A
WISE
WOMAN
once
said,
“Music
makes
the
people
come
together.”
Granted,
that
wise
woman
was
Madonna,
but
the
message
is
no
less
true.
There
are
few
things
in
this
life
that
are
more
uniting
than
music.
Ask
anyone
who
has
ever
felt
the
love
among
an
excited
crowd
at
a
large
concert.
That
unifying
principle
will
be
felt
in
Montreal
this
weekend,
when
thousands
of
gay
and
lesbian
singers
from
around
the
world
perform
as
part
of
a
weeklong
gay
choral
festival
sponsored
by
GALA
Choruses
(the
Gay
&
Lesbian
Association
of
Choruses
Inc.).
“One
of
the
things
I’ve
heard
over
and
over
again
is
if
you
want
to
sing,
join
a
chorus,
and
if
you
want
to
change
the
world,
join
a
queer
chorus,”
says
TC
Duong,
a
tenor
from
Ties
Optional,
a
six-member
ensemble
of
the
Lesbian
&
Gay
Chorus
of
Washington.
“It’s
great
to
hear
a
repertoire
that
really
reflects
our
lives.”
Ties
Optional
is
one
of
five
local
choruses
and
ensembles
that
will
be
traveling
to
Canada
to
participate
in
the
7th
International
Festival
presented
by
the
D.C.-based
GALA
Choruses
from
July
17-24.
Comedian
Lily
Tomlin
is
scheduled
to
perform
during
a
night
of
comedy
at
the
festival
on
Wednesday,
July
21.
The
festival
is
scheduled
to
draw
about
5,500
gay
and
gay-supportive
singers
to
Montreal,
representing
167
choruses
and
ensembles
from
seven
countries,
according
to
Barbara
McCullough-Jones,
executive
director
of
GALA
Choruses.
“Certainly
they
enjoy
the
music,
which
is
the
primary
focus,”
she
says.
“But
a
lot
of
people
get
very
empowered
to
go
back
to
their
communities
and
live
their
lives
more
openly
and
more
honestly.”
DUONG,
WHO
SAYS
he
has
been
to
the
festival
before,
describes
the
experience
as
“amazing.”
Ties
Optional
typically
includes
pop
music
and
“fun”
songs
in
its
repertoire,
he
says,
and
the
group
will
perform
a
few
original
pieces
at
the
festival
as
well
as
a
song
in
French
“to
show
how
bad
our
French
really
is.”
GALA
was
founded
21
years
ago,
after
14
choruses
banded
together
to
share
ideas
and
repertoires.
The
international
festival
is
held
every
four
years;
the
last
one
took
place
in
San
Jose,
Calif.,
in
2000.
“What
we
want
to
do
is
to
provide
to
the
GALA
community
a
better
sense
of
what
Jewish
music
has
to
offer,”
says
Michael
Resnick,
the
director
of
Tach’shitim,
a
choral
ensemble
from
Washington’s
egalitarian
synagogue
Bet
Mishpachah.
“For
so
many
years,
the
general
populace
has
looked
at
Jewish
music
as
either
an
Israeli
folksong
or
a
couple
of
Hanukkah
songs
at
the
holiday
program
—
mostly
the
latter,”
Resnick
says.
“What
we
want
to
do
is
show
folks
that
there’s
a
lot
more
to
Jewish
faith-based
music
than
just
religious
music
and
Hanukkah
songs.”
In
addition
to
an
Israeli
folksong,
the
eight-member
chorus
plans
to
sing
a
liturgical
piece
inspired
by
the
Italian
Renaissance,
a
lullaby
in
a
Spanish
dialect,
and
several
songs
in
English
that
Resnick
says
might
be
very
familiar
to
Christians.
Bread
&
Roses
Feminist
Singers,
another
local
choir,
plans
to
send
11
of
its
16
members
to
the
festival.
Carol
Wheeler,
a
14-year
veteran
of
the
chorus,
says
the
group
has
a
wide
range
of
song
styles,
but
that
it
never
forgets
its
political
roots,
having
been
formed
in
1978
as
a
result
of
the
women’s
movement.
“We
do
folksongs,
arrangements
of
Broadway
stuff,
original
music
from
members,
so
it’s
a
little
bit
of
everything,”
Wheeler
says.
“But
we
never
forget
the
‘feminist’
in
our
name.”
This
will
be
the
third
International
Festival
in
which
Bread
&
Roses
has
participated.
“We’re
looking
forward
to
it
because
it’s
always
a
wonderful
way
to
pick
up
a
new
repertoire
and
to
hear
other
choruses
from
Europe
and
Australia
that
we
wouldn’t
normally
get
a
chance
to
hear,”
Wheeler
says.
One
other
local
musical
group,
the
Gay
Men’s
Chorus
of
Washington,
also
will
be
heading
to
Montreal
in
two
distinct
capacities.
About
125
members
of
the
overall
chorus
will
be
participating,
as
will
16
members
of
Potomac
Fever,
the
chorus’s
a
cappella
ensemble.
Now
in
its
23rd
season,
GMCW
has
participated
in
a
number
of
previous
international
chorus
festivals,
according
to
David
Bielenberg,
the
group’s
executive
director.
And
members
are
excited
about
taking
part
in
the
festivities
next
week.
“Having
so
many
organizations
participate
—
having
5,000
people
converge
on
a
city
—
it
just
shows
the
power
of
who
we
are
as
a
community,”
Bielenberg
says.
