London Gay Men's Chorus
London Gay Men's Chorus is a gay choir that was founded in 1991 by a group of nine gay men. The group now has around 200 singing members at any one time and over 300 members in total.
Introduction
With a widely varying repertoire from classical music to folk, jazz, pop, R&B or show tunes, and often including choreography, the Chorus's Vision is 'Everyone Brought Together Through Song'. The LGMC's Mission is to 'Create, Enable and Connect Confident Voices across Communities with fun, hope, love, joy and fearless allyship', while the values which guide the charity are "all-in", "harmony", "community" and "transformation". The Chorus operates an open access policy, allowing anyone to join. New members are simply voice-tested and not auditioned when they join the group.The Chorus often rehearses at Cecil Sharp House, Camden Town and has offices at Capital House in London, England.
Structure
With approximately 200 voices, the London Gay Men's Chorus has four singing sections, bass, baritone, first tenor and second tenor. Each section is divided between upper and lower voices supported by a music support team drawn from the ranks. Semitones are non-singing members who help support the chorus, including performing Front of House activities during a concert.A group of auditioned members constitute the 'ensemble', a small group which works as an ambassadorial and fundraising entity and performs at corporate events, civil partnership and wedding ceremonies.
In August 2024, the Chorus converted from being a charitable company limited by guarantee to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation . It is governed by a board of 13 trustees comprising seven members and six external trustees.
Revenue is drawn from membership subscriptions, ticket and merchandise sales, donations, and performance fees.
The Chorus has had a number of commercial sponsors, both monetary donors and providers of pro bono professional services, including the former pioneering gay website Queer Company, design firm Marsh and Malone who developed a new corporate identity in 2005–6, and fundraising consultants Brakeley. The Chorus also enjoyed a commercial relationship with Selfridges, and has sung carols in the Oxford Street store during the Christmas season for five years. Further relationships with Baker McKenzie and ARUP have more recently been established.
Historic overview
After humble beginnings in 1991 at Angel Underground station, the Chorus has performed around the United Kingdom and toured overseas in the United States, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, Poland, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Australia and sung with the Helsinki Gay Men's Chorus in the summer of 2009.The chorus has made many TV appearances and radio broadcasts including Top of the Pops, So Graham Norton, Loose Ends, Ruby Wax Christmas special, London Tonight, the Paul Ross weekend breakfast show on LBC, and Comic Relief, and has sung and performed with stars including Sir Elton John, The Human League, Heather Small, Damien Hirst, Simon Callow, Alison Jiear, Jocelyn Brown, Toyah Willcox, k.d. lang, Rula Lenska, Sandi Toksvig, Dame Cleo Laine, Mark Ronson and The Pet Shop Boys.
Over the years the Chorus has raised thousands of pounds for charity, and sung everywhere from the tube station of its beginnings to pubs and street corners, XXL, Heaven, Trafalgar Square, the Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Football Stadium, the Millennium Dome in the presence of HM The Queen, La Cigale in Paris, The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Gianni Agnelli Auditorium in Turin, the London Coliseum, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Congress Hall in Warsaw, Poland and the Royal Albert Hall. Most recently it has once again raised funds for the Terrence Higgins Trust, who it partnered with back in 1991 when it was founded, as part of both their 30th and 40th anniversary celebrations.
Recent history
2024
The Chorus returned to Alexandra Palace Theatre to showcase a celebration of global pride in its production of Queer Carnival - a show performed in multiple languages and in partnership with the Kaleidoscope Trust2023
Returning to Cadogan Hall, the LGMC presented two concerts - 'Proud' in June followed by 'A Winter's Tale' hosted by Sandi Toksvig in November. This was followed up with a Christmas show at the Clapham Grand on 22 & 23 December, aptly titled, 'It's Christmas!'. The summer concert helped to raise awareness and funds for Parkinson's UK and the winter concerts for Stonewall Housing. The Chorus also traveled to Florence & Bologna, Italy to participate in Various Voices 2024, finishing off the year with a surprise appearance on Patron Hannah Waddingham's Apple TV Special 'Hannah Waddingham - Home for Christmas' filmed at the London Coliseum.2022
In 2022 the LGMC marked the incredible contribution of Stephen Sondheim to music and theatre through its 'Sondheim Songtime' performances at Cadogan Hall, followed by a return of the Halloween Ball at the Alexandra Palace Theatre - a reboot of 2013's Ball at the Hackney Empire.2021
This year saw its triumphant return to stage with performances of 'Perfect Day' at Cadogan Hall, celebrating its return to stage, and its 'Big Birthday Bash' performance at the Clapham Grand, marking the official 30th birthday.2020
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic live, in-person performances were paused but member-focussed activities continued, with online performances also held throughout one of the most challenging year in the LGMC's history.2019
On Saturday 15 June, in a show celebrating the iconic sound of Motown, the Chorus presented Hitsville – a concert penned by some of the all-time greats of popular music. The show took place again at London's Troxy. At the show, the Nigerian gay-rights activist Bisi Alimi was announced as the chorus' newest patron.For the Christmas season, the chorus tackled the idea of 'home'. Finding Home took audiences through a moving, uplifting and thoroughly entertaining show at Cadogan Hall.
2018
On 15 June, the LGMC performed the first of two Summer concerts at Cadogan Hall, Polyphonica. The chorus travelled to Munich in May 2018 as part of the Various Voices LGBT chorus festival where they sang repertoire from the show along with some other favourites, including a duet with Conchita Wurst on Rise Like A Phoenix.On 5 September, the Chorus performed at the GQ Men Of The Year Awards at Tate Modern and introduced Charles, Prince of Wales to the stage as he accepted The Editor's Lifetime Achievement Award For Services To Philanthropy.
On 20 December, the LGMC performed the first of four Christmas shows at the Clapham Grand, Oom-Pah-Pah! which took its inspiration from the Victorian music hall.
2017
In January 2017, the Chorus started rehearsing for their next show, Agitpop, at Cadogan Hall. The chorus also took the show to New York City in May 2017 where they performed at the city's Skirball Cultural Center alongside the New York City Gay Men's Chorus before decamping to Chicago to perform with the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus. The chorus also performed AgitPop at the Snape Festival in Snape Maltings in August.During this season, the chorus also collaborated with the cast of The Lion King to sing a version of "Circle of Life" to coincide with Pride in London.
In December, the Chorus presented Tinseltown, a tribute to Hollywood featuring Rachel Tucker and Dylan Turner.
On 6 May, members of the LGMC performed at the wedding of Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black.
2016
In 2016, the Chorus celebrated its 25th anniversary and Silver Jubilee, with its first show of the year at Cadogan Hall for 'History' a retrospective of both the Chorus' own history and key events since it formed in 1991.In the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting, the LGMC attended a vigil on London's Old Compton Street, singing Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water to the waiting crowd. Due to the public reaction, the Chorus released the song as a single on Friday 24 June, with all profits going to the Orlando victims fund and GALOP UK, a Uk-based charity combating hate crime.
The Chorus also undertook a regional tour of the UK, travelling to Brighton in August to sing with the Brighton Gay Men's Chorus for Brighton Pride, and singing with Gay Abandon and The Deep C Divas in Leeds in October. They performed at Newcastle the next day. In October, the Chorus also returned to Union Chapel to take part once again in the Robert Grace Trust fundraiser.
On 27 November, the Chorus performed a special show, UGotMale at the Royal Festival Hall. The show celebrated the Silver Jubilee and also closed the Southbank Centre's Being a Man festival. For this special show, the Chorus was joined by patron Hannah Waddingham and Hannah Peddley, as well as members of the Orion Symphony Orchestra and the London Gay Big Band.
To finish the year, the Chorus performed at Angel and Tottenham Court Road tube stations on 1 December to celebrate the Jubilee and commemorate World AIDS Day. The LGMC Ensemble also performed a Christmas show in December at the Lost Theatre, and the Chorus released XXV - celebrating 25 years.