History : Part I
The
story that follows
is longtime chorus member Paul Nelson's (lower bass) memories of the
early years of Seattle Men's Chorus. Originally he wrote these columns strictly
for new singing members to give them a sense of the history of our chorus.
We thank him for his generosity in allowing us to reprint them here.
25th Anniversary Program
View our 25th anniversary timeline »
The Early Years : 1979 - 1988
By Paul Nelson, Lower Bass
In the summer of 1979, Seattle Men's Chorus' founders were busy publicizing the inaugural rehearsal with classified ads in the Seattle Gay News, and other media announcements such as this one in the August issue of the Dorian Group Newsletter:
SOON: A SEATTLE MEN'S CHORUS!
"The Seattle Men's Chorus brings together individuals of contemporary lifestyles whose interests lie in the promotion of music within our community ... The Chorus is developing a varied repertoire of both classical and popular music to perform in concert throughout greater Seattle. In addition, the chorus has long-range plans to record, to tour, and other exciting possibilities. The first rehearsal will be Monday, September 10 ..."
SEASON ONE: 1980-1981
Early in 1979, several members of Seattle's gay Grace Gospel Chapel went to San Francisco, saw the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus perform and said, "We can do that!" and came home to start a similar group in Seattle. C. David George, who is still an Seattle Men's Chorus season ticket holder, engaged in an extensive correspondence with Jay Davidson, SFGMC's Manager, who was extremely helpful in writing back with responses to his dozens of questions. The organizers found a conductor for the new group, Richard Dollarhide, who happened to have some connection with Seattle's First United Methodist Church, and they arranged for that church to be the chorus's rehearsal home from that first night.
The original pianist, Jerry Pierce, was also a member of Grace Gospel. The Chorus placed classified ads in the SGN and newsletters of various community organizations that summer recruiting singers, and 22 guys signed in the first night.
Some of the singers at the very beginning had very limited musical skills (some didn't read music at all and had to learn by rote memorization), so it took several months to learn the first piece, and 9 months to put together a full-length show (even with a subgroup, soloists, and duets taking part of the show).
I was in the audience for that June 1980 show, in the auditorium at the Museum of History and Industry. I remember that there was a folk dance group meeting in rooms above the auditorium, and until they finished at 9 there were occasional loud thumps overhead. The Chorus sang It's a Grand Night For Singing, and when the verses came around about stars and moon, a few guys on the back row of the risers held up stars and a moon on sticks and waved them.
Shortly after that show, conductor Richard Dollarhide and the Seattle Men's Chorus board had one of those power struggles that organizations go through, and parted company. Consequently, the chorus left FUMC and moved up to the little German Lutheran Church just east of the Broadway Reservoir for a while. The conducting eventually was taken on by Edward M. Pounds, a very fine bass solo singer, who prepared Seattle Men's Chorus for its first Holiday show at Meany Hall in December 1980. The concert paid little homage to the season with a mere 4 holiday songs included.
Early in 1981, Pounds grew discontented with his position as Seattle Men's Chorus Director and gradually withdrew from rehearsals. Into the sudden leadership vacuum stepped Chet Forward, a member of the chorus who had been a junior college choir director, and Dennis Coleman, who was the Minister of Music for a local Baptist church, and who was in the process of coming out. They jointly prepared the chorus for the June 1981 concert held in the auditorium of Lincoln High School and split the conducting duties. Later, having been dismissed from his church position, Dennis got the nod from the Board to continue, at the slightly-less-than-living-wage of $200/month.
I still remember well the June 1981 show's rendition of Teddy Bear's Picnic (arranged by Dennis). A guy in a bear costume entered from offstage carrying a picnic basket, pranced in... stopped short realizing that his gait was less than butch, then strode purposefully forward, set down a picnic blanket, sat and unpacked his picnic of... Perrier and yogurt, the quintessential upscale diet of the early 80s.
A few weeks after that, SFGMC came to town and performed in the Opera House, the last stop on their 9-city national tour. We did not assist significantly in that appearance, nor house them (they stayed in a hotel). The Opera House was only about half full, but the show was electrifying. I had goose bumps about half of the whole evening. I have a recording they made of the tour repertoire, and it's still quite good.
The tour was not without problems: the airline unilaterally renegotiated its contract with them just before the trip, when it was too late for them to arrange any alternative, and concert ticket sales were below budget. The consequence: a loss of $250,000, a staggering amount in those days. Several of their members (including a non-singing associate!) put second mortgages on their homes to cover that debt, and SFGMC began many years of lean-budget programming and big-time fundraising.
While a financial failure, San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus' tour was definitely a watershed in the gay and lesbian choral movement, and the effort it cost them is one of the reasons why they are still accorded a position of honor in the closing show of GALA festivals.
Seattle Men's Chorus expanded dramatically that summer, doubling from about 65 to 130; we put a lot of effort into recruiting that summer. Those efforts, along with the June show's increased quality, and excitement from the SFGMC show, resulted not only in more singers but also in the chorus attracting better-skilled singers. We eventually found that some of the original guys were having trouble keeping up, and we engaged a music teacher to come in an hour before rehearsals and give music-skills classes to those who wanted to improve.
In those days, we rehearsed from 7 to 9:30 each Monday, and we had sectional rehearsals at somebody's home once or twice a month. The sectionals had a consistent problem: there was fairly heavy absenteeism, and invariably the guys who were absent were the ones who really needed the rehearsal. Eventually, Dennis got the rehearsal time advanced to 6:30 and eliminated those sectionals.
