The Story of Sing for the Cure in London

By Dr. Tim Seelig

A year and a half ago, in January, 2008, I began a one-year appointment as the first Artistic Director in Residence for GALA Choruses. The very first assignment was the Artistic and Executive Directors meeting in Miami, Florida. At that meeting, discussions began about the possibility of putting together a chorus made up of members from North American GALA Choruses to perform at Various Voices, the European equivalent of the GALA Festival.

It seemed a long, long way away. This had never been done before. In our initial discussions, one of the challenges was obviously the repertoire that could bring both men and women together and be inspiring enough to make it worth their while to spend the money, time and resources to make a trip all the way to London to perform.

My first suggestion was to try to do Sing for the Cure. At that point it had never been done outside the U.S. The folks from London did not know what it was. There was also some hesitation on the part of the organizers to launch into something that was outside their normal comfort zone for the festivals they had previously held - meaning something so directly cause oriented. There was some thought that the European audience would not respond to or appreciate the overtly emotional message of the music as they are much more reserved. We really blew their minds when we told them that often, survivors and families actually stood during the last song. This was completely out of their experience and they said that such an expression would not happen at a festival in the U.K. It was a fairly tense meeting.

Finally, they went along with our suggestion - with reservations - and planning began. First of all, the GALA board and staff jumped to support the effort. Special thanks to Robin Godfrey for believing! Then, Martin Brophy, the Executive Director of Various Voices, came to the GALA Festival 2008 in Miami and staffed a booth the entire week promoting both Various Voices and Sing for the Cure. Momentum began to mount.

The next step was to engage Komen for the Cure, formerly known as the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. That was, without a doubt, the easiest part! In fact, Vice President Susan Carter flew to London to meet with the Various Voices representatives and to build a bridge to their counterpart in the U.K., Breakthrough. That was an amazing moment - when the two huge foundations came together - all because of Sing for the Cure. We began to have singers sign up. Then, of course, the economy tanked! But the months went by and it looked as if we would, indeed, have enough singers to make the concert happen. The London Gay Symphony Orchestra was invited to play. Logan Brown, the fabulously talented pianist from Tampa, Florida, agreed to pay his own way to accompany! The presenters engaged the services of a very famous Soap Opera actress, Jennie McAlpine, and BBC news anchor, Jane Hill, to narrate. We also had fabulous soloists from Dallas, New Jersey and San Francisco. (Huge thanks to Kristi, Kelly, Rachel, Di, Colleen, Moose, Shelley, Mark, Ron, and Wes.) And thanks to Rachel for filling in for Robert with a million details on site!

All of the pieces seemed in place, they just happened to be scattered across the entire globe! The task was to bring them together in three days.

On Wednesday evening, April 30, I arrived at the first rehearsal with the London Gay Symphony Orchestra. There were introductions and, of course, I made some jokes about needing a translator from Texan to "real" English. Some of that was more true than you might imagine, since they do not use terms like "measure" or "quarter note." But then they began to play. It was glorious. As we went along, I gave them a bit of the background on the work and they loved hearing about it, since all they had seen were their instrumental parts.

By the end of the evening, we were absolutely in love with each other and they invited me, my partner, Shawn Northcuttt, and Mark Knight to join them at the local Pub - the true sign we had "arrived." I told them that evening that of all the performances I had conducted or heard of Sing for the Cure, in the past nine years, this was the FIRST time I had ever encountered an orchestra that actually cared about what they were playing!! And that made all the difference on Saturday night at the performance. But, I get ahead of myself.

Thursday evening, we gathered for the first rehearsal of the chorus. This chorus came from far-flung places - singers from choruses coast to coast. It was absolutely thrilling. It was a bit like Noah's Ark - we had two from here and two from there - even two women who traveled from Australia just to sing Sing For The Cure. In addition to the ones and twos, we had wonderful groups from San Francisco (Lollipop Guild from San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus), Fort Lauderdale (Fort Lauderdale Gay Men's Chorus) and Dallas (Resounding Harmony). We could not have done this without these groups.

From the moment the chorus began, we knew that all of our planning was going to be worth the time and trouble and money. We had 140+ singers in the chorus - it was amazing. In addition, the balance was just fabulous! In fact, it could not have been better.

Of course we had a wonderful time rehearsing and preparing the chorus parts. It was so much fun bringing so many diverse singers together to become one. It is one of the greatest challenges any conductor can undertake. But when everyone is so focused on one outcome - making the performance as perfect and moving as possible - it isn't all that difficult. We rehearsed on Thursday evening, Friday afternoon and again on Saturday morning. There were a million things to put together and arrange (seating being the most difficult, of course - thanks, Mike, for your help).

Then, Saturday afternoon, we all arrived for the first time on stage at the Royal Festival Hall - one of London's premier performance facilities. A whole host of people who had never met before - from four different continents, for heaven's sake! Orchestra. Chorus. Narrators. Soloists. Sound and Lighting crew. And, a very, very special treat - my wonderful partner, Shawn, had re-created the PowerPoint and images from the world premier which were projected on a huge screen above the stage. These had not been used in nine years and made the entire production a thousand times more meaningful, especially since there were many, many people in the audience who did not speak English, the presence of the text was amazing and incredibly helpful and moving.

The rehearsal was perfectly rough and disjointed! The pieces were all there, they were just determined to take their precious time in coming together! I was hoping for something around 8:00 p.m.

The concert began with a 20-minute piece by the Symphony. They were wonderful. At 8:20, I stepped onto the stage with a lovely "Good Evening." It drew no response - which, of course, just eggs me on! I tried "Good Evening" again. A little more response. So, I then gave them my best "Hi, Y'all" and the ice was officially broken! I then introduced our fabulous guest narrators and we began.

The next 75 minutes were magical. It is one of the most inspired performances of the work I can remember. Of course it cannot be compared to the very first read-through rehearsal with Maya Angelou when she began to weep and so did we - but it was spectacular.

Throughout the performance, I was still working through whether or not to encourage survivors to stand for the last piece. Of course, I never do get to actually see the audience, but I can generally "feel" whether or not they are engaged. They certainly seemed to be. They applauded, laughed, etc. at all the right times. Then, when Shelley and Moose started blowing the roof off on Groundless Ground, I got to turn around to see this completely international audience clapping as if they had all grown up in some Pentecostal church with smiles as big as London. The ovation at the end of that piece was amazing. I decided to risk it.

After Groundless Ground, I thanked the audience for their warm reception and acknowledged Breakthrough and the amazing work they were doing in the U.K. I then told them that it was a tradition in North America for survivors, or those affected by breast cancer, or any kind of cancer for that matter, to stand during the last number in solidarity and in honor of our fight. I turned back around to the chorus with the words of the presenters in my head, "THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN IN THE U.K.!"

I would have no idea what happened next, of course, until the concert was over.

Logan began to "noodle" under the final narration. "I am one voice. Just one voice. Can one voice make a difference? One voice rousing brothers and sisters from the sleep of indifference to the alertness of action."

As the very first words were spoken ONE person stood. Then, two more. Then the music began, "I am one voice singing in the dark" and others began to stand all over the auditorium. A man stood holding his hands over his heart. A woman stood with head bowed and arms across her chest as if it took all of her strength just to stand - she couldn't look up. Another stood while the person seated next to them held their hand for support. Another man stood weeping openly.

Of course, the singers, watching all of this, were precariously close to the emotional line (oh, who am I kidding - they had jumped right over!!!). It was one of the most amazing moments that was not supposed to happen. The orchestra members were crying, for heaven's sake!!

All I knew was that when the last note finished and I turned, the audience was standing. We bowed and bowed - and bowed. I left the stage - and had to come back with the narrators for more bows. AMAZING!

The repercussions of this concert will be felt in unknown ways for years and years to come - in the lives of individuals and organizations. Various Voices donated 15,000 pounds to Breakthrough (approximately $25,000). But more than that, hearts and minds were changed. People were given permission to stand up and be counted in our shared fight - and it was OK.

Martin Brophy, the Executive Director who had "warned" me against trying to get people to stand stood himself in honor of his Mother who recently passed! He was speechless - and actually said he wept the entire concert.

The words to Sing for the Cure are inspired (Thank you, Pam!!). The music to Sing for the Cure is nothing short of amazing (Thank you all 10 composers). The piece as a whole is life-changing.

It is hard to believe we will celebrate the 10th anniversary this next spring. If you live anywhere near Dallas, join us there. If not, join us in June at Lincoln Center.

Oh, yes. There were many visits to the pubs of London, and glorious sights in an incredible city. There were many outstanding events and concerts during the four days of Various Voices. In addition to conducting Sing for the Cure, I was lucky enough to do workshops for seven choruses. Imagine doing a workshop for a chorus from Paris that sang in French and whose members mostly spoke only French! I had an easier time with the choruses from Germany! The group was rounded out by a wonderful women's chorus from the Netherlands and amazing mixed choruses from Brussels and London. It was an incredible week indeed.

Thank you for sharing in this wonderful journey. Now, on to the next!