Highlights of Spring 2008
Highlights of the upcoming Spring semester are:
- Performance with the fabulous jazz/pop singer Suede.
- Gigs at the Cedar Lane Unitarian Church and the Hillwood Estate.
- Our Spring Concert explores the meaning of love.
We will post details for these events soon. Please check back often.
It’s All About You! — Celebrating the People and History of the District of Columbia
LGCW presented its winter concert on January 26 and 27, 2008.
The chorus performed sets of songs reflecting the city’s role as a National City, a Hometown Community, and as an Ideal. The concert included pieces by Stephen Sondheim, Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland, as well as by D.C. composers Ysaye Barnwell and Jeffery Watson. The Capitol Hill Youth Chorus joined the LGCW to perform Watson’s 2002 work, “Where Every Voice is Heard,” which was written to celebrate the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. Click here to view the Concert Program.
Capitol Hill Bikes and Hoopla Traders were the concert sponsors. The concert was also supported in part by a grant from the Capitol Hill Community Foundation.
LGCW Performed at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance - Jan. 22
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered (GLBT) Arts Consortium offered its annual Remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr., on, January 22, 2008, at the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church. It was sponsored by a grant from the Capitol Hill Community Foundation.
Participants in the Remembrance included: Bread & Roses Feminist Singers, Capitol Hill Youth Chorus, Jubilee Singers of All Souls Unitarian Church, Lesbian & Gay Chorus of Washington, D.C., Not What You Think, Nuance, Rock Creek Singers of Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, Third Millennium Ensemble, and others. The MC for the Remembrance was: Sharmila Khare.
Participants in the King Remembrance reflect the broad range of artists and presenting groups that collectively make up the GLBT Arts Consortium, a voluntary collaboration of varied arts organizations from the Washington, D.C. metro area which works to raise the visibility of GLBT arts.
Read what the Washington Blade wrote about past remembrance performances.
LGCW Performed for the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop - Sunday, Oct. 28
LGCW was proud to perform for the
Capitol Hill Arts Workshop's 35th Anniversary celebration!.
As part of its 35th Anniversary celebration, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) presented “Where Every Voice Is Heard,” at the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church.
The program featured a performance of Where Every Voice Is Heard, under the direction of Dr. Jeffery Watson, the composer. Dr. Watson’s four-part suite combined adult and children voices in a powerful and charming affirmation of building community through the arts. Chorus members hailed from the Capitol Hill and the greater DC community. Capitol Hill Youth Chorus, part of the CHAW Youth Arts Program, offerred the voices of the children.
This family-friendly, community performance included additional sets by the Capitol Hill Youth Chorus – under the direction of Dr. Thea Kano, the a cappella group Not What You Think, and others from the CHAW community.
For more information about CHAW’s programs and its 35th Anniversary, please visit www.chaw.org.
LGCW Performed at the Ganymede Fall Arts Festival - Sunday, Oct. 21
LGCW was proud to be one of the choral groups performing at the Ganymede Fall Arts Festival on Sunday Oct. 21 at the Church Street Theatre. The festival was a 10 day celebration of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (glbt) artists of Washington D.C.
The LGCW sang “Bonse Aba,” “You are the New Day,” “Everything Possible,” “We Shall Not Give Up the Fight,” and “Freedom is Coming.”
Ganymede arts is dedicated to the (glbt) experience. The organization's mission - to provide high-quality, professional theatre and art (dance and musical performances, poetry readings and art shows) that fosters social and cultural awareness of and for the glbt community.
Days of Stars, Moon, and Dreams choreographed by Alvin Mays - Sat., Oct. 20
Alvin Mayes (acclaimed choreographer and LGCW tenor) presented “Days of Stars, Moon, and Dreams” at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington's Kreeger Auditorium on Saturday, October 20.
The evening of dance and music featured lighting by Paul D. Jackson and performances by LGCW affiliated ensemble Not What You Think, former LGCW alto Janet Chance, LGCW music director C. Paul Heins (on flute), and Mike Smith. Original music by Alvin Mayes and works by local composer Ysaye Maria Barnwell were featured.
The concert celebrated the multigenerational and multicultural community we have become with works set on dancers from the University of Maryland, the Maryland Youth Ballet and Tommy Parlon Dance Projects. Additional dancers were Gretchen Dunn, Anne and Bobby Sidney, Alison Crosby, Ling Tang, Dustin Kimball, Aaron Jackson, and Talia Bar-Cohen.
Welcome Elise Witt! - Oct 9
This fall, the LGCW was honored to host singer-guitarist Elise Witt for a choral workshop during rehearsal on Tues. Oct. 9.
Elise Witt was born in Switzerland, raised in North Carolina, and since 1977 has made her home in Atlanta. She speaks fluent Italian, French, German, Spanish, and English and sings in more than a dozen languages. She has performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, the People's Voice Café, the Bluebird Café, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change; and at festivals that have included Clearwater's Hudson River Revival, Falcon Ridge, Jinotepe Harvest Festival (Nicaragua), and the Popular Music Festival (Siena, Italy). Elise was chosen to represent the state of Georgia for the Kennedy Center's 25th Anniversary and she recently returned from a cultural exchange in South Africa.
In addition to performing and recording, Elise has created a reputation as a masterful singing teacher, both for adults and children, encouraging even the most shy singers to revel in their voices and join with others to create joyful choruses. Elise's Singing For Fun classes in Atlanta have become legendary and her workshops and community residencies around the country and abroad draw and inspire both professional singers and self-professed "non-singers."
Elise has nine recordings on the EMWorld label and her music has been broadcast on radio and television around the world.
Ms. Witt’s workshop with the LGCW was funded in part by a grant from Alternate Roots, through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
LGCW at the Out & Equal Workplace Summit!
The LGCW sang Saturday Sept. 29, at the Out & Equal Workplace Summit's final banquet. The chorus performed “Bonse Aba,” “You are the New Day,” “Everything Possible,” “We Shall Not Give Up the Fight,” and “Freedom is Coming.” We were warmly received, and afterwards, had the opportunity to meet former choristers and colleagues!