year, reaching over 2,000 students across the Bay Area. The program brings 40-70 members of the Chorus to local high schools and sfgmc middle schools to sing and share messages of anti-bullying and the importance of expressing one’s authentic self. sfgmcvideo 2018.03 • BAYSTAGES.COM | 7 GUEST ARTIST As HOLLY NEAR celebrates her first album in three years, Peace Becomes You, she’s building on forty creative years and thirty recordings. Respected around the world for her music and activism, her joy and passion inspire people to join in her celebration of the human spirit.