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Old
New Borrowed Q: Celebrating 20 Years!
Saturday, June 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 22 at 3:30 p.m.
History Theatre in St. Paul
Saturday June 21 |
Sunday June 22 |
 Dan
Chouinard offers a sneak preview of his concert
narrative and some topical stories of his own. (FULL
SCRIPT HERE)
To open this weekend's concerts:
It's a happy occasion, the celebration of a
milestone in the life of One Voice Mixed Chorus. It’s
their 20th anniversary, and “Old, new, borrowed, Q” is
the title of their concert, just a slightly queer
variation on the old Victorian era bridal fashion
directive. No one bothered to say what the groom was
supposed to wear, but if you’re planning to head for
California to get hitched anytime soon, you might as
well be accessorized for good luck: with something old
to honor history; something new to show faith in the
future; something borrowed to acknowledge the need for
community; and something–well, blue was the color that
symbolized health and happiness to the Victorians. For
this crowd I assume that color would be lavender, but
since that doesn’t rhyme with “new” we’re rounding out
the title with “something Q.” I’ll leave it to you to
figure that one out.
About my first GLBT
community:
I have to admit that I personally have not
spent much of my life singing in choirs. But I’ve been a
piano player all my life, and in that capacity I’ve been
an enabler of different sorts of choral singing, most of
it at noisy parties and at piano bars.
In 1988 when One Voice was
started I was just a couple years out of college, just
moved to the Twin Cities and just getting over my first
breakup. And I was starting to play regularly with Lori
Dokken at the Casablanca Piano Lounge upstairs at the
Gay 90s in Minneapolis. There in the middle of that
cavernous and noisy bar was this little corner of
sociable sanctuary for people who liked hanging out
around a piano. It was the rainbow crowd that
congregated there: gays, lesbians, bisexuals and
transgendered people. Cast members from the Broadway
shows down the street. Even straight folks wandered in,
and we sometimes worried if they’d gotten lost, but no,
they just wanted to be around music and fun queer folk.
Who wouldn’t?
This was my community when I
first came to the Twin Cities, and at the time I don’t
think I really appreciated how special it was, all these
people gathered in one place. It was also the time, the
late ‘80s, when AIDS was still very much a crisis, gay
rights movement still didn’t really have a name, but we
were realizing that whatever we called ourselves, we
were going to have to start pulling together. President
Reagan couldn’t bring himself to say the word “gay,” so
we were gonna have to say it for him. When One Voice
came into being, it was called the “Twin Cities’ Gay and
Lesbian Chorus,” one of the first of its kind in the
whole country.
About my only choral singing
experience:
When I was 9 or 10 sang in the Morris Nilsen
Boys’ Choir in Richfield. I sang first soprano, and
since I was short I stood in the front row, a vulnerable
spot. Our director, Mr. Pfeiffer, was an ex-military
guy, an excellent musician and a believer in bladder
control. We spent long evenings standing and rehearsing
Strauss waltzes, me standing in front with by big
horn-rimmed glasses, swooning to the sound of all the
other boys towering around me, bigger boys with deeper
voices, and Mr. Pfeiffer just inches from me, his arms
flailing and his face all red and sweaty. He’d bark out
orders as we sang, “More MORE,” “Shh SHHH,” “Hold it
HOLDDITT!” One night in the middle of a song he barked,
“Chouinard, you’re FLAT!” It was such a surprise, and so
inconceivable, I’d thought I was a better musician than
everyone else in the room. I started to cry, and as soon
as he noticed it he reached over, still conducting
furiously with his other arm, and he laid his hand on my
head for just a moment, just long enough to say what
needed to be said. How could he know I’d grow up to be
such a sensitive person? How could I know...? He was the
first man ever to make me cry besides my brothers.
Concert
Repertoire
Download
Old New Borrowed Q Repetoire!
WALKER • How Can I Keep from Singing
PALESTRINA • Sicut cervus
WEINBERG • We’re Everywhere
MOODY • One Voice
CARNAHAN • It Is the Song (world premiere)
BERNSTEIN • Selections from “West Side Story”
GILPIN • Why We Sing
HATFIELD • Tjak
LEITE • Três cantos dos Índios Kraó
WOJAHN • Distinctions
BILLING (pseud.) • The Lavender Song
PAULUS • The Road Home
WILLCOCKS • Musical Risotto
DUBINSKY • We Rise Again
One Voice Mixed Chorus, Minnesota’s gay, lesbian,
bisexual, transgender (GLBT) and straight allies choir,
is turning 20! To celebrate, everyone is invited to its
birthday bash—a concert that both honors the past and
looks ahead to another two decades of expert
music-making, community outreach and positive social
change. Dan Chouinard, a musician and storyteller made
famous by his appearances on Minnesota Public Radio,
serves as host for the concerts, using his trademark
humor and trusty accordion to weave stories from the
chorus’ history into the program. Other special guests
include performers from Kairos Dance and One Voice
alumni singers. The concerts, Old New Borrowed Q:
Celebrating 20 years!, take place on Saturday, June
21 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 22 at 3:30 p.m. at the
History Theatre in St. Paul. Ticket prices range from
$10 to $25; they can be ordered online at
TICKETS or by
calling 651-298-1954. The venue is
wheelchair-accessible, and Braille and large print
programs are available upon request. Sunday’s concert is
audio described and features ASL interpreters.
Receptions follow each concert.
Old New Borrowed Q features brand new music and
audience favorites from the past 20 years. One concert
highlight—one that perfectly encapsulates One Voice’s
mission—is a world premier and commission It is the
Song by Minneapolis composer Craig Carnahan. This
stirring piece builds from a whispered opening to a
powerful finale. One Voice will perform this original
composition again later in July with a massed chorus
comprised of 14 mixed choirs at the Gay and Lesbian
Association of Choruses (GALA) conference in Miami. In a
nod to its past, One Voice presents several beloved
works from previous seasons, including the anthem We’re
Everywhere from One Voice’s earliest days, Selections
from “West Side Story” and Distinctions by local
composer and One Voice singer Kevin Wojahn. This last
work, which uses a poetic quatrain by thirteenth–century
poet Shams Tabriz to challenge notions of gender
distinctions, was originally premiered at One Voice’s
2003 Blurring the lines: Music and Gender. Guest
performers from Kairos Dance join One Voice in two
selections: first, to help portray the Brazilian
rainforest in Três cantos nativos dos Índios Kraó,
and again for the audience favorite, We Rise Again
by Leon Dubinsky. In a special treat, alumni singers
take the stage with the main chorus for two songs to
close out the first set: the “West Side Story” medley
and Why We Sing by Greg Gilpin, which exults in
the power of music to bring understanding and universal
harmony.
Pianist, accordionist and storyteller Dan Chouinard is a
Minneapolis native who plays, tours and records
regularly with an ever-expanding roster of local and
national performers. Chouinard frequently creates
special programs for Minnesota Public Radio which blend
storytelling, interview and music. Two recent shows,
“Cafe Europa” (2005) and “Mambo Italiano” (2006) have
been aired on Twin Cities Public Television and
broadcast statewide on MPR. Recent CDs include the
compilation “Duets” from A Prairie Home Companion
with Garrison Keillor (2006), Peter Ostroushko’s
Postcards (2006), and Ann Reed’s Telling Stories
(2006). For more information, visit
www.DanChouinard.com.
Kairos Dance, founded in 1999 by Artistic Director Maria
DuBois Genné, is an intergenerational dance company
committed to sharing the joy of dance and unleashing its
power to nurture and heal. The ensemble joined One Voice
on stage for their 2005 Building Bridges collaboration,
and the chorus and dancers will perform two audience
favorites from that concert this June. Its award-winning
“Dancing Heart” program improves flexibility, energy,
balance, memory and socialization of older, frail adults
through movement, dance and storytelling—transforming
lives through movement and story. For more information,
visit
www.kairosdance.org.
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