New York City Gay Men's Chorus

New York City Gay Men's Chorus
New York City Gay Men's Chorus performing in the 2009 New York City Gay Pride Parade.
Background information
Also known as	NYCGMC
Origin	New York City, New York, United States
Genres	Broadway choral classical jazz popular
Years active	1980 (1980)–present
Website	www.nycgmc.org

The New York City Gay Men's Chorus is a choral organization in New York City that has been presenting an annual concert season for more than three decades.

The New York City Gay Men's Chorus (NYCGMC) was founded in August 1980 by Ed Weaver who having moved to NYC had been a member of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Their first season culminated in a sold out concert with the Riverside Symphony at Alice Tully Hall in June 1981 which featured new pieces or newly arranged works by Leonard Bernstein, Jack Gottlieb, Calvin Hampton, John Mueter, Stephen Sondheim, and Glen Vecchione. Music critic Allen Hughes in his review in The New York Times wrote:

"The chorus is less than a year old, having been organized last August, but there was nothing about it that suggested immaturity. Musicianship and diction were exemplary, the dark tuxedos worn by all singers made for neat appearance, and the entrances and exits had been planned to achieve optimum efficiency, dignity and style."

In 1982 the chorus became one of the founding members of the GALA Choruses along with The Stonewall Chorale, the Anna Crusis Women's Choir, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and a handful of other choruses and the following year the chorus was host to the "first national gay choral festival" presented by GALA at Alice Tully Hall. In addition to the NYCGMC, the festival featured performances by gay choruses from Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, Madison, Wis., Anaheim, Calif., and New Orleans. The final performance included performances by New York's Stonewall Chorale and NYCGMC. Included on the NYCGMC performance was a commissioned work by composer John David Earnest, with the world premiere of "Only in the Dream." The festival concluded with the combined choruses and featured two world premieres: Libby Larsen's Everyone Sang and Ned Rorem's Whitman Cantata. In 1984 the chorus performed at the Eastern Division Conference of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). It was the first time that the ACDA had featured a gay chorus at one of its conventions.