NH Gay Men’s Chorus celebrates its 25th anniversary
The New Hampshire Gay Men’s Chorus. will celebrate its 25th anniversary by kicking off its spring concert series this weekend.
“I’m very excited about what we’re doing,” chorus executive director John McGeehan said. “I feel like it was yesterday that it was Jan. 10 and we were just first getting together for the year to start getting the concert together.”
Luc Andre Roberge has been the artistic director for 23 years at the chorus and a member since it was created. He said that he, along with other founding members, had seen the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus perform and thought that the representation and the message of the organization was one they could bring to the Granite State.
“We decided that we could do this in New Hampshire, and in the beginning of ’98, we put a call out, had about 50, 60 people at the first rehearsal, and only a dozen came back,” Roberge said. “Also, this was a time where you didn’t want to be open to the public, you didn’t want to be out of the closet in any way.”
Roberge said that it was hard for members to openly claim their identity as gay men at that time. When the organization was first formed, he said, Jim Bretz, a huge figure in New Hampshire’s LGBTQ community, told them there was a good chance the organization wouldn’t last longer than three years and that making it to five years would be incredible.
“None of us at the time thought it would make it to 25 years,” Roberge said. “Those that are not with us who started us up, I’m sure they’re smiling down and saying, ‘We’re so happy.’ We persist and we have persevered.”
Roberge designed the music for the concert to celebrate the last quarter of a century of music. There will be songs from musicals, including Rent, as well as more traditional choral pieces and covers of popular music.
McGeehan, who has been a part of the chorus since he first moved to New Hampshire in 2017, said that it’s important for people to realize they aren’t a group of professional musicians, just people who spread love and positivity through music. He added that just because they aren’t professionals doesn’t mean they don’t strive to make wonderful music — it’s just not the chorus’s only goal.
“One of the missions is not just to put on the best concert that we can, and I think we succeed every season, but be a community and social organization,” McGeehan said. “We give concerts every year at various town pride events, but also free concerts at local assisted facilities, singing the national anthem at New Hampshire Special Olympics, as well as at the Boston Red Sox in June for Pride Night.”
While the chorus sings at pride events throughout New Hampshire, McGeehan said the ones that were most important to him were when the chorus sang at several towns’ first pride parades. He said it allowed for the chorus to show other people in the LGBTQ community that they aren’t alone, that they have a space for people like them.
“To see how well this has come together, it’s actually incredible,” McGeehan said. “Here’s to 25 years, it’s been a lot of fun. I think with the kind of support we are having, I see someone welcoming us to the 50th anniversary someday.”
Silver Seasons of Love: New Hampshire Gay Men’s Chorus 25th Anniversary Concert
• Saturday, May 6, at 7:30 p.m., at Plymouth Congregational Church UCC, 4 Post Office Square in Plymouth.
• Sunday, May 7, 4 p.m., at First Baptist Church of Nashua, 121 Manchester St., Nashua.
• Saturday, May 20, at 7:30 p.m., at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 22 Fox Run Road in Newington.
• Sunday, May 21, at 4 p.m., Derryfield School, 2108 River Road in Manchester.
Tickets: $20 for adults (ages 12 and under admitted free, email tickets@nhgmc.com for children’s tickets). See the website for links to purchase tickets at each location.
Visit: nhgmc.com
Featured photo: Courtesy photo.
