The first public screening of 'The Normal Heart'

Last night, HBO screened Ryan Murphy's passionate and at times gut-wrenching movie version of 'The Normal Heart' by Larry Kramer, which includes a scene featuring the New York City Gay Men's Chorus. This is my arrangement.

The scene is a reconstruction of the first ever fundraiser for GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis)  at the Paradise Garage in April 1982. New York City Gay Men's Chorus sang at this early fund-raiser, and we were honored to be asked to participate in the movie alongside Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts and Jim Parsons, essentially playing ourselves. Glee-style, the chorus sings the whole of Gershwin's 'The Man I Love'. Below is a picture of Peter Criswell, our Executive Director, and I representing NYCGMC at HBO, for the cast and crew screening.

It was of course weird to see ourselves on screen, but the chorus looked amazing! It was also my first movie credit as an arranger. The movie is a very truthful, compelling and at times harrowing account of the early days of HIV/AIDS in New York, and left the audience with one of those deep silences after which you can't speak for a few minutes.

I'm so grateful to all the NYCGMC members for their faith in me, and for giving up their time to take part. We rock! Also to Scott Ferguson, who saw the potential in us. And of course to Peter Criswell, who made it happen, and could not be a more supportive colleague. We are a chorus founded to change the world through educating people about the lives and challenges gay men face through song. It could not be more apt that we were able to be a part of this important project.  I am very proud.

 I really loved the part in Mark Ruffalo's interview where he says his character Ned Weekes (representing Larry Kramer), though angry and confrontational, was in the end inspired by great love for his fellow man and in the end for America. Ruffalo certainly plays him that way, and that gives the whole movie an amazing humanity.

The film is a timely reminder of the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when prejudice, ignorance and the stigma of being gay led to thousands of unnecessary deaths.  It also shows us how much has changed, historicizes that time (yes, 30 years ago), and highlights the fundamental changes in attitude which have taken place since then, both around the LGBTQ community and HIV/AIDS itself. As such its message in many ways a positive one - those times are past.

See it if you get the chance!

Check out reviews of the movie from the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, NPR and Entertainment Weekly.

— with Peter Criswell.

Pink Dot 2014 - ahead of its time

Singapore's Pink Dot campaign is so impressive. The emphasis on diversity of age and ethnicity, inter-generationality, inclusion of family, and simplicity are all so powerful and contemporary. There is no gay ghetto here, and Singapore is only at the very beginning of its journey.

A cappella with hipster beards

I recently adjudicated my first A Cappella Festival in New York, and have been a fan since school days, from the early ' 70s Kings Singers, Les Double Six and Take Six on down. Call me jaded, but I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that whole evenings of bouncy, 'Pitch Perfect'-style a cappella with the obligatory beatboxer can become tired quite quickly. I love the post-Glee enthusiasm and often the technical expertise, but the emotional range and expressive potential in the songs chosen often seems limited, and of its late '00s time. The Swingles also have 50 years of history to contend with. They were there at the very start.

So the video below is a very refreshing change - a totally different vision, yet just enough the same. Not a trace of Bach 'dah-vuh-dah-vuh' in sight, and the sound feels contemporary but still keeps the vocal refinement and technical perfection of earlier generations.

A cappella thoughts ...

A couple of weeks back, I had a great evening adjudicating at the New York Regional heat of the Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival. The panel were, from left to right: Debbi Burdett, Jimmy Hayes (one of the original 'Persuasions), Dave Revels (of the 'Drifters'), singer/actor Emily Borromeo, me, screenwriter Gerard Brown III and Garth Kravits, of San Francisco's 'The House Jacks':

The style and age of singer was very mixed, and included teenagers right through to school teachers. The level was generally incredibly high, and the winners were especially inspiring, a teen group called 'Quintessential Five', who did an especially original set which combined classical music , jazz and music from the Republic of Georgia. Here they are in Leipzig last year:

Good luck to them!

And speaking of talent, I just discovered the UK's Jacob Collier, who manages to be the ultimate triple threat as a pro-level singer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist at age 19. I found this Youtube video on Facebook, and, aside from being awestruck by the skills on show, am now convinced that the future of music and indeed a cappella singing is in safe hands. Enjoy!

A true pro ...

Two days ago we finished our most successful New York City Big Gay Sing ever, selling out two night earlier than ever and, by all accounts, raising the roof with the chorus's sound and energy. It was one of my most satisfying artistic experiences with NYCGMC to date, in that it combined solid commercial success with technically excellent singing, the best dance we have done in ages, an innovative approach to the band involving backing tracks alongside live playing, and above all the most extraordinary passion and energy from our singers, well beyond previous years.

The show featured club music from the 1970s to the present day, focusing on the most popular and well-known items that everyone could sing along to. Guest star Martha Wash was my first choice, because she symbolizes club music in so many ways, from 'It's Raining Men' and Sylvester's 'Mighty Real' (as Two Tons of Fun) in the 1970s, through Black Box's 'Everybody Everybody' and CandC Music Factory's 'Everybody Dance now', both late '80s, to the present day. In the second half she sang us her very latest unreleased Tony Moran remix of 'I'm not coming down'.

At one point in the show, in this picture, we had a little chat about what it was like working in NYC clubs in the 1970s and 80s, and how things had changed.

She was absolutely fascinating, gracious, flexible, easy to work with and sang with huge authority and charisma. A true pro!

... Tons of experience and preparation, all in the service of making something new, in the moment, every time.

I am putting a lot of thought at the moment into my relationship with jazz. I've done next to no playing in the last 5 years, as my creative spirit and my current role as a very full time choral director) has taken me elsewhere. But i still feel like a jazz musician in my core. So, I ask myself, in what sense do I use a jazz approach in the music I currently make?

Today, i was reading the front page of Mike Walker's website, which I incidentally think is really amazing and useful. I wish stuff like this had been around when I was teaching jazz full time. The comment about Mike, without doubt one of the UK's top jazz educators and musicians, put into words something I learnt playing jazz that I believe very passionately about all music and indeed life. Steve Rodby says of Mike:

"… his teaching is just like his playing: tons of experience and preparation, all in the service of making something new, in the moment, every time."

Then it clicked. For me, all the preparation in the world is no use at all if the performance is not 'new, in the moment, every time.' Music, improvised or not, is an 'in the moment' medium. Even classical or pop musicians, who do not see themselves as improvising, are taking thousands of interactive decisions in the moment during their performances: about tempo, tone, balance, sound, feel, emotion, and so on. Every live performance is necessarily different in that sense, and an ensemble in any style needs to be flexible enough to take new decisions in the moment - to adapt to a new acoustic, a new audience, and new vibe, if a performance is to work. Flexibility, risk-taking and passion are what make a performance work for me.

On the flip side, all of that flexibility comes from incredibly careful preparation. If we see all musical performance as containing 'something fixed and something free', then an unprepared musician, who is not utterly comfortable with the fixed, is much less likely to be able to deal with the free.

I know I drive people crazy at times, by setting up moments of freedom in shows, where something may happen, but I am not going to prescribe what it is before we get there. In those moments, we should, however, be especially well prepared, so that when a musical decision that fits the moment comes upon us, we can seize it whole-heartedly, and take it where the spirit moves us. Only then will we really connect with an audience.

Sydney Opera House 2002

You never know when an experience may turn out to be life-changing.

Recently posted to Facebook, this is a picture of my first gig with the London Gay Men's Chorus at the Sydney Opera House in 2002 (give or take the John Dankworth big band gig at the Albert Hall a few days before). That trip to Australia was the very start of my journey with LGBTQ choruses. I remember how daunted I felt, my biggest conducting gig to date.

What I was doing for the first time in that photo has since taken over my life completely!  I am now in New York conducting New York City Gay Men's Chorus full time.

And here's something else. The group sitting behind us in that picture includes the Sydney Lesbian and Gay Choir, who sang with us there, and also at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Gay Games in 2002. I was recently invited for a return visit to Australia as guest conductor of an all-Australia LGBQ chorus in August 2013. Many of whose singers were in today's Sydney group, and a number were in this photo!

Strange how things come full circle.

Moving people ...

This Guardian article about Pete Seeger struck a chord with me last week. Here is an extract:

Why did Pete Seeger, who has died aged 94, matter? Because for over 75 years he stood true to his original vision, he never wavered. Even when his beliefs had a huge impact on his life and career: he never sold out. He wasn't just a folk singer, or an activist: he was both.

Pete believed that music could make a difference. Not change the world, he never claimed that – he once said that if music could change the world he'd only be making music – but he believed that while music didn't have agency, it did have the power to make a difference.

I spend a lot of my time arguing to singers, to audiences and to donors that singing makes a difference.  It's my job, but it's also what I believe.

Most recently, for example, NYCGMC has offered to do a Big Gay Sing in Dublin this June as a fundraiser for 'Marriage  Equality', an organization that campaigns in Ireland for the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. We will help raise thousands of Euro to help fund a political campaign.  Likewise, last May, we sang a song called 'Home' at the annual 'AIDS WALK' in Central Park front of 10,000 people, two days after the brutal and highly intentional murder of Mark Carson, a gay man out for a drink in the Village on a Friday night. I found myself making a speech about how NYC was our home too. When we sang the song, you could feel the resonance, as we sang what the community was feeling, expressed their fears, allowed their grief and left them with hope.

In fact every time we sing, on the streets, in big concert halls, at gay weddings and fundraisers, our singing breaks down barriers, entertains people, draws them in, makes them think and crucially makes them feel. It happens person by person, as individuals start to tap their feet, sing along with us, or a solitary tear trickles down a cheek. They are moved: physically; psychologically; and ideologically.

Because music is non-verbal, it has that special power. It can transform three dry bullet points about how African American straight women in New York City are the most at risk of new HIV infection into art, into something moving hat hits you at a visceral level and makes you cry before it makes you count. We never know who we affect. The parent who is challenged by having a gay teen might perhaps see our shows and feel only 5% more tolerant than before. But we know from the many stories and emails that it happens.

The language we use is important. For me, many artists and organizations overstate their case. The majority of people come and see a show, enjoy a story, cry, laugh and go home, but their lives are exactly the same as they were before. So to say that we 'change lives through song' is at best hyperbole, and at worst a lie.

But Pete Seeger was right,  I know we make a difference. Even better, we move people.

Quiet radicalism ...

Quiet radicalism again from the Obama administration on same-sex marriage. This simple move will affect hundreds of thousands across the US.

Harmony 2014

Here I am with my colleague and good friend Peter Criswell, our Executive Director, at 'Harmony', our prestigious annual fundraiser, which took place at 'Arts Affirmation' in New York City last week. We sang Pink's 'Raise your Glass' to toast NYCGMC's continued financial and artistic success and, because the theme was 'Black and Diamonds', we also sang 'Diamonds are Forever' with the warm and genuine Broadway powerhouse Carolee Carmello.

We currently raise around $50,000 annually for the organization at this one event, and all our top donors and wealthier members attend. As a Brit, I initially found the business (and it is a business) of 'making asks' very uncomfortable - necessary but in some ways the artistic equivalent of prostitution. But these days, I see donor cultivation as just a key part of the job. Without our 'friends', and they actually are genuinely friends in most cases, we can't keep our doors open. And it is good in a way that we have to argue our case as a non-profit, and justify the existence of our mission and our art to those who help us create it by funding it. If we lose relevance or the standard of our singing drops, the first way we will discover this is in our donations.

As we look to the future, and to the expansion of budgets to enable more and a wider range of activity to occur, our donors could not be more crucial. So heartfelt thanks to all our friends, for your continued support and encouragement in so many forms. Here's to an expanded and even more passionate and ambitious NYCGMC in years to come!

Harry Connick Jr. turns the beat around

I spent ten years of my life touring the UK and later the Far East, Australasia, the US and Canada giving ABRSM jazz workshops for teachers, kids and adults. In the process, I spent a lot of time thinking about swing, how to teach and assess it and why clapping on 2 and 4 seems to come so much more naturally to some than others.

It doesn't matter if you are young or old, gay or straight, black or white. Some people have the musical experience to clap instinctively on 2 and 4, and some don't. There was one memorable workshop in the UK village of Wootton Bassett in the mid-'90s, to a group of almost all white 40-75 year old West Country middle class people. All could clap on 2 and 4, fast and slow, swing and straight 8s, stamp (stomp, am I speaking to Americans or Brits?!) on 1 and 3 as well, and subdivide in 16ths in small groups too.  Conversely, I remember gospel choirs, and workshops in South London high schools with black south London teens who listened to RnB and hip-hop all day, where everyone still clapped on 1 and 3, with that leaden quality.  My conclusion is that musical skills do not related to ethnicity. The '2 and 4' thing can be learnt and once people get it, their musical experience becomes so much more satisfying that they never go back.

Harry Connick Jr's musicianly contributions to this year's American idol are so refreshing and honest that last week I was inspired to listen to a couple of his Youtube clips. This is fantastic playing and singing, which got me up in the morning a few days ago with a definite spring in my step.

But then, I was completely delighted by the ingenious way he adds an extra beat at the start of his solo here (around 40 seconds in).

The audience enjoys the groove, but claps (with enthusiasm, be it said!) on 1 and 3. Once their pulse is settled, he finds a practical solution, spontaneously adds a beat, and moves the '1' so they are on 2 and 4, so he can play his solo comfortably.

My respect for him as a musician, problem solver and non-lip-synching Idol judge just went up several notches. He is the real deal!

A cold shower ...

Yay! This is like a really refreshing cold shower. Absolutely no tears or sentiment. AnarchAY in the American dream! I think NYCGMC should warm up like this every week ...

Staying fresh ...

I remember going to a conference session a couple of years back where the speaker, possibly choral conducting guru James Jordan, said that in order for artists to stay fresh so they don't burn out, they should see a piece of world class art, something they really love, at least once week. It reminds me what quality musicianship really is, and also helps me feel connected to the scene.

This really connected and musical reading of the Brahms Double Concerto arrived in my inbox yesterday.  I am a huge fun of Rattle anyhow, and subscribe to these free snippets from the amazing Berlin Philarmonic website, so I get a free burst of world class classical music via Youtube every week.  Unbelievable ensemble and they all seem to be really enjoying themselves too in a very unprofessional way!

Incidentally, also check out their digital concert hall for the way of the future - essentially you can see every concert they give live, because every concert is also a digital recording and a DVD, broadcast live through their website and then as a recording and video afterwards.

Gowanus gig with Dar Williams

What a great night last night, singing Judy Collins' 'Open the Door' and 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' (with the Pete Seeger ending!) at Dar Williams' New York gig, part of her US tour. The Bell House is one of a number of interesting new venues popping up in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn, previously industrial and dominated by old warehouses but increasingly bohemian, chic and full of interesting restaurants, clubs and venues. Also right by my apartment!

Dar was incredibly gracious, offered the boys dinner and rehearsed with us for some time before sound check - one of those singer-songwriters who is always very herself on stage and held the audience brilliantly, while also singing like an angel. On the far right in the picture is Lucy Wainwright Roche, half sister of Rufus and daughter of Loudon Wainwright III, who opened for Dar and joined us for 'Open the Door'. Thanks to Jeremy Wilson, ex-NYCGMC member and in the audience that night, for the picture.

Picture in 'The Advocate'

It was an honor to get my picture in 'The Advocate' this month alongside NYCGMC members, who are representing everyday life in LGBT America. I wish my crazy musician life was really that representative!

Here is the full article.

Conducting the all-Australia LGBTQ Chorus at 'Out and Loud'

The Out and Loud Festival is Australia’s major LGBTQ choral festival, and an opportunity for the major Aussie LGBTQ groups to get together every couple of years, to sing for each other and sing together. I was booked to direct the combined chorus, which included singers from the major choruses from Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Western Australia.

I was booked to direct the combined chorus, which included singers from the Canberra Gay and Lesbian Qwire, the Gay and Lesbian Singers of Western Australia, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir, the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus and Youth Pride Chorus, and Brisbane Lesbian & Gay Pride Qwire and the newest choir to the Out & Loud family QTas, Tasmania’s own Gay and Lesbian Qwire.

We worked for 5 days, the spirit was very special and the joy was palpable. We did two performances as a combined group. The first on Saturday 13th July was in the extra-ordinary MONA, a world-class museum of contemporary art cut out of the sandstone rock, and second in Hobart’s main Federation Concert Hall, where we sang opposite the other main ensembles created for the festival. These included a (nother) kids’ choir directed by Harley Mead (see my previous post about Maryborough), an a cappella choir directed by Deke Sharon and a classical group, directed by David Lawrence. We also workshopped some material from Popular Voiceworks 2.

Below is a picture of how we looked in the final show at the Federation Concert Hall on the 14th.

And here is our group photo of the workshop group of 120, which was augmented at the end of the Festival by the ‘weekenders’, who brought the group up to 170 for the final couple of days. Feedback was amazing, and it was an especially inspiring few days, certainly one of the highlights of my professional year.

Presenting at the Maryborough Music Education Conference in Brisbane, Australia

For my first stop on my Australia tour, I spent 5 days in Maryborough as the OUP-sponsored clinician, working with an 80-strong all-woman choir of choral educators and classroom teachers on material from Popular Voiceworks 2, the second book which I co-authored with the amazing Steve Milloy. Our first book won ‘Best Pop Music Publication’ of 2008, as voted for by the Music Retailers Association of the UK, and we launched the second one in Leeds, UK, in August 2012. We worked on a number of songs, including Gershwin’s ‘My man’s gone now’ from Porgy and Bess and Steve’s arrangement of ‘Ode Joy’, and finished with a concert on the final day.

Music education in Australia is organised state by state, and the Maryborough annual conference represents and services Queensland music education, the largest and most ambitious event in Australia with over 800 participants and all the major publishers and manufacturers there. The most exciting and distinctive aspect for me was the way in which all the teachers present were actively involved in music-making, in either bands, choirs or orchestras, as well as attending sessions on their teaching craft. Through real music-making to a high standard, the conference feeds Queensland educators, reminding them of what music is about and why they became educators in the first place.

I was honored to be one of the international clinicians leading this important re-energising work, and it was also amazing to meet some of the others, including the inspirational Tim Lautzenheiser, Andrew Surmani, who is current chair the Jazz Educators’ Network, and Pete BarenBregge, who ran the big band. It was also lovely to see kids’ music-making in amongst the adults’ activities, and I met the Harley Mead, who ran a highly energetic and technically accomplished children’s choir.

In the picture, you can just see me in the pink shirt on the far left with the microphone doing my OUP presentation to a group of over 100.

An interview about 'America the Beautiful' on LiteFM

With NYCGMC’s ‘America the Beautiful’ show in two weeks, Jason Cannon, show director, and I appeared this morning on Lite FM, interviewed by Haneen Arafat Murphy. Click here to hear what we said about this important work.