Catch up with this month's news from GALA Choruses, the nonprofit membership association leading the LGBTQIA+ choral movement in the Americas.
Registration for Symposium 2027 is Open!
Join us in Austin on Feb. 25-28 and register by Sept. 30 to get the early bird discount! We have two hotel room blocks available to book now. Also, there's just 1 month left to submit your workshop proposals — get them in by Aug. 31!
Strategic Planning Survey Deadline Extended!
Help guide the future of GALA Choruses and fill out our strategic planning survey by Aug. 7 if you haven't already! Complete the survey and include your contact info for a chance to win a free delegate registration for Festival 2028.
Festival 2028 Planning Information Available!
Our first release of information to help you plan for Festival 2028 is available on our website! Keep an eye on our website and social media as we continue to release more information and planning resources as they become available.
Help Every Chorus That Wants To Be At Festival Get There!
We want Festival 2028 to be our largest, most diverse one yet — and that includes our choruses with less funds available to enable them to make the trip. GALA Choruses is building a fund to offset registration costs for our members with financial need. Whether they've only just joined since Festival 2024 or they've been in GALA Choruses for years yet never made it to Festival, whether they're based in North or South America, we will assist as much as we are able so that no chorus has to miss Festival simply due to a lack of resources. We invite all who are able to donate to contribute and help gather as much of our LGBTQIA+ and allied choral community as possible when we meet again in Minneapolis in less than two years.
Donate to the Festival 2028 Fund!
Interested in sponsoring Festival 2028 to connect your brand to the largest LGBTQIA+ music festival in the world? Contact development@galachoruses.org for more info.
Join Us in Los Angeles on Sept. 19 for California Sings! A GALA Choruses Celebration!
California Sings! A GALA Choruses Celebration! brings together LGBTQ+ choruses from across the region for a joyful celebration of music and community in Los Angeles. Each participating ensemble will present its own featured performance, highlighting the diversity, artistry, and spirit of our movement. The event will conclude with a special collaborative finale, as singers from every chorus unite for one unforgettable shared performance. Don’t miss this exciting new GALA tradition in the making!
Member Corner
Featured Members
Asian Rainbow Chorus
Asian Rainbow Chorus (ARC), founded in 2024, is based in New York City, with 40 mixed-voice singers and has been a GALA member since 2025. ARC is an Asian LGBTQ+ and allies mixed-voice chorus that brings together singers to celebrate identity, community, and cultural heritage through choral music. Our performances foster connection, visibility, and belonging through artistic excellence and storytelling.
This past year marked a major milestone in ARC's growth. We successfully launched our second concert season, Boundless Voices, presenting performances that explored resilience, identity, and hope through multilingual choral repertoire. Beyond the stage, ARC expanded its community engagement by participating in NYC Pride, hosting cultural events such as movie nights and workshops, and strengthening collaborations with LGBTQ+ organizations and choruses across New York City. As a young ensemble, we are proud to be building a vibrant artistic home for Asian LGBTQ+ communities and allies while fostering meaningful cross-cultural dialogue through music.
Midu Folk Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpiobtfLJGw
Music and Lyrics: Traditional Chinese Folk Song
Rearrangement: Jiabao Guo
Conductor: Jiabao Guo
Piano: Linda Wang
Midu Folk Song is a beloved folk song from Midu County in Yunnan Province, China, renowned for its graceful melody and poetic lyrics. It reflects the warmth, optimism, and vibrant musical traditions of the local community. In this arrangement for mixed chorus, Jiabao Guo preserves the song's lyrical character and iconic melodies while introducing rap elements, enriched harmonies, and dynamic rhythmic textures, bringing fresh vitality to this cherished folk tradition through a contemporary choral interpretation.
At GALA Festival 2024, Chinese singers from across China and cities throughout the United States came together through music. Inspired by the friendships and community formed there, Maizi Li and co-founder Leo Andersen founded the Asian Rainbow Chorus (ARC) in New York City in July 2024.
Asian Rainbow Chorus's very first official music video《I am what I am》
🎬 This is the Asian Rainbow Chorus's very first official music video. We are honored to share this milestone with you through a song that celebrates authenticity, courage, and self-acceptance.
I am What I am MV Link：https://youtu.be/TCFR5izr04s?si=QSfcX3evTDVKod7x
Womansong
Womansong, founded in 1987, is based in Asheville, NC, has 50 active performers, and has been in GALA for 5 1/2 years. As the longest-running, women-focused community chorus in the region, its mission—“singing together for joy, community and social justice,” guides concert themes and engagement in the community. Most noteworthy is its New Start Fund that gives grants and scholarships to women who are making life transitions.
The chorus has had many milestones over the last year. In spring of 2025 the singers stepped into a recording studio for the first time. There they recorded a 4-song EP, Womansong: The Echo Mountain Session. They also made video recordings of each song. The EP includes the winning song of Womansong’s 2024 Songwriting Contest. Eve, written by Andrea Meacham Rosal and arranged by Womansong accompanist, Lytingale, tells the story of a young person finding her way in a world that restricts ideas of gender. A festive EP release party in March 2026 drew over a 100 people who enjoyed live performances, videos of the EP recording session, and of course, food, drink and merriment.
Eve was also premiered to a national audience as a part of Womansong’s performance at the 14th Sister Singers Network Choral Festival held in Chicago in early July. Womansong always brings its unique combination of fierce social justice songs and quirky comedic pieces to the festival and this year was not different. Included in the set were Keep Marching from the Broadway musical Suffs, an arrangement of Crys Matthews' Sleeves Up, and a Lytingale original, Alienated. Also memorable at the festival was the performance of Womansong composer, Martha Burrows’ song, I Am The Expert, by a 400-member mass chorus.
Womansong is looking forward to celebrating its 40th Anniversary with a year of activities next year. The celebration will include the performance of the winner of Womansong’s 2nd Songwriting Contest currently underway.
Welcome to Our Newest Members!
Driftless Pride Choir: founded this year by former members of various GALA choruses, the Driftless Pride Choir led by board chair Gregory A. Jones and a soon-to-be-hired artistic director is starting rehearsals with 25 SATB singers in La Crosse, WI. Their location in the tristate "Driftless Region" will provide a space for LGBTQIA2S+ individuals and allies living in smaller towns and rural areas.
Jackson Gay Men's Chorus: inspired by the New Orleans Gay Men's Chorus's holiday concert, the Jackson Gay Men's Chorus based in Flowood, MS formed in late 2025. Under the leadership of artistic director Henry Waters and president Nic Tew, they held their first concert this June with 21 TTBB singers and a far larger and warmer audience than they had even hoped for.
The Quorus: led by artistic director Audra Sergel and leadership team lead Beth Hager Harrison Prado, The Quorus has provided community for the LGBTQAA-Z people of Columbia, MO since 2016. Today, they have 30 SATB singers and operate under The Center Project, Mid-Missouri's LGBTQIA+ community center.
Member-Sponsored Opportunities
- The Queer Chorus of San Francisco invites transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive composers to apply for a new commission opportunity for their 2026–2027 season. They welcome submissions from emerging and established composers of all styles and backgrounds, with no age or geographic restrictions. More information is available here.
- In celebration of 40 years of music, Womansong is hosting a songwriting contest, "Songs of Joy, Justice, and Community" open to songwriters who identify with the women's experience based in Western North Carolina. Submissions are due by October 1; more information is available here.
News Across the GALA Community
- Congratulations to our 13 member choruses who gave amazing performances and presentations at the 14th Sister Singer's Network Choral Festival in Chicago last month: ANNA Crusis Feminist Choir (Philadelphia, PA), the Grand Rapids Women's Chorus (Grand Rapids, MI), the Indianapolis Women's Chorus (Indianapolis, IN), MUSE: Cincinnati's Women's Choir (Cincinnati, OH), the New Mexico Women's Chorus (Albuquerque, NM), the Rochester Women's Community Chorus (Rochester, NY), the Sacramento Women's Chorus (Sacramento, CA), the San Diego Women's Chorus (San Diego, CA), Sistrum Chorus (Lansing, MI), Voices Rising (Boston, MA), Windsong, Cleveland's Feminist Chorus (Cleveland, OH), Womansong (Asheville, NC), and Women in Harmony (Portland, ME).
- Thea Kano, artistic director of the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW), and Dr. Chipper Dean, executive director of the Heartland Men's Chorus, ran the Gay Games XII Choral Festival in València, Spain as co-artistic director and production manager, respectively. Members of the GMCW and various other GALA Choruses sang in the festival and represented the United States at this international event.
- The Youth Jamboree performance put on by the GenOUT Youth Chorus (Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC) and Major Minors (Nashville in Harmony) in Asheville, NC
- The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles is on their first overseas tour in more than twenty years! They are one of only four choruses worldwide who were invited to perform at World Pride in Amsterdam, and will continue on to London to host the concert Love Across the Pond as a fundraiser for the UK's leading HIV charity.
- The Golden Gate Men's Chorus participated in the Tokyo International Choir Competition that ran from July 24-26 — check out their recent social media takeover of GALA Choruses' accounts for a behind-the-scenes look!
- PRISM Chorus partnered with Disney and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to deliver the Disney PRIDE in Concert to a sold-out crowd on June 27 in Detroit, MI.
- The Sacramento Gay Men's Chorus welcomed back Christian Bohm as their artistic director.
Submit Your Updates for the Next Newsletter
News from the Global Choral Community
On July 5, the ensemble GQ made history as the first all-female quarter to win the Barbershop Harmony Society's International Gold Medal at the Society's 88th International Convention in St. Louis. The group Sunday Night Special also made history as the first all-voices quartet to medal at the competition, which had more than 5,700 attendees representing 7 countries. Founded as an all-male organization, the BHS opened its membership to all genders in 2018, and this marks the fourth year that non-male quartets have competed at the international level.
GALA Highlights
Queer Voices | Ep. 2.13 | Interview with the GALA Festival 2028 Host Choruses of Minneapolis
Leaders of each of the 2028 GALA Festival hosting choruses—Calliope Women's Chorus President Maddy Hull, One Voice Mixed Chorus Artistic Director Kimberly Waigwa, and Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus Artistic Director Dr. Gerald Gurss—reflect on Festival 2024, discuss the Twin Cities as a cultural hub and resikient community, and look ahead to July 2028. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or here.
Queer Voices | Ep. 2.14 | Interview with Robyn Hilger, Executive Director of ACDA, and Dr. Chris Eanes, President & CEO of Chorus America
Queer Voices host and GALA Choruses' Executive Director John D. Carrion gathered the leaders of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and of Chorus America. The group discusses the roles of each organization and how all three work together for the choral community. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or here.
Check out our redesigned website at www.galachoruses.org!
We've completed the first phase of our website's restructure and redesign to help us more effectively share information with our members and other audiences, and better publicize the impact of our community! We'll continue to make improvements through the end of the year, including reorganizing and updating our digital resource library and publishing a Spanish version of the site. Browse here.
