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Old
New Borrowed Q: Celebrating 20 Years!
Dan Choinard's Script
SET ONE
How Can I Keep from Singing
I’m Dan Chouinard, and I’m glad to welcome you to this
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
this concert, just a slightly queer variation on the old
Victorian era wedding fashion directive. For the bride,
of course; 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, regardless of which
side of the aisle your people are sitting in: 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 gathered here tonight, 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. We’ll give
the answer later in the show.
The growth of One Voice over these twenty years has been
like the growth of a good marriage. Thay’ve grown to
know one other, they’ve built a happy home, they’ve
learned toilet seat protocol... And now, twenty years
on, they don’t exactly resemble one another yet, but
they still make beautiful music together, and they know
there’s still so much work they can do together out in
the world.
Twenty years ago when this all started, the various
factions of the queer community didn’t really spend much
time together at all, and Paul Petrella along with a
handful of music-loving friends took note of this, and
they figured that if we were going to be effective in
the struggle for human rights, we were going to have to
learn how to be together and work together. So One Voice
was born in 1988, not only out of a desire to make
music, but out of a deep and compelling desire to create
true GLBT community. An old desire, for harmony, for
reunion. Sicut Cervus
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 had just moved back
to the Twin Cities after college. And I was just
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: Gs, Ls, Bs,
Ts. 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. And
who could blame them?
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, and 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.
In those early days, One Voice was known as the good
times Chorus. “Out to Entertain You” was their motto.
The membership was mostly young and kinda frisky too,
with a lot of dating and pairing off within the Chorus.
The songlist tended toward the peppy and the poppy,
accessorized with lots of props and costumes and
choralography and dancing. (music starts) Like this tune
here, that’s been in the One Voice library a long time.
It sounds a lot like something very familiar to me from
my childhood: the “Sesame Street” theme. I think I was
speculating about Ernie and Bert before I thought about
myself. TO ACC
We’re Everywhere G (“Oh Canada” insert) Oh
Canada, it’s you we’re thinking aboot / We could all get
married there withoot a doot
OVation: One Voice
The sound of One Voice was heard for the first time on
Saturday night March 4 1989 at the Janet Wallace
Auditorium at Macalester College in St Paul. By all
accounts everything went great that night. Good crowd.
Every one of the 38 singers looked dashing in their
huckleberry bow ties and white shirts. There was a
glamour committee which oversaw all this, including the
stage makeup which was required, and which horrified the
women and thrilled the men, apparently. There was high
excitement that night and more than a little
nervousness, not only about the music, but about doing
something so new, and for some, about doing something so
out and so public. Mary Tinucci asked that her name not
be printed in the program that night out of concern for
what might happen if her family found out about her
before she had a chance to tell them herself. But her
big feather boa solo on “Cabaret” was a smash success,
and in general there was a sense of freedom and of
safety in the company of all these talented and painted
people. The all had a celebratory potluck the next day.
And just like that, One Voice was off and running. Cindy
Brickson was hired as the first director. There was a
board, there were bylaws. They did a summer concert that
same year, they sang at Pride, they started planning the
next year’s concert season, and the next and the next.
One Voice grew quickly in those first few years, and of
course with the growth there were growing pains. The
wizened alumni of those first few years talk about a
sort of near-death for the Chorus in year four or five.
Directors had come and gone, board members had come and
gone. Money was tight and there was a lot of highly
creative fundraising: bake sales and garage sales and
dance-a-thons and bowl-a-thons and phone-a-thons and
selling recycled hot dogs at Target Center.
And then, on top of these organizational and fiscal
problems, there were the interpersonal and cultural
challenges too. Just as Reagan couldn’t say the word
“gay,” gs at the time couldn’t say the words, “I’m sorry
for being so catty,” and ls maybe had trouble saying,
“I’m sorry for being so sensitive.” And nobody was
saying the words “bisexual” or “transgender.” This is
maybe a bit of a caricature, but at the time the members
of One Voice were climbing the steep part of the
learning curve about effective communication and mutual
respect. They were coming of age along with the rest of
the GLBT community.
So they talked and listened and fundraised. And the
Chorus stuck together through hard work and by the
strength of their desire to create harmony and community
and to sing songs that spoke to the GLBT experience.
Often those songs were new songs commissioned by One
Voice, something the Chorus has continued to do
throughout its history, 20 commissions in 20 years. So
here’s the something “New” of our concert tonight, a
piece commissioned just this year by One Voice and 12
other mixed GLBT Choruses, written by a longtime friend
and fan of the Chorus and the former director of the
TCGMC, Craig Carnahan. It is the Song
Jane Ramseyer Miller came on board as artistic director
in 1996. She’s brought great artistic integrity to the
choir and a period of tremendous growth as well: more
singers; more non-singing members in the 5th Section;
more participation in committees and on the song board,
more financial and organizational stability; more paid
staff in the office... Yes, there’s even an office now,
here in St Paul. And best of all, everyone agrees
there’s been enormous growth in the musical quality of
the group. Many hands have helped usher all this into
being, but Jane has been an inspiration and catalyst
through it all.
With Jane now on the director’s podium there was a
noticeable shift over the years toward challenging music
and serious thematic programming, and this led to some
worrying in the Chorus about whether or not there’d
still be room in her administration for the lite, frisky
stuff people loved since the first days of the Chorus:
the twisted versions of Broadway musicals, the
choralography, the styrofoam lobster heads and fish on
sticks and guys in harnesses and dancers all tripping
and falling together like dominoes just as if they’d
planned it that way all along... But those worries have
proved to be unfounded. Jane is a wise director, and a
big fan of cohabitation, as it turns out. Choralography
and showtunes and props still get their props on a One
Voice program. West Side Story (to ACC)
(music under) We’d like to invite all the alumni of One
Voice to come up now and join us for the last song of
this medley, “Somewhere.” This song was sung at the very
first One Voice concert and many other times. It’s a
sort of anthem for One Voice, and for lots of queer
folks. A song written by two gay guys, Leonard Bernstein
and Stephen Sondheim, written for the two lovers in West
Side Story who long for a home, a place where things can
be different, a place of renewal and of forgiveness.
Somewhere
Before we close this set we want to acknowledge some of
the people who have been integral to One Voice over the
past 20 years. If you have served as a board member or
staff for One Voice please stand.
Jane: We have an incredible 5th Section. I have
connected with dozens and dozens of choirs in my career
and NONE of them have a group of volunteers like we
have. In addition to the usual volunteer work of a
non-profit, these folks live and breathe these concerts
and tours with us. 5th Section members come on all our
outreach tours. At each venue they negotiate performance
details with our hosts, schlep the risers in and out of
buildings, they run sound & lights, provide childcare...
We have two design volunteers who do ALL our print
design for free. Our webmaster & bookkeeper - volunteer.
Elaine has managed our Silent Auction and ad sales for
nearly a decade. Brad Hanson does all our ticket
management and fulfillment. Paul Pederson has produced
rehearsal CDs for every voice part, every season for
nearly 10 years. Each week a handful of volunteers come
into the office and help with data entry, phone calls
and any other task we throw their way. I am stunned and
humbled by the commitment of these 5th Section folks.
They believe in our mission and are as much an integral
part of this chorus as each singer. If you have been or
are a member of the 5th Section please stand.
And we especially want to honor Paul Petrella who came
up with this whole crazy idea in the first place.
We’re going to close this half by featuring all those
who sang in the first couple years of One Voice. We
should warn you: there are reports that some of these
singers never had to audition. But these are also people
of courage, who took a chance on this new organization,
who came to sing regardless of how out or not out they
were, people who trusted in the power of music and the
power of community to change the world for the better.
TO ACC Why We Sing (ACC in VS 2)
SET TWO
In this second half we’re going to talk a little bit
more about the second decade of One Voice’s history. For
example, after ten years it was decided that lyrics were
problematic, and that nonsense syllables were the safest
way to build community and create social change.
1998 is the halfway point of the twenty-year history of
One Voice. It was the year Will and Grace made their
debut on network TV, it was the year the musical Rent
started touring around the country. By 1998 some
promising new drugs were giving people with HIV new
reasons for hope. 1998 was also the year Matthew Shepard
was beaten for being gay and left to die on a fencepost
outside of Laramie, WY.
Out into this world where so much work remains to be
done, outward is where One voice has turned its
attention in this second half of its history. If the
first half was largely about creating family and home
and sanctuary, the second half has been about outreach,
about paying back–or paying forward– out in the world
the gifts that helped make it strong in the first place,
gifts that had been borrowed, if you will, and put to
good use and now were needed elsewhere.
Global music is also a central part of One Voice’s
mission now, and a sort of outreach too. They’ve moved
beyond their comfort zone in terms of audience, and
they’ve done the same with their repertoire by reaching
out into the world and embracing the rich music of the
global community. The melodies of the next set of songs
come to us from the Krao tribe of the Brazilian
rainforest. It’s also an example of the many
collaborations One Voice has done over the years with
other artists, this time with members of Kairos Dance.
Tres Cantos Nativos
(to ACC) Kairos Dance. One Voice worked with Kairos
Dance on their “Building Bridges” concert in 2005.
They’ve worked with an amazing array of artists: St Paul
Central HS Choir, In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and
Mask Theater, Mu Daiko Taiko Drum ensemble, the
Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra, Teens Rock the Mic,
Kate Clinton, Ann Reed, Ruth MacKenzie, and on and on.
It’s an impressive and long list, as is the list of
world languages they’ve tackled and memorized in their
globetrotting quest for cultural diversity: Mongolian.
German, Hebrew, Finnish, French, Spanish, Italian,
Australian Aboriginal, Balinese, Javanese, Monkey
dialect.
All this global music and all these collaborations have
been a great way for the Chorus to diversify its
repertoire and to enrich its life out in the community.
Of course they’re also a great way to reel in some nice
grant money. But they’ve been so much more than that:
they’ve given One Voice a chance to get to know all
these artists and to work face to face with native
members of all these cultures and to be transformed by
all of it. I’m impressed by how One Voice insists on
squeezing every last drop of personal and organizational
growth out of all these experiences.
I’m also impressed that throughout its history OV has
taken the time for some real soul-searching. If you’re
going to go out into the world preaching radical
equality, as we all should, then you want to make sure
you’re keeping your own household in order. So OV has
taken time for introspection: about their mission, about
outreach, about concerts, about how members are treated–
and they’ve always come out stronger as a result, and
with an ever more inclusive embrace of singers and
supporters. What was originally the Twin Cities’ Gay and
Lesbian Chorus, became in 1993 the Twin Cities’ Gay,
Lesbian and Bisexual Chorus. Three years later:
Transgender was added to that. But that still fell short
of of their ideal of inclusively. What about all the
others? The marginalized non-GLBT folks who couldn’t
help it they were born that way? The PFLAG grandparents?
The kids of gay parents? The spouse of a trans-gendered
person? All the people who knew that One Voice was a
great chorus and that queer folk were just more fun to
be around? So the term “Allies” is now part of the
Chorus’ title, and the term “culturally queer” is now a
part of my vocabulary.
When I think of the amazing ground this group has
covered over twenty years in the pursuit of inclusivity
and respect and trust, I can’t help thinking of Golde
and Tevye there in bed, singing to each other in act two
of “Fiddler on the Roof:” (in F)
Do you love me? OV: Do I WHAT?
Do you love me? OV:Do we love you?
The first time I met you was on audition day
Was I nervous? I should say! Could you tell I wasn’t
gay?
But the pianist and conductor said we’d learn to love
each other
And now I’m asking, hey:
Do you love me? I don’t mean to sound needy, but
Do you love me? OV: Do we love you?
For 20 long years we’ve sung together, danced together,
hung out together
Twenty long years of choral showbiz, if that’s not love,
what is?
T&B: Then you love me?
S&A: I suppose I do
T&B: Then I suppose I love you too.
ALL: It doesn’t change a thing, but even so
After twenty long years, it’s nice to know
In one of our story-gathering sessions, Liz told about
how she stood up at one rehearsal and announced that
she’d gotten engaged. Everyone cheered, “Yay!” Then she
added, “To a man.” And after just a moment to process,
everyone cheered again, “Yay!” with the same enthusiasm
and joy as before. Distinctions just don’t matter here.
We’re all queer in our own ways. Maybe it’s better if we
just call ourselves Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass.
Here’s a song on that very subject, written by a member
of One Voice, Kevin Wojahn. Distinctions
Let me talk for just a moment about OVation before they
do another song here. OVation is the 8-voice ensemble
that’s drawn from the larger Chorus through a process of
yearly auditions. There used to be lots of small
ensembles within the Chorus, and things were devolving
into a sort of heartwarming anarchy when it was decided
that maybe it would help bring some order – not too
much! – if there were one official, ongoing ensemble.
That ensemble became OVation. They’re also the traveling
ensemble for the Chorus: they handle a lot of the
performance requests that the Chorus can’t do as a
whole. The members of OVation keep their own schedule of
rehearsals and performances and still remain full-time
participants in the full Chorus, so they’re an
especially dedicated bunch. They’re classy
representatives of the Chorus and a featured part of
every One Voice concert. (Sunday: Randi Grundahl
Rexroth) Das Lila Lied The Road Home
One Voice has developed a bit of a travel habit lately.
They’ve always gone to the big GALA choral conventions
every four years, this year it’s in Miami in July (bring
a sweater, the AC’ll be working overtime) But what I’m
really talking about is their commitment to doing
outreach concerts and workshops. They’ve been all over
Minnesota in the past few years as well as Iowa and
South Dakota and Winnipeg, Canada.
I suppose there’s a chance that One Voice members get a
little tired of hearing how the Chorus has touched
people’s lives. But it’s hard to imagine a more
affirming batch of stories than the ones from the road.
Like the Canadian border patrol who insisted she board
the bus, not so much to check paperwork as hear
everybody sing, and then showed up at the concert that
night in Winnipeg, 100 miles from the border. Or the
group of Russian doctors who dropped in on the concert
in Grand Rapids and were stunned to hear the Chorus sing
a Russian folk song, in Russian. From memory. Or the
9-year-old in Bemidji who asked, “Are you a boy or a
girl?” And AP, the assistant conductor, answered, “Well,
I’m a girl, but I’m part boy.” Which provoked a girl a
few rows back to blurt out, “I’m a boy.” Like we need to
recruit...
Sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s traveled the farthest:
the singers who just pulled up in the bus, or the folks
tearing up out in the audience. Travel is a great way to
shake up your preconceptions, and if audiences learned a
thing or two by coming to a One Voice concert, I think
the members of One Voice learned just as much: about the
resilience of GLBT folks in small towns, the
open-hearted curiosity of school kids (if not their
parents), the need we all have, all of us everywhere,
for the healing embrace of music and a message of
dignity and courage and joy. Even if that message is in
Mandarin Chinese, like this next song. Much easier to do
it in Italian: “Volare.” In Mandarin it’s “Fe.” Nothing
to do with “fey.” Listen for it. I am Flying
Lest we think everything got really serious these last
few years, something from 2005 concert with Kate Clinton
Musical Risotto
(to ACC) One Voice performed 28 concerts last year, and
they’re in greater demand with each passing year. It’s a
truly mixed choir. There’s daycare at rehearsals. There
are grown kids who’ve spent their entire lives as One
Voice children. The 5th Section of supporters and
volunteers is as strong and as indispensable as ever.
One Voice is both a place of sanctuary and a base for
outreach. Chorus members say their favorite outreach
work is in the schools, and they’d like to do even more
of it. Their last concert featured a lot of Brahms in
collaboration with the St Paul Central HS choir.
Students afterwards wrote about how totally cool the
whole thing was. One student found Jane afterwards and
said she hadn’t told anyone yet but her father had come
out as transgender during the months of rehearsals
together. Her whole family ended up coming to the
concert, and it was a powerful thing for them to
experience this community where transgender individuals
were so integral and welcome. To an outside observer
this collaboration maybe looked like just a few hours of
snacks and singing together, but it was also time spent
in relationship, in doing useful work together with
people who really aren’t so different after all.
Mary Tinucci works for the St Paul schools. She’s the
one who sang in that very first One Voice concert and
didn’t want her name in the program. Two big things
happened to Mary shortly after that concert. She started
working for the St Paul Schools and eventually started
up the Out For Equity program on behalf of GLBT youth.
And she came out to her family. That didn't go so well:
They all turned their back on her, and for all the old
reasons we know only too well they’ve remained silent
and out of contact to this day, nearly 20 years later.
It’s been an immense loss all around: nieces, nephews,
friends, church, music. Too many of us still suffer this
same sort of loss, despite how far we’ve come in 20
years. Gay kids get kicked out of their homes and get
threatened at school. Church musicians get asked to
leave. We lose our families, we lose our music, we lose
those places we thought we’d always be able to call
“home.”
We can be grateful and proud that One Voice is home, and
is family to so many. They’re that rare community of
unconditional acceptance whose embrace extends beyond
the Chorus members themselves and out into the world
where there’s such a need for healing and for harmony.
I’m grateful to have spent these past few weeks with OV.
I sometimes feel I'm the presider at the big happy
wedding of people I’m just getting to know. There they
stand before us, dressed in something old, new,
borrowed, Q... They seem to love being together. They’ve
agreed to stick together through good times and bad.
They’ve vowed to create community and social change by
raising their voices in song. They’ve vowed to honor and
respect one another. And do we, as their family and
friends, promise to support them in their work together?
If so, please respond, “We do.” By the power vested in
me, which is negligible, I proclaim this concert nearly
over, and I invite you all to stay for wedding cake and
ice cream out in the lobby when we’re done here.
I salute you and thank you for the work you do and will
keep on doing. And thanks to all of you for your love
and support of them and what they do.
We Rise Again
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