Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus is celebrating its 35th anniversary with “Philly Made,” a series of concerts commemorating the city’s contribution to music this weekend at Prince Music Theater.
PGMC President Adam Funck and artistic director Joseph J. Buches said “Philly Made” will include songs from a wide range of musical genres and styles from artists and composers who originated in and around Philadelphia. At times the selections will reach back as far as the 1950s, with songs made famous on “American Bandstand,” as well as selections from Randall Thompson’s “Frostiana” and Leonard Bernstein’s best musicals.
“We’re doing everything from classical to pop,” Buches said. “We’re doing things like Hall & Oates, Patti LaBelle, The Hooters — groups that originated in Philadelphia — and some other people who are local like Taylor Swift.”
“We went out to Doylestown for P!nk so we did the surrounding regions as well for the pop stars,” Funck added.
Since Philly natives have contributed a lot to the pantheon of pop, R&B and rock music, Buches said the chorus had a lot of material from which to choose. A committee of members explored all the options.
“We sat down and came up with a ton of songs and we narrowed that down to what we thought people would like from those artists,” Buches explained.
PGMC is known for putting on spectacular performances and, with this being its 35th anniversary, it’s going to pull out all the stops for these shows, right?
The chorus’ artistic director doesn’t necessarily see the occasion that way.
“I approach these concerts as a new concert,” Buches said. “I don’t try to outdo prior concerts. If we do, that’s great.”
Funck agreed.
“From a numbers standpoint, we’re not looking to blow it out of the water,” he said. “But we have changed how we’ve done some of our marketing. We’re upping the levels for the VIP reception for our donors. We’ve pulled out some of the stops for certain things. But as for the actual numbers, we treat each concert like they’re equally important.”
Reflecting on the chorus’ 35-year history, Funck said that, while times have changed over the three-and-a-half decades, PGMC’s mission has largely stayed the same.
“Like any nonprofit, it’s all about funding and grants and donors, as well as keeping the audience entertained,” he said. “Then also working on our mission as a nonprofit, with our outreach programs making sure we are engaging the community in that way. It’s about keeping yourself in front of people, reminding them what you do, why you’re important and also putting on a great show so that they’re entertained and want to come back.”
Buches said the chorus itself has grown in size and popularity over the course of its history.
“When I started with the chorus 13 years ago, there were only 35 singers and the concerts were smaller,” he said. “We’ve grown now to theaters and bigger production value and more instrumentalists. We’ve commissioned new works; one of the works we commissioned last year is actually being published this year. We’ve done concerts with Anthony Rapp from ‘Rent’ and countless others. There’s a lot of things over the years that we’ve encountered that have really helped us to grow our artistry and professionalism.”
Buches added that a constant influx of new singers tries out for the chorus every year.
“We have maybe 10 people in the chorus who’ve been with us over 15 years,” he said. “The majority of the singers right now are newer, from the past 10 years. We do auditions in August and December and we usually get 30-40 auditionees. People are still interested in being part of the group.”
Despite evolving political and social climates for LGBT people in the last 35 years, Buches and Funck agreed the role PGMC plays in the community continues to be important.
“For the foreseeable future, there’s always going to be a need for us to continue to deliver our message of tolerance and acceptance, even as the pendulum swings in favor of the LGBT community,” Funck said. “We’re not going anywhere. There are always bullies in school. People need to understand that our differences make us great.”
“Philadelphia has been lucky as far as being on the more positive side of LGBT issues,” Buches added. “Drive one hour or two hours outside of Philadelphia and the mindset of people is totally different. The relevance of a gay chorus is even more so now with the times, and it’s important to the lives of young people — and anybody, actually — to keep that open-mindedness and understanding of who we are and what it is we do.”
As for the chorus’ future, Funck and Buches said they envision it continued expansion in both mission and message.
“We’ve grown the outreach aspect of our program,” Funck said. “Reaching out to the community as a whole and making a difference, that is something we are very proud of and we look forward to growing that program in the coming years.”
“We want to entertain but we want to educate as well,” Buches added. “So over the years we’ve done concerts addressing the issue of gay teen suicide. We’ve talked about crystal-meth addiction. Next March we’re doing a piece called ‘Two Boys Kissing,’ which is basically a coming-out story based on the book; it’s addressing issues in a way that people can understand and it keeps things going as far as what’s on people’s minds and how we can try to share that message and inspiration.”
The Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus celebrates its 35th anniversary with “Philly Made,” 8 p.m. March 24 and 2 and 8 p.m. March 25 at Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St. For more information or tickets, call 215-422-4580 or visit www.pgmc.org.