Gay Men's Chorus Discos from Pole to Pole

For the first half of Saturday night, baritone James Hampton was part of an octet singing a Spanish carol a cappella, dressed in a bowtie, vest and jacket and holding his folder of music. But by the second half, Hampton and two friends were shimmying in silver, sequined hot pants and angel wings, belting out a mash up of “Angels We Have Heard On High” and Laura Branigan’s disco hit “Gloria.

The unlikely mix was part of “Pole to Pole: Holiday Celebrations from Around the World,” the annual winter concert from the Connecticut Gay Men’s Chorus (CTGMC). Last Saturday, the chorus drew an audience of over 300 people to the theater at New Haven’s Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School , treating them to a repertoire that ranged from traditional Southwestern carols and lullabies to a medley of disco favorites with lyrics reworked to suit the holiday season.

“With the way politics are, just putting a little ‘Look how important the rest of the globe is’ out to people” felt important, Artistic Director Greg McMahan said in a phone interview after the concert. “Once we got the theme in mind, it was surprisingly easy” to fill the show with diverse selections.

The group started the concert with several familiar carols. There was a soft and bouncy arrangement of “Deck the Halls” had the shimmer of holiday magic, especially with the addition of Michael Blancaflores on marimba and Susan Knapp Thomas on harp.

During a medley of “Coventry Carol” and “What Child is This?” the choir’s voices were soft and resonant with a beautifully blended tone, and Nick Cutroneo’s soft plucking classical guitar added to the sense of mystery that these carols often evoke.

But the concert really gained traction when the group sang “Sisi Ni Moja” by American composer Jacob Naverud.

“Just 40 percent of the world celebrates Christmas, even though we think it’s 99 percent sometimes,” McMahan said in his introduction to the song. Faced with such plurality, for him, as for many, “the holiday boils down to human compassion,” he said, choking up a little while explaining that Sisi Ni Moja means “we are one” in Swahili.

Switching to the djembe, Blancaflores set the beat as the baritones came in strong and full on an evocative but up-beat melody line.

“We all bruise, we all scar. We all fail but learn to fly. We are one people and we all breathe the same,” the chorus sang. The tenors came in on a soulful countermelody on the syllables “heja,” pronounced “hey ya.” Quietly, the chorus sang in unison, “We are one,” before repeating the line bold and bright and strong. The rippling piano accompaniment from Thomas Martin, made the entire arrangement sparkle.

As the chorus sang, McMahan was brought to tears. “I’m not used to being such a mush on stage,” he said. “Somedays I’ll just read the news and say, ‘How did we become this? Is this what we are?’ And that song is the antithesis to that for me. It says, ‘Here’s what we really are.’”

For McMahan, it was also a treat to find Conrad Susa’s “Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Soutwest” and include the piece in the concert. Susa’s arrangement of ten traditional carols and lullabies forms a song cycle that tells the narrative of the nativity from start to finish in a mix of Spanish and other Latin American languages and dialects.

In the opening song, “Oh, mi Belén!”, the choir’s soft oohs came in underneath the light and cheerful accompaniment from harp and guitar, before giving way to the kind of bright melody the ear wants to cling to. That was followed by “El Desembre Congelat,” with a staccato melody traded between harp, marimba and choir alike. The chorus broke out in tight harmonies perfectly in tune, then came back to a satisfying unison melody.

Susa’s song cycle made carols that may have been new to this New Haven audience feel accessible, familiar, and festive. For McMahan, the piece was also a way for the chorus to dig in to some meatier material. When he found it, he thought: “This is perfect for our guys. It’s just intricate enough that it will hold their interest and it’s melodic enough” for the audience.

When the group gets new material, McMahan explained, the early rehearsals are focused on learning parts and it can be a bit “mechanical.” But for the last few weeks of rehearsal, “fabulous” pianist Thomas Martin joins the chorus in rehearsals, and “at that point we really start to feel the swells and the emotion.”

But it wasn't all emotion. During the second half of the concert, CTGMC members brought out a brand new jar of kitsch and started laying it on thick.

It started when choir member Fred Albert interrupted McMahan’s introduction of yet another traditional carol, taking the floor and stealing the show.

“I was hoping we could do a Christmas song that was a little less…” Albert began. Traditional? Religious? Foreign? McMahan guessed.

“Gentile,” Albert concluded, waving on “The Dream Goys,” a quartet of choir members who sang a barbershop rendition of Tom Lehrer’s “(I’m Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica.” To complete the act, Albert invited up audience members to serve as backup dancers, who quickly got into the swing of the song.

Hijinks continued from there, including a medley of “Forgotten Carols from Other Lands,” which featured an ode to haggis and a mini-carol from the mini-country of Lichtenstein. Special guest drag queen Robin Banks—who hosts the group’s monthly BingoMania fundraiser—joined the chorus for a jolly song urging the audience to be kind to Mother Earth and “Recycle the Fruitcake.”

The show ended with NOEL—sung to the tune of YMCA—in which the chorus members sung “Santa, Santa Claus” instead of “Macho, Macho Man,” and came out in sparkly Santa suits in all six colors of the rainbow.

Wrestling such divergent material into one concert has become par for the course for CTGMC, McMahan said.

“Different audience members love different songs,” he said. If there are too many serious pieces, some fans will say, “Where’s the comedy?” But if it’s all campy numbers, other audience members lose interest.

“Our guys love to sing intricate things, but they also love to do YMCA,” he said. His philosophy is that if the chorus love singing it, then the audience will love hearing it. He focuses on choosing music the chorus can get excited about, and CTGMC’s attentive and appreciative audience members respond in kind.

“I’m really proud of this one,” he added after the show. “We took some leaps with a little more difficult music than we would normally do in a Christmas show. I’m happy that it paid off.”

CTGMC is auditioning in February for its spring show. “As You Are” celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots with a collection of songs actual choir members found instrumental in their process of coming out and coming of age. In February they will join New Haven Symphony Orchestra for “Wicked Divas,” an evening of broadway hits featuring singers Alli Mauzey and Julia Murney.