By Shelby Thomason, One Voice Mixed Chorus

Last month our two new staff members, Josh Wise, executive director, and Shelby Thomason, operations manager, managed their first season-concert. Eat, Drink & Be Married was as much a performance as it was a celebration to honor individuals and organizations who have worked to secure civil rights for LGBT individuals including marriage equality in Minnesota.

Photo by BD Portraits.

The line-up for the show included lighthearted music about food and drink including John Rutter’s Banquet Fugue, Java Jive and a hilarious Mashed Potato Love Song. We also had more serious pieces like The Turing Test that told the story of Dr. Alan Turing (a brilliant mathematician and cryptanalyst who was prosecuted for being gay in 1952), and Make Them Hear You (Ragtime) which offered a tribute to individuals who have stood for LBGT civil rights. Humor is always an important element of One Voice concerts and this concert included a hilarious barbershop arrangement of Get Me to the Church, and Bittersweet Tango, a tribute to love…and chocolate.

A highlight of the concert was the premiere of a new commission by Minnesota composer Christopher Aspaas. The composition, which is scored for chorus, piano, oboe, cello and tenor solo, featured Michael Gruber as soloist (the name might be familiar if you’ve seen Broadway’s CATS!). The commission was provided by the Kevin Mossier Foundation, which honors the life and work of Kevin Mossier, a gay man who was very active in the Minnesota LBGT community and responsible for the first ever gay cruise and founded RSVP Vacations.

Another great part of the concert were our guest singers. We invited singers from several local faith communities to join us on stage to perform songs in the concert including a rousing arrangement of Moses Hogan’s Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho – the reference to “the walls tumbling down” being an apt metaphor for the dramatic changes for LGBT rights in the past 24 months. Faith communities have played a huge role in mobilizing and creating conversations across the state and we were thrilled to have them represented during the performance.

Photo by BD Portraits.

In order to give the audience a real grasp on the LGBT stories and history we hoped to honor in song we partnered with the Tretter LGBT Archives at the University of Minnesota which houses the largest LGBT archive outside of San Francisco. The Tretter staff have created an 11 panel display showing the movement of LGBT rights over the past 100 years. They were displayed in the lobby throughout the concert weekend.

To conclude the whole shindig we threw a wedding reception after each show, complete with rainbow cake, wedding mints, and a bounty of love from our chorus members.