A brief note from Pax Ahimsa Gethen on an outreach event we had before our big fall 2013 concert, "We Celebrate!". On July 5, 2013, we sang at Union Square, San Francisco for the opening ceremony of the International Association of Gay Square Dance Clubs 30th annual convention, We performed the national anthems of the three main participating countries: The United States, Canada, and Japan. You can watch the video on our Facebook page.

We Celebrate!, First Unitarian Universalist Church, San Francisco, November 16, 2013.

This concert was a collaborative endeavor between LGCSF, the USF University Choir, and the choruses of Lick-Wilmerding High School. In his notes, Billy Sauerland thanked all of the choristers for their commitment and incredible work put into learning this wonderful and challenging repertoire. He also wrote "We celebrate the composers of tonight's concert, who range from Beethoven to Paul McCartney. We celebrate the centennial of Benjamin Britten, one of the foremost British composers of the last century. We are especially grateful to Jack Dubowsky from whom we commissioned "Harvey Milk: A Cantata" in 2012, and who has given us a beautifully crafted new version for chorus and woodwind quartet, which we are premiering in tonight's concert. We celebrate David Conte not only for writing the emotionally stiffing and exquisite "Elegy for Matthew," but also for giving freely of his time to work with us on the piece.

We opened the program with "This Is a Celebration" by Jerry Estes, followed by "Celebration" by Nancy Telfer. Next we sang "Jubilate Deo" by Benjamin Britten which was followed by "Elegischer Gesang" by Ludwig van B. We closed the first half with David Conte's "Elegy for Matthew." I included the lyric sheet for this for you to read.

We opened the second half with "Celebrate!" by Don Tyler and followed with "Celebration" from Sir Paul McCartney's "Standing Stone." As you can see we were all about celebration in this concert. Next on the program was Jack Curtis Dubowsky's revised with string quartet version of "Harvey Milk: A Cantata." The concert finished with all of us singing "Sing Joy!" by Mac Huff.

We celebrated the friendships and community formed from this collaboration working with Dr. Rebecca Seeman, director of the USF Choir, David Conte and all of the singers who joined us for this thrilling evening of music making. Our audience were very much appreciative of all of our hard work and responded in kind.

I will be taking a break from the History Corner until next year where we will start with Love Bites February, 2014. See you all at either the Dance Along Nutcracker or Naughty and Nice.

Cheers and love to you all for this wonderful year of making music with you,

Michael Lucero

35th Annual Pride Concert - Ripped from the Headlines! - Music Celebrating LGBT Stories. San Francisco Conservatory of Music, June 22, 2013.

This was our second Pride concert in a row in the beautiful theatre of the SF Conservatory of Music. There were two performances, one at 6 pm and 9 pm so it was a busy night for all the groups involved. The emcee for the shows was Supervisor Scott Wiener. The groups who performed were the SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the Metropolitan Community Church Choir, Vocal Minority of SFGMC, Oakland/East Bay Gay Men's Chorus and of course LGCSF.

The concert opened with the Band playing "Strike Up the Band" followed by the combined choruses and Band singing "I Hear America Singing" and "Credo." The Band followed with "The Music-Makers" and was followed by the MCC Choir singing "I'm Not Afraid," "The Storm is Passing Over," "Joyful, Joyful," and "Amen." Then we followed with "Let Me Entertain You," "Rhythm of Life," "This Marriage," and "Seize the Day." Vocal Minority then sang "Opera Maxima" and "Rhythm Medley." OEBGMC then came on and performed "Stouthearted Men," "Brand New Boyfriend/Boys Like Me," "What Greater Thing," and "Marry Us." The Band came back on with "The Wizard of Oz," and the combined choruses joined to sing the finale "A New Songs Measure," and "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables/I Am What I Am."

As with all of our past Pride concerts, this was another wonderful evening of collaboration and making and singing wonderful, inspiring music and sharing it with our very appreciative audiences.

Next week's entry will be "We Celebrate."

Cheers, Michael Lucero

Something Foolish, Martuni's, March 31 and April 1, 2013

Hi folks, this is Pax filling in for our historian (and my fellow bass singer) Michael Lucero. I wanted to write about this particular concert as it was my first with LGCSF. I had seen the Love Bites 10th anniversary show, loved it, and joined the chorus right afterward.

The theme of this cabaret show was "Something Foolish", for April Fool's Day. I immediately thought of "Chain of Fools" by Aretha Franklin. I suggested the song to director Billy Sauerland, he found a choral arrangement, and I got to perform lead on it (I was an alto at that time).

But before I got to channel my inner Aretha, we opened the concert with "Socrates, Plato, and Sinatra", a rather whimsical piece. We surrounded the audience on all four sides for this number. As you can see in our group shot, there isn't a whole lot of room at Martuni's for a group of our size!

After "Chain of Fools", the trebles performed "Buy Me This New Chain", which was "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön" deranged by our resident parodist (and alto singer), Yolanda DeByle.

Wendy Tobias and Scott Turco then teamed up for the humorous "The Song That Goes Like This", followed by Andrew Field singing a smooth solo, "Kissing A Fool".

Andrew, Fernando Ruelos, and Dale Danley then beautified themselves with makeup while singing "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story. Ellen Miller and Tom McElroy followed with the duet "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" from Annie Get Your Gun.

Two more humorous solos followed; Howard Miller with "Sara Lee", and Wendy with "The Diva's Lament".

Scott, Tom, and Jason LeBrun then rocked the house in drag with "Three Little Maids".

Closing the show, LGCSF board member Nathan Marken performed "Wig in a Box" from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which he was starring in at the time.

I greatly enjoyed this concert, as did our audience. This was the first of many great memories I made performing with our wonderfully queer chorus.

Next week's entry will be about our 35th Annual Pride Concert, Ripped from the Headlines.

In peace and harmony,

- Pax Ahimsa Gethen

A Shameless Show of Holiday Shite: The Sequel, Martuni's Piano Bar, December 16 & 17, 2012.

Unfortunately I do not have a program sheet for this cabaret and I did not sing in it either so I do not exactly recall what we performed. I do seem to remember one of the songs was a parody of The Twelve Days of Christmas with the 12 gifts very different from the original and there were signs that were held up for each of the 12 gifts for the 12 days. As with all of our cabarets at Martuni's we and our audiences all had fun, especially after a Martuni's martini or two.

Love Bites: 10 Years and Still Masticating, Mission Cultural Center, February 8 & 9, 2013.

Yes this was the tenth anniversary show of Love Bites, imagine that! In his program notes, Billy Sauerland wrote "Tonight's show is our 10th anniversary of this show and features some of the most beloved (or most biting, perhaps) songs from a decade of Love Bites. It is a pleasure to welcome back former LGCSF Artistic Director Stephanie Lynne Smith to help me co-emcee tonight's performance. As you may know, the tradition of this anti-Valentine's cabaret began under her direction, and since this year marks a first major anniversary, I am pleased to have her with us."

We were 33 strong for this show. The first act began with the full chorus singing "This Marriage" and "Down With Love." Next was a song from the Broadway musical "Avenue Q" called "Schadenfreude" and was performed by a sextet - Jason LeBrun, Carol Chen, Howard Miller, Tom McElroy, Janice Placido and Scott Turco. This was followed by Jed Herman singing "Beauty School Dropout" from "Grease." Our favorite deranger of songs, Yolanda DeByle, was next with "My Funky Valentine." This was followed by the songs "Closer," "Cruel to be Kind," "These Boots Were Made for Walking," "Taylor, the Latte Boy," and "Pimp You Out" by a guest artist, Mark Etheridge. The tenors and basses sang "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out-a My Hair" and the full chorus ended Act I with "Stacy's Mom" featuring Laura Liscar as the title character.

The second act began with Shane Kroll doing "Ring Them Bells" and his was followed by "Cell Block Tango" from "Chicago" and performed by another sextet - Aaron Brewer, Andrew Field, John Gullotto, Ellen Miller, Howard Miller, and Janice Placido. Cat Dunford followed with "I Hold Your Hand in Mine" and this was followed by Wendy Tobias singing "In Short." Next Noam Szoke sang the torch song "Flush Down the Toilet of Your Heart" and this was followed by another guest artist, Liz Kennedy singing "Sensitive Song." Fernando Ruelos and the chorus sang Jack Curtis Dubowsky's all time love song "Your New Stupid Boyfriend." This was followed by Tom and Scott singing "Relationshit" and Jen Brown, the world famous Holiday Hotdog, gave it her all with "Why'd You Do It?" Next was Aaron Brewer singing "Alone" and the full chorus came on to end the show with "You Give Love a Bad Name."

We all had fun rehearsing this show and going back over these favorite songs from the past nine years of Love Bites shows and our audiences were very enthusiastic and they called out for more.

Next week's entry will be about our following cabaret at Martuni's called "Something Foolish" in honor of April Fool's Day.

Cheers, Michael Lucero

Loving Repeating - A Musical of Gertrude Stein, Mission Cultural Center, October, 2012.

As Billy, our Artistic Director, wrote in the program notes, after our successes with one-act operettas "Trial by Jury" and "Oepidus Tex," we were inspired to try a longer theatrical piece. Loving Repeating was the one we chose. The music is by Stephen Flaherty and the lyrics were by Gertrude Stein. Mr. Flaherty's best known musical was the Tony award winning musical "Ragtime."

The musical is told through a series of vignettes which came from a 1934 lecture Gertrude Stein gave at the University of Chicago. It is the story of Gertrude's relationship with writing and her romance with Alice B. Toklas. Joan Goldman played the part of Gertrude giving the lecture. Wendy Tobias played young Gertrude and Rachyl Underwood played Alice B. Toklas. Some of the other parts were Georgine Skeene played by Dale Danley and Helen Furr played by Daniel Lyons and Andra Kimball as the Dancing Cow. Just so you know, Georgine and Helen were nicknames that Gertrude and Alice used.

Our production was co-directed and choreographed by Michael Mohammed. We were all in costume and yes we all danced at some point during the show. Behind the main players, the chorus sat as a Greek chorus and what we sang were used to move the story along between the various solos and duets the main players had. Some of the songs in the musical were "A Sonatina Song," "Loving Repeating," "There are Many That I Know," "A History of One," "Firefly," "My Wife is My Life," "Men," "Kiss My Lips She Did," "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene," "The Thirteenth of April," "As a Wife Has a Cow: A Love Story," and "Do As They Do So." We had three other instrumentalists besides our wonderful pianist Paul McCurdy to accompany us. They were a second keyboard, flute and cello.

In addition to our regular Thursday rehearsals, the chorus went on a weekend retreat at the lighthouse and cottages in Half Moon Bay to work hard on the music, the dancing and of course to have fun, eat and bond with each other. All of our hard work paid off with our two performances and our audiences really enjoyed their evenings of live theatre.

Next week will be about A Shameless Show of Holiday Shite: The Sequel.

Have a wonderful week all of you wonderful singers and know that what we accomplished in our Rise concert was one of the best times I have had singing in all of my years in the chorus. You all rock my world, especially the new sopranos and altos.

Love to you, Michael Lucero

GALA Choruses Festival IX, Denver, Colorado, July 7-11, 2012

Dear gentle readers, last week I said that this History Corner would be about our fall concert, Loving Repeating. Well I was mistaken. Our next appearance was in Denver at the GALA Choruses Festival IX. This was held at the Denver Performing Arts Center.

At this GALA, there were several changes to what had happened at previous Festivals. First, the Festival was shortened to five days, there were morning Coffee Concerts where choruses applied for this were given an hour to perform their latest shows. Also there were evening Blockbuster Concerts - Songs of the Soul, a sacred concert; Our Legacy = Our Song, a history of GALA Choruses through choral commissions; Women's Chorus and Mixed Chorus Singin' in the Round, at which we sang "You Are the New Day"; Men's Chorus Commission Sing-Along; Youth Invasion Concert, which featured the LGBTI choruses; Classical Masterworks Sing-Along; and the Big Gay Sing: Express Yourself! which ended with everyone in the theatre joining a virtual worldwide choir singing Lady Gaga's "Born This Way." Also at this GALA, there were 112 choruses, 48 small ensembles and 6,000 delegates which was the largest number of delegates attending this Festival.

Our chorus and the students from Lick-Wilmerding High School all traveled to Denver and sang on July 9 in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. We performed "Harvey Milk: A Cantata" and the world premiere of our own June Bonacich's wonderful song "If Gays Ruled the World." If only that were true the world would be ever so much more fabulous. This was the first time at a GALA Festival that a high school chorus had performed with an established GALA chorus and they were all thrilled to be part of this whole new experience.

One thing that I want to talk about that really stood out for me, beside our performance, was the Youth Invasion Concert mentioned above. This concert featured the youth choruses that were there. They were Diverse Harmony, Dreams of Hope, Mosaic Youth Chorus, Perform OUTKC, and the Youth Pride Chorus. All of us in the audience were in awe of these kids getting out on that big stage at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and giving it their all for us. The performance that I will always remember was PerformOUTKC's performance of Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water." It began with a single singer singing the first verse and she was at first shy and quiet but as she got going her voice became stronger and people in the audience sang along with her to help get her over her shaky start. Then the rest of that chorus came on and finished the song and the audience gave them a standing ovation.

One of the young ladies from Lick-Wilmerding wrote an essay to GALA Choruses to write about her experience at the Festival.  She wrote about the Youth Invasion Concert and PerformOUTKC in particular and how amazed she felt when the audience spontaneously sang along to encourage the lone singer on stage. From what else I remember about her essay, she also wrote that she had gained a new understanding and respect for all of the youth chorus singers and the Lick-Wilmerding kids and the youth choruses had time to spend together at the Festival. Finally, she wrote that this time at Festival was a very real life changing experience for her.

So everyone get ready for the next GALA Festival to be held July 4-8, 2020 in Minneapolis. More on this to come from me in the near future.

Next week I will be writing about Loving Repeating, our fall concert from 2012.

Cheers, Michael Lucero

34th Annual Pride Concert, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, June 22, 2012, 7 pm & 9 pm.

This Pride Concert was a historic night for the chorus and the Freedom Band, co-producers of the concert, for a variety of reasons. First, this was the first time we had performed in the beautiful concert hall at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Second, it was the first time students from Lick-Wilmerding High School had sung with us in a Pride Concert. Third, this was the world premiere of "Harvey Milk: A Cantata" which was co-commissioned by the chorus and Lick-Wilmerding.

The composer, Jack Curtis Dubowsky, and Billy Sauerland, our director, had received the full cooperation of the Estate of Harvey Milk and the Harvey Milk Archives of the Scott Smith Collection. Also Susan Goldstein, the City Archivist of San Francisco, gave Jack and Billy full access to Harvey's original papers, which yielded texts that have never been published before. It was from these texts and the words from Harvey's famous speeches that the lyrics we would be singing came from.

There were two shows of this Pride Concert, one at 7 pm and the second at 9 pm. Each show was a little bit different in the lineup of the groups that performed with us on this night. In the first show, Voices Lesbian Choral Ensemble sang Billy Joel's "She's Got a Way," Ysaye Barnwell's "We Are," and Akasa's "World Citizen." The Golden Gate Men's Chorus performed "Gryning Vid Havert (Nautical Sunrise)," David Conte's "Everyone Sang," and "It Gets Better."

Both shows began with the Freedom Band playing "Kirkpatrick Fanfare" and we joined them to sing "O Fortuna" from Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana." Also in both shows our chorus and the students from Lick-Wilmerding performed "Harvey Milk: A Cantata" which was composed of five movements. These were I. Recruit You, II. Come Out, III. Judgment, IV. Hope and V. Postlude.

For me personally singing the words of Harvey Milk was a very moving experience. I had heard Harvey make his speeches when he was running for Supervisor in 1978. I had started working in the City Attorney's office in City Hall in March of 1978 and I was working there the day Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk were shot by Dan White so I will always have that memory.

The Freedom Band came on and played "Dreams and Proclamations," "Celebration Tribalesque," and "The Sinfonians" in both shows and we then joined the Band to perform "Dry Your Tears, Afrika."

The two choruses who were not in the first show but sang in the second show were the Oakland-East Bay Gay Men's Chorus and they sang "Feeling Good," "Dentro Il Mio Cuor," and "I Sing Out." Also the Lollipop Guild, a small group of the SFGMC sang "All My Loving," "Somewhere" from "West Side Story," "Too Straight Polka," and ended with "Rock the Boat." Again this was another wonderful night of collaboration with all of our great performing groups and the students who brought their own energy to us and the concert. Our audiences also had a great time because we all heard immediate positive feedback in the lobby after the shows.

Next week I will be writing about "Loving Repeating" which was our fall show.

Cheers, Michael Lucero

Composing Together: Spring Choral and Orchestral Concert & Gala
Ehrer Theatre, Lick-Wilmerding High School, April 27, 2012

Hello faithful readers. Thank you for the feedback you have given me. First, I want to give you a bit more background about our artistic director, William Sauerland. He was also the Director of Vocal Music at Lick-Wilmerding High School. This is how the collaboration between our chorus and these high school singers came about and how we were guests of these young people on their spring concert. In preparation for this concert, our chorus and the students began rehearsing "Harvey Milk: A Cantata," a new work composed by Jack Curtis Dubowsky with words by Harvey Milk. I will be writing more about this in next week's entry.

This concert highlighted Lick-Wilmerding's various musical entities. The evening began with selections of chamber music by J. S. Bach, G. F. Handel, Karl Abel and Edward Elgar. The next part of the concert featured their chamber orchestra. Their first piece is what gave the concert its name - Composing Together: The Orchestra Project. They played a couple of songs that had their world premiere - "Malted Milk Ball Gelato" and "Waking Up." These were followed by more traditional chamber orchestra pieces by Gyorgy Ligeti and Leroy Anderson.

After intermission, the high school Vocal Ensemble sang three Beatles songs, "Can't Buy Me Love," "If I Fell," and "Eleanor Rigby" and finished with "Not While I'm Around" by Stephen Sondheim.

Next the Women's Chorus sang "Always Remember," which is a traditional Irish blessing. Next was "The Water is Wide" and they finished with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'." Next the small women's group The Waves sang "I Got Rhythm" and "Mr. Sandman."

Next the Men's Chorus came on and sang "Set Me As a Seal" by L. Farnell. Next was an Irish folk song "Star of the County Down" with our Jason LeBrun accompanying them on flute. The men ended with "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" by Monty Python star Eric Idle.

LGCSF was next on the program and we sang "Look to the Rainbow" and "Down by the Sally Garden" with Jason accompanying us on flute. The evening ended with all singers onstage to sing a sneak peek of "Harvey Milk: A Cantata - Movement I: Recruit You." The final piece was Leonard Cohen's beautiful hymn "Hallelujah."

This concert was a real learning experience for all of us as this was the first time we had been invited by a high school music department to take part in one of their concerts. It was good for us to hear these wonderful young musicians playing and singing their music. Certainly we had a new audience in the form of all the parents and families of the students and we felt welcomed by all of them.

Next week's entry will be the 34th Annual Pride Concert 2012.

Cheers, Michael Lucero

Rainbows and Leprechauns: A St Patty's Day Cabaret, Martuni's Piano Bar, March 19 & 20, 2012.

This cabaret was our second show of 2012 with two more to come before the chorus heads to Denver to sing at the GALA Festival. More on that to come later. We were busy the first half of 2012.

Between Love Bites and this show we only had about a month to put this together and rehearse the songs. We all, chorus and soloists, stepped up to make this a good show for our audience with guidance from Billy and Paul giving us his wonderful accompaniment. The chorus opened with "If You're Irish, Come Into the Parlor" and next was "Look to the Rainbow" with Mary Cantrell and Michael McClure soloing with the chorus backup and Jason LeBrun on flute.

We next sang "Down by the Sally Gardens" and Jason accompanied us on his flute. Next Mary was front and center as she sang about "Leprechaun Stew." The next two were Irish folk songs sung by Dale Danley and Maureen Bogues - "Muirsheen Durkin" and "Whiskey in the Jar." Following Dale and Maureen was Billy and Rachyl Underwood singing two songs - "Always Remember (An Irish Blessing)" and "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows."

No St. Patrick's Day show would be complete without "My Wild Irish Rose" which was performed by the quartet of Fernando Ruelos, Daniel Lyons, Michael McClure and Tom McElroy. Jim Oerther followed that by singing Enya's "May It Be."

Two more Irish folk songs followed. First was "Biddy McGraw" sung by Maureen Bogues, Yolanda DeByle, Joselle Monarchi and Linda Rodriguey. After that came "Star of County Down" sung by Maureen, Yolanda, Kim Hargreaves, Joselle, Linda and Wendy Tobias with Jason on flute.

Next up was Joan Goldman singing "The Irish Ballad" by Tom Lehrer. Next were three songs from Sesame Street - first "Frogs in the Glen" sung by Wendy, "Bein' Green" sung by Jade Miller and third was "The Rainbow Connection" sung by Daniel Lyons with the chorus.

For our finale and audience sing along Mark Higgins and chorus sang "When Irish Eyes are Smiling," followed by "Over the Rainbow" and ending with "Danny Boy." I remember the green beer and Martuni's martinis flowing and everyone joining on these last three songs. Lots of fun for all of us.

Next week will be about a joint concert with musicians and singers from Lick-Wilmerding High School and the chorus which took place at the high school auditorium. Stay tuned.

Cheers, Michael Lucero

Love Bites and So Did the 80s, Mission Cultural Center, February 10 & 11, 2012.

Hello my chorus family. If you will indulge me I would like to share a bit more of our history aside from our shows. As I was trying to get to sleep a couple of nights ago I was wondering what more I can put in this history blog. We were having dinner with a friend on Lakeshore in Oakland recently and I remarked that the chorus had sung in the nearby Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church as guests of Oakland East Bay Gay Men's Chorus several times during Oakland Pride. That got me to thinking about all of the venues too numerous to name that have welcomed us to put on our concerts. We have sung in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Los Altos, Modesto, and at GALA Festivals in Seattle, Denver (3 times), San Jose, Tampa, Montreal, and Miami. I have wonderful memories of all of these. And now Love Bites.

Once again we were back at the Mission Cultural Center for our 9th annual anti-Valenine's Day cabaret. This was our way of keeping that sappy, lovey-dovey, schmaltzy Hallmark holiday in check. How do you remember the 80s? It was a decade of big hair and big shoulders, synthesizers, Sony walkmans and early CD players. For this show we had our wonderful choreographer Michael Mohammed and guest soloist, Katya Smirnoff-Skyy.

The show began with an 80s Dance Party Medley which included "Flashdance," "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," "I Love Rock n' Roll," "Total Eclipse of the Heart." "Let's Hear It For the Boy," (with new lyrics) "Material Girl," (one of our tenors Alvin Thomas rocked this one) and "Footloose." Next was "If I Had a Hammer" with lyrics deranged by Yolanda DeByle. Tom McElroy next sang "I Think We're Alone Now" followed by Scott Turco singing "Only in My Dreams." Next Janice Placido performed "Heaven is a Place on Earth" and next Katya sang Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." Next up Daniel Lyons sang another Cyndi song "Time After Time" and this was followed by Wendy Tobias singing ABBA's "Winner Takes It All." Certainly no 80s show would be complete with an ABBA song. Next was a duet with Jade Miller and Andrew Field singing "All Out of Love." Michael Mohammed was next with Tina's "What's Love Got To Do With It?" and the chorus backed up Dale Danley singing "Love Bites" and we ended the first act with a Bon Jovi tribute singing "Livin' on a Prayer" and "You Give Love a Bad Name."

One thing I have to put in before getting to Act 2. This was when Whitney Houston had died and we had a big heart onstage with our message of love for her.

We began Act 2 with the chorus singing a medley of TV show theme songs. This was lots of fun for us. First was "Everywhere You Look" from "Full House." Some of the chorus produced a video of this song with shots of the house from Alamo Square Park. Next was "Brand New Life" from "Who's the Boss," then "As Long As We Got Each Other" from "Growing Pains." We ended the medley with "Thank You for Being a Friend" from "The Golden Girls" and this also included a video with four of us as Blanche, Rose, Dorothy and Sophia - what a hoot.

Next came a Family Feud skit with Katya Smirnoff-Skyy as hostess. We invited members of the audience to participate in this game show skit and this was lots of fun and there were prizes.

Mary Cantrell then sang "Every Breath You Take" and she rocked it and this was by Paul Michael Alves putting his take on "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This" by Eurhythmics. And then Jim Oerther performed with a striptease the song "Tainted Love" and was it ever tainted. This was followed by Howard Miller singing what we called "The Hello Medley" featuring songs with "hello" in their title. Next came Katya leading us in "True Colors" and this featured a video of pictures of our chorus angels as we remembered them and sang "you are beautiful like a rainbow."

The chorus ended the show a tribute to Michael Jackson where we sang and danced to these songs:

"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," "Bad," "Beat It," "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" and of course "Thriller" with Jason LeBrun as soloist. We all had a blast putting this show together through lots of hard work at rehearsals and then onstage in front of a very appreciative audience.

Next week will be all about Rainbows and Leprechauns: A St. Patty's Day Cabaret.

Cheers, Michael Lucero