Participation
  Participate!
  Cultural events
  Chicago Gay Games
  Organizing your sport

Inclusion
  Outreach
  Scholarship

Personal Best
  Training
  Learning
  Coaching

Calendar

Gay Games Legacy
  Looking back
  Looking forward
  Tom Waddell Award
  Ambassadors
  Results

Choral activity during Gay Games VII expected to be among the highest ever

Participants registered for the Gay Games VII Chorus should expect a week of singing unlike any other in Gay Games history. With the return of world-renown conductor Dr. Kathleen McGuire from the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and the addition of two of the hottest up and coming choral directors in the GALA Choruses family — Joseph P. Nadeau of the Heartland Men's Chorus of Kansas City and James Knapp of Bayou City Performing Arts — choral participation in Chicago is anticipated to be both moving and inspirational and the highlight of any vocalist's summer plans.

The weeklong choral festivities begin July 15 with the Opening Ceremonies and close July 22 with Closing Ceremonies. More than at any past Gay Games, the Ceremonies (mixed and international) Chorus will be an interwoven part of the storytelling that takes place on the field.

In the Opening Ceremonies, the songs performed by the chorus will comment on, articulate and even move the visual and experiential narrative forward throughout the evening. The chorus is key in the engagement of the attention of the audience at the very top of the show, and will be used creatively throughout the production.

For Closing Ceremonies, the chorus will set the tone of energetic festivity and self and communal realization as the week is drawn to a powerful, sonorous and compelling close. From anthem and ballad though somber and thoughtful to celebratory and bombastic crescendo, the hundreds of voices from all over the world will join in guiding and enhancing the resonance of what takes places in the stadia and on the fields of performance on July 15 and 22.

One of the directors, James Knapp, artistic and managing director for Bayou City Performing Arts (BCPA) in Houston, was already making plans to attend Gay Games VII as a member of the chorus. That is, until he was contacted by Chicago Games, Inc. in January and asked to become the music director for the mass choir in place of the original director. Since that moment in January, it's been a whirlwind of activity for Knapp in preparation for the concert on Wednesday night, July 19, at Millennium Park.

Now in his fifth season with BCPA (which made up of the Gay Men's Chorus of Houston and the Bayou City Women's Chorus), Knapp brings to Chicago extensive choral conducting and administrative experience. Knapp' s choirs have appeared at various regional choral conventions and performed internationally with the Moscow Philharmonic and the Palaces of St. Petersburg Chamber Music and Choir Festival in Russia. As a vocal artist, Knapp has performed throughout the United States and Europe, appearing in artist series in Germany, France, Italy and Austria and has performed as a choral singer with the Lyric Opera Chorus of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Charles King, Culture Committee co-chair for the Federation of Gay Games, spent several days corresponding with James as he was preparing for concert performances with the Gay Men's Chorus of Houston:

CK:

JK: Oh, no. Chicago will be my second. I attended the 2002 Gay Games in Sydney and had the chance to work with the LGBA Band and the cheer groups as a performance coordinator and had a ball! I wouldn't have missed this for the world! What a reunion!

CK:

JK: That's right. I was planning on bringing 15 of my chorus members to sing for the Games and work with the three outstanding music directors scheduled to conduct. Also, my partner, Jesse Field, is going to play ice hockey at the Games, so we are making this a family affair and our summer vacation. He is the jock, I am the musician and it all works out. I scream at his hockey games and he screams at my concerts. It is quite a supportive team!

CK:

JK: The Wednesday night concert will be fantastic. We will have a mass choir of more tahn 200 at this point singing two opening and two closing numbers, plus guest solo/ensemble artists and other guest choruses.

The Mass Choir will be working on four pieces at rehearsals at Roosevelt University prior to the concert during Monday and Tuesday. We will be singing "Celebrate," a fun opening piece about community and coming together in a gospel style. It ROCKS!

The second piece is "Why We Sing." It's a very dynamic song about the power of music bring hope, healing and unity. We will be signing the refrain of this song as we sing. Yes, we will sing and sign at the same time. It is easy!

The third piece is "The Quest Unending" — a relatively new composition based on the following text from Alfred Lord Tennyson's work "Ulysses": "Though much is taken, much abides. And though we are not now which in old days moved earth and heaven: that which we are we are, one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate. But strong in will to strive to seek to find and not to yield." As you can see, it is a very powerful text and the music about fighting the good fight and never to yield. Shazamm!

The final piece of the evening will be "You Are the Light, You Are the Flame." It is the Olympic Theme song set to a great text of pride, unity, dreams and victory. The music is adapted from Leo Arnaud's "Olympic Fanfare (Bugler's Dream)." We are planning a huge finale with dancers, instrumentalists, flags ... the works. It is a not to be missed experience. We are also in the process of engaging some solo and ensemble gust artists from the Chicagoland area as well as other well known national artists to appear in cameo performances that evening.

• Rehearsals beginning July 14
• Opening Ceremonies, July 15
• Mass Choir Concert, July 19
• Closing Ceremonies, July 22
• performance opportunities for soloists and ensembles throughout Gay Games VII week