Celebrate Pride with the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus records

When the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (BGMC) gave its first concert in June 1982, they were beginning an annual tradition of singing with pride during Pride.

2016-2017 will be BGMC’s 35th concert season. Let’s take a look back on their first ten years of celebrating Pride with the Boston community.

10th Anniversary mailer.

Section of the concert program, June 1987.

BGMC formed in February 1982 with 30 singing members, swelling to 55 by their June performance. By the time they gave their second major concert in December 1982, the Chorus had added another 20 singers, and membership only continued to grow. Throughout the 1980s, their repertoire and musicianship increased under music directors Josef Bevins, Lee Ridgway, and Robert Barney. Members of BGMC traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the second Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses GALA Festival in 1986. The Chorus has continued to attend GALA Festivals, and has toured New England, Europe, and the Middle East. In 1988, they held their first “exchange concert” with the New York Gay Men’s Chorus, appearing at the Orpheum in Boston and Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York. Each chorus performed a solo set, and the concerts concluded with both choruses singing together. The next year’s Pride concert was an exchange with the Connecticut Gay Men’s Chorus, and additional exchange concerts and guest performances in Boston by other gay and lesbian choruses have followed. In 1992, BGMC began offering a dinner concert with cabaret-style seating at the Park Plaza Hotel. In 1996, the June concert moved to Blackman Auditorium at Northeastern; BGMC has since performed its annual Pride concert in a variety of venues around Boston. The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, currently led by Music Director Reuben M. Reynolds III and Executive Director Craig Coogan, performed its 2016 Pride concert, POPular, at Jordan Hall on June 3 and June 6. They will next perform at the GALA Festival in Denver, Colorado on July 4, and their holiday concert will be held on December 11 at 3:00 P.M. and December 16-18 at 8:00 P.M. For more information, including upcoming concert themes, keep an eye on bgmc.org. The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus records are currently being organized and will be open for research soon. For more information about the collection, contact Archives and Special Collections.