GMC is a markedly different choral ensemble now.  We have forged a new sense of community engagement.  We have strengthened our budget and enlarged our audience.  Our singing membership, while not at all where I would wish it in size, is larger than three years ago.  And most importantly, audiences and members alike are noting the great improvement in sound and style, tone and timbre.

During the last three years, we have auditioned for and appeared on the first-cut national round of America’s Got Talent.  We released two new compact disc recordings, one of studio takes of pieces from my first two years, and the other (to be released next month) of live tracks from this season.  We partnered with the Indianapolis choir in home & home concerts last year to perform a wonderful work entitled When we no longer touch.  And we hosted guest artist Christine Brewer in her first appearance with GMC in nine years.

This isn’t a bad track record at all!

Many of the tasks that started on my watch will continue, and perhaps be completed, on someone else’s watch.  The work of building an administrative infrastructure, of raising funds, of attracting new members and retaining current members, will continue.

I’m especially grateful to Chris Maclellan, our board president for the past two years, for his counsel and guidance, and his kind and welcoming ear and shoulder, as we have soldiered together in building a better and stronger and more robust GMC.

I wish this organization, the AD, and those who lead it and sing in it and support all the best as GMC enters its 25th season.

Take a listen!

Most Wednesdays for the last three months have found me with David Montgomery, Kevin Cherry, and Casey Davison, rehearsing for the quartet numbers in our most recent concerts.  Mitch Ohriner stepped in on second tenor for one of those numbers two.

And Christine Brewer joined us last week for a wonderful rehearsal for her pieces.

Bill Wibbing took these shots during rehearsals recently.

Our two newest GMC members are at center.

I have never been prouder of the guys in GMC than I am this morning.

Last evening’s concert (to be repeated tonight) was a triumph in many, many ways.  Three years of work on diction, expression, vowel unity, story-telling, and communication gelled on Friday night.  We added Christine Brewer to the mix; she was in splendid voice and happy spirits.  And we sang songs of hope, with little despair, giving a message that our friend Ken Haller compacted into “Love is hard work, but it’s worth it.”

Whether it’s love for others, of family and friends and pets and country, of one special other – this concert speaks of all of these loves, and speaks of them powerfully.

Me with President Chris before the concert last evening.

One of the great joys of this gig is seeing the guys’ faces as the applause is rolling, when we all know that we’ve scored.  We scored a lot last evening.  And the faces just got happier and happier.

That many of these songs are going to make it onto a new live-concert CD means that we will be able to relive these moments as many times as we wish.

In a concert full of wonderful moments, best moments for me on Friday:

• the build-up, key change, and final moments of Losing my mind
• Happy together
• Doug Bernier in Where the boys are
• that wave of applause that wouldn’t end after Casey’s solo
• the sudden realization half-way through Innegiamo that I was actually, truly conducting Christine Brewer in concert
• Christine’s obvious glee at the end of the Music Man excerpts
• goosebumps during You’ll Never Walk Alone
• I want to fly, hands-down my favorite single piece in three years of leading GMC

Tonight’s repeat performance commences at 8 p.m.  Full details are here.

Serenading with 'Where the boys are' at Sasha's on Shaw after the concert.

Miss Brewer in rehearsal on 6/16/11.

Christine Brewer joined GMC for rehearsal last evening.  If her glorious voice and our pretty darn good rehearsal are any indication, audiences should expect a WOW evening tonight and Saturday.

Tonight’s concert is the culmination of two years of planning as we worked on calendar dates, contracts, literature choices, arrangements and permissions, and so on.  This is Miss Brewer’s third appearance with Gateway Men’s Chorus.

Concerts start at 8 p.m. at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity in University City, at the west end of the Delmar Loop across from UCity City Hall.

Tickets are available at the door.

Don’t miss this concert!

Here’s the full interview!

Here’s a story about Christine that ran last month on Cincinnati.com.

Christine is a lovely person.  She’s humble and funny and a bit sassy in a good way.  She has no diva at all about her.

And she’s in great voice.  She’ll sing a few pieces with us that are not part of her regular rep, including a bit of Lloyd Webber, and a Barbra Streisand number.

Tickets are available at www.gatewaymenschorus.org.

A personal sidebar: I never in my dreams thought that I would one day work with one of the world’s great sopranos in my own home at my own piano.  This is heady stuff for the kid from Lee’s Summit.