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Last updated 3:08AM ET
May 26, 2012
KPLU Local News
KPLU Local News
Artscape: A Chorus With a Cause
Florangela Davila (2010-06-20)
The Seattle Men's Chorus attracts an estimated audience of 30,000 people each year. Photo by John Pai
SEATTLE, WA (KPLU) -
With more than 300 members, The Seattle Men's Chorus (SMC) bills itself as the biggest community choir in the country. It's also one of the biggest gay men's choruses in the world.

And even though the concerts are staged and showy, the musical group does more than just entertain.

Although the entertainment value is high at an SMC concert, explains artistic director Dennis Coleman.

"Most people think of choral music as being a church choir. And that translates in their minds to a bunch of people standing on risers in funny robes and holding black folders in front of their face and singing. And we don't do any of that," he says.



First, there's the choice in choral music. Often contemporary. Think show tunes! Think "Glee!"

No choir robes because the singers wear tuxedos, Hawaiian shirts, even blond wigs, like they were for an ABBA number in 2002.

Seattle Men's Chorus concerts are theatrical, with lighting and props. And sure, the routines can be campy, even "wink wink, nudge nudge."

For a holiday number, five men hauled a huge ribboned box on stage. They wore black shoes and socks and teeny satiny shorts and sang "What a package. Oh, what a package!" as part of the "Santa Baby" routine. Then the box was opened and out popped Arnaldo! Drag chanteuse!

But with the humor and the feel-good also comes moments when the singers connect with the audience in a very personal way. After every concert, it's routine for the singers to mingle with the audience in the lobby. And that's when they hear about the impact they've made.

Chorus member David Bayless: "We performed in Bozeman in a relatively small venue. I went to the front of the house, held open a door and said 'Thank you for coming.' And as this gentleman walked by, probably in his 60s, he shook my hand. And he didn't let go of my hand. And he kept shaking it. And he looked me directly in my eyes and he said, 'No, thank you for coming.' And then he started to tear up and cry. I got the sense he had never seen 80-plus men, proud of who they were, as gay men saying, 'Here is who we are.' And singing."

And that's exactly the mission of the Seattle Men's Chorus - give gay men the spotlight. To sing. To inspire. And to perhaps change hearts and minds along the way.

Dennis Coleman, artistic director
"And as they say music speaks louder than words. And often can help people get past prejudices and preconceptions," Coleman points out.

Coleman is all about making a statement, ever since being kicked out of a local Baptist church for being gay. He lost his job as the church's music director. The year was 1981 so he answered an ad: New Gay Choral Group Needs A Conductor. He got the position. But the chorus gave him something more.

"Also as a newly out gay man I knew nothing about the gay community. I had no gay friends to speak of. It immediately gave me a family as it were to become a part of and to support me during that traumatic period."

The chorus has always been a social organization, one of the first gay gathering places that wasn't a bar.
It grew out of the Gay Liberation Movement in the Seventies. Some men from Seattle went to California and saw a performance by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and said, Hey, we should start a group here! But there was one major difference.

"When the chorus began it even decided not to put the name "gay" in their title."

The 62-year-old Coleman sits on his couch at home in Seattle and remembers the early days."And it was our decision not to put a word in the title that would cause the very people that we wanted to reach with our message to never step through the door."

Another thing to break down barriers with a mainstream audience is to have the singers memorize all the music. No folders means eye contact with those in the seats.

Coleman also started building concerts that mixed the light-hearted with the serious and which gave the gay community both an artistic and political voice.

The Men's Chorus commissioned and performed work addressing the AIDS crisis in the Eighties.

"Now we're dealing with issues like gay marriage. Gays in the military. Gay adoption. Gay families," Coleman says.

On a recent night, in a downtown Seattle church, Coleman leads his singers in rehearsal for a show saluting musical icons Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein.

The Seattle Men's Chorus celebrates its 30 year milestone in a concert with its sister organization, the Seattle Women's Chorus, this weekend (June 25 and 26). The name of the concert? "Glitter and Be Gay."

Florangela Davila, KPLU News.

The Seattle Men's Chorus joins the Seattle Women's Chorus for "Glitter and Be Gay" on Friday and Saturday at McCaw Hall. For ticket information go here.

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