Donate to make Lesbian and Gay Band Association's first commissioned work a reality

The Lesbian and Gay Band Association (LGBA) is about to make history - again. We want you to be part of it.

At LGBA's 30th Anniversary conference in Dallas, we will premiere our first commissioned composition. This piece - composed by Michael Markowski will celebrate 30 years of growth and accomplishment. It will also further our mission of music, visibility and pride for years to come.

"Commissioned by the Lesbian and Gay Band Association for its 30th Anniversary" will be printed at the top of every part. Can you imagine how powerful that will be? To be sold through music publishers, this piece will be distributed world-wide and played by numerous schools and community bands. It will educate many but more importantly console and empower isolated LGBT youth.

Since early this year, LGBA has been quietly raising funds to pay for the commission. Our goal is $7,500. Thanks to a handful of generous individuals, we have raised $5,650 towards that goal.

See why one donor loves band and chose to be a lead donor for this project:

We hope you love band as much as Steve.

We need to raise the remaining $1,850 by the end of June to fully pay for this commission. We hope you will consider giving $25, $50 or any amount you can afford. Click here to give now.

If you give $100 or more, you get invited to a special reception with the composer in Dallas. Donors who give $250 or more will also receive a signed copy of the score, a recording of its inaugural performance, significant recognition at the concert and featured on the LGBA website. To give, please click here:

For 30 years, we have spread music, visibility and pride to more than 40 cities in north America, Europe and Australia. Please join LGBA in further spreading music, visibility and pride to communities throughout the world for years by donating to this campaign.

A look back at San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band at the SF mayoral inauguration

Heidi Beeler looks back in the Bay Tmes at her participation with the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, a member of FGG member organization LGBA, in the recent inauguration of the city's new mayor:


On Sunday, January 8, we musicians from the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band performed for the inauguration of Mayor Ed Lee, sworn in that day as the 43rd mayor of San Francisco by Diane Feinstein. The band was one of many local performers to provide entertainment, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Girls and Boys Choruses of San Francisco, Leung’s White Crane Dragon and Lion Dance Association, World Arts West, Beach Blanket Babylon and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. It was a symbolic nod to our city’s diversity, and a fitting gesture from Mayor Lee, whose inaugural speech emphasized the need to come together with civility.

There’s nothing quite like playing in the City Hall rotunda. You take your place at the top of the Grand Staircase, dwarfed by neoclassical carvings. And when you play, the music ricochets around the marble halls and columns, circling the inside of the enormous dome until you find you’re accompanying your own echo in a room almost as old as the City itself. The inauguration was attended by every living mayor of San Francisco – Diane Feinstein, Art Agnos, Frank Jordan, Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom, even George Moscone’s widow, Gina – and by national and state officials including Nancy Pelosi, Mark Leno, Kamala Harris, Tom Ammiano. In that setting before that audience, it felt like the music echoed back through history. The effect was haunting.

Mayoral inauguration in San Francisco has a definite gay angle

On 8 January in San Francisco's Beaux-Arts City Hall rotunda, Ed Lee, the city's first elected Asian-American mayor was inaugurated.

The ceremony was purposely a low-key affair for the 43rd mayor in San Francisco's history, in keeping with the city's financial woes. After the swearing-in ceremony, Lee and his family spent more than an hour shaking hands and posing for pictures with well-wishers in his office.

Marking a true bit of local history, five former mayors were in attendance (see accompanying photo): Gavin Newsom, Willie Brown, Art Agnos, Frank Jordan, and Dianne Feinstein.
A number of local organizations were invited to perform during the inauguration ceremony, including two of the City's most venerable LGBT musical organizations. The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus filled the rotunda with their voices. Following them, the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band played three selections: "What I Like About You," "If My Friends Could See Me Now," and "California Dreaming."

Read more HERE.

Meet Leslie Becker, the 1500th fan of our Facebook page!

New Yorker Leslie Becker is our 1500th fan on Facebook (facebook.com/federationofgaygames). We are delighted to share a brief profile of Leslie, a Gay Games veteran.

I'm a musician with the Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps, and as part of the Lesbian and Gay Band Association, and Gay Games in Cleveland will mark my fourth games as a member of Team Band -- New York, Chicago and Cologne being the first three. I was the co-coordinator of Team Band's involvement at Gay Games VIII in Cologne, and I will again be on the leadership team for Gay Games 9 in Cleveland when Team Band will bring together 250 musicians from around the world to perform not only in the Cultural Festival, but as a part of Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

The world is a better place thanks to Dr. Tom Waddell and the Gay Games and Cultural Festival. I took the flame and passed it on -- and I believe that those who come after me will do the same!

We'll be sending Leslie a copy of Take the Flame to thank her for her contributions to the Gay Games movement. You too can "like" our page. Just click HERE.

Video from Queen Urban Orchestra's latest concert

The Queer Urban Orchestra, a partner of FGG member LGBA, is a new LGBT symphonic group based in New York.

Find the program of their 12 November 2011 concert HERE.

Seattle Lesbian interview with LGBA music directors

Member organization Lesbian and Gay Band Association (LGBA) is currently holding its annual conference and concert in Seattle, hosted by the Rainbow City Band. Charlene Strong interviews some of the directors involved in the conference in the Seattle Lesbian. Here's an extract:

Directing a band is likely not an easy endeavor; with that said, was it difficult to find enough interested parties in the LGBT community in your area to put together a fully positioned band? Or, another way of looking at it, how hard was it for you to motivate our community to be a part of a band?

Michael Clark: We are blessed here in Seattle to live in a community in which the arts are alive and well, and there is a vibrant musical scene. Rainbow City Band (RCB) has grown exponentially over the past several years, and we generally have 70-plus musicians per term, with new members joining us every season. Much of our growth comes from word of mouth, and fortunately we have grown every year as words spread about how fun it is to be part of RCB…and that you can remember how to play your instrument after 20 years away from it.

Read in full HERE.

13 October 2011 / LGBA Conference and Concert in Seattle

A message from Seattle's Rainbow City Band:

The members of Rainbow City Band look forward to welcoming you to Seattle in October, 2011. You'll join over 200 other LGBT and allied musicians as we rehearse with our gifted team of conductors, participate in a variety of workshops of interest to the LGBT and music communities, and provide a memorable musical experience to our audience in Seattle.

Please explore the Lights... Camera... Action! website (see the menus above) to learn more about the weekend that awaits you. Begin the registration process using the button in the upper-right corner, and don't forget to invite your partners and friends to join you in Seattle for a great conference!

Conference Activities and Schedule

The tentative weekend schedule includes these activities:

• music rehearsals with our fantastic array of conductors
• two workshop sessions during which you may select from a variety of topics to develop musical and leadership skills, encourage the exchange of ideas and experiences among participants, and network with other LGBA members addressing similar opportunities and challenges
• a welcome reception Thursday evening and social event Saturday evening to meet other participants and unwind between other events
• an optional land and water tour of Seattle to experience local sights and local humor
• a spectacular gala concert at Seattle's McCaw Hall featuring music from the cinema!

The schedule also allows time to explore Seattle, grab a quick bite or elegant meal at one of many restaurants in the area, or deepen your cinematic experience by catching a film at the Seattle Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.
Jazz Band and Color Guard Options

Lights... Camera... Action! will present opportunities for paticipants with color guard skills or an interest in jazz performance to share their talents with our fans in Seattle and with their fellow participants.

An auditioned jazz ensemble will join the concert band on stage at our gala concert, performing arrangements of more music from the movies. Participants have the option of participating in the concert band, the jazz ensemble, or both; note that if you are selected to perform in the jazz ensemble, the rehearsal schedule conflicts with the optional Friday evening tour of Seattle. If you purchase a tour ticket when registering and are later selected for the jazz ensemble, we will refund your ticket purchase if you do not wish to give it to somebody else.


Rainbow City Band's color guard, spinOUT, will host other color guard members to jointly rehearse and perform a routine to accompany a portion of the concert band's mainstage performance. Guard members at all levels of ability are encouraged to join us for this unique performance opportunity. The rehearsal schedule for color guard members is subject to facility scheduling, but will be aligned as closely as possible to the concert band rehearsal schedule. The guard rehearsal facility is located just down the street from our host hotel.

Gay Games VIII Gala Concert: "Moon River"

Read about this concert HERE.

Gay Games VIII Gala Concert: "Va, pensiero"

Gay Games VII Festival Choir and Gay Games Symphony Orchestra at Gay Games VIII, Cologne.

Read about this concert HERE.

Gay Games VIII Gala Concert: "Somewhere" medley

Read about this concert HERE.

Gay Games VIII Gala Concert: "The Voice Inside"

Gala concert- highlight of the Gay Games Cologne

The great gala concert of the VIII. Gay Games Cologne 2010 attracted on Thursday evening (5 August) more than 800 people into the university of music and dance in Cologne.

Together with hundreds of musicians and singers the enthusiastic audience turned into an impressive scenery at this cultural highlight of the Gay Games Cologne.

A delegation of the “Rosa Funken”, who were already known to the international guests from the Village at the Neumarkt, opened the concert as flight attendants by introducing the audience to the “security procedures”. The atmosphere was thrilled by the professional performance from “Cheers San Francisco”, the gold-medal winners of the Gay Games Cheerleading Competition.

Under direction from Sten Kuth, Malte Fuhrer and humorous Helena Marion Scholz presented a wonderful program, that could be described best as “Cologne meets America”.

“Stimmfusion Köln”, a joint venture from the nine gay- lesbian choirs in Cologne with more than 100 voices, started with “Colonia Chorale”, a newly texted “Candide” from Leonhard Bernstein, arranged by Steve Nobles.

Nobles did arranged as well to an extended part the coordination of the international musicians. Followed by the Beach Boys “Good Vibrations”, as well as by “Junimond” from Rio-Reiser; and a German text about the Gay Games 2010 was set to the music of “Rum and Coca Cola”.

The specifically for the Gay Games Cologne set orchestra with musicians from the Rainbow Symphony orchestras in Paris and Cologne started their presentation with “Moon River” from Henry Mancinis. The Festival Choir, initiated for the Gay Games as well, sang the “prisoners choir” from Verdis “Nabucco”. His way right through ear and heart made “Heimweh noh Kölle”, a cologne classic from Ostermann; and the title “something inside so strong”.

San Francisco Pride Parade seen from within

Heidi Beeler tells her story from the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Band i the San Francsico Bay Times:

I’ve been Out in Gay Mecca for 20 years. On the last Sunday of every June, I make a beeline from some point west of the Ferry Building down to City Hall, crammed between convertibles and motorcycles, dodging men on roller skates dressed in day-glo G-strings and bristling with balloons, and batting down pamphlets against gale-force winds. I have helped build giant glitter-encrusted plywood cakes and a 4-foot-tall Music Man hats that are screwed onto flatbed trucks and roped to booth supports. But in 20 years, I’ve never actually seen the Pride Parade. Never watched it live end to end from a Market Street sidewalk.

As long as I’ve been Out, I’ve only seen the half block of the parade occupied by the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band at any given moment.

That and whatever contingent rides ahead of our banner, whatever contingent cruises behind our sousaphones, and the faces and photographers on either side. I joined the Band in 1991 specifically to have someone to go to the parade with, and she’s been my date every year since.

The first year I marched, the parade was amazing. I’d gone through my “I’m The Only One” phase in San Francisco (proving you really can do anything if you set your mind to it). My boss had told me that she fired a man for being gay and then noted my blushing as a smoking gun. When my clenched teeth turned into a rapid-fire eyelid tic, I quit the job and joined the Band. That year seeing Market Street festooned with rainbow flags, I secretly felt Pride was a party thrown for me. And when my band and I turned onto Market Street playing “California, Here I Come,” the roar of a million people cheering bounced around the skyscrapers over our heads and I felt like Dorothy entering the Rainbow City. Ding dong the witch was dead indeed!
Twenty years later, coming up on Pride 2011, the magic of the rainbow had worn thin before my middle-aging eyes. The Pride Committee had chalked up more abdications than Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign. After last year’s fund juggling, the theme “In Pride We Trust”

Keep reading HERE (it's worth it!)

24 June 2011 / 33rd Annual Pride Concert in San Francisco: "In Pride We Trust"

The 33rd Annual Pride Concert – five pioneering ensembles, one fabulous performance – kicks off pride weekend with music by the world’s first and most recent openly LGBTQ music ensembles performing some of the flashiest music written for chorus, orchestra and wind ensemble.

Playing one night only, the concert features Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco and San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, with special guests Golden Gate Men’s Chorus and San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus Ambassadors, emceed by Trauma Flintstone. The program includes an Americana-style tribute to honor the 2011 Pride Theme, “In Pride We Trust,” and the lifting of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.

Show starts at 8 pm, Friday, June 24 at Everett Auditorium, 450 Church Street (between 16th & 17th streets), San Francisco. Tickets are $15-$30. Wheelchair accessible. (800) 595-4TIX.

INFO HERE.

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Commander Zoe Dunning, the naval officer who was the first and only openly gay officer allowed to remain on active duty in the military concurrent with the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, will be honored with the Annual Pride Concert Recognition Award at the 33rd Annual Pride Concert. Read More.

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LESBIAN/GAY CHORUS OF SAN FRANCISCO SHOWS OFF NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AT 33rd ANNUAL PRIDE CONCERT®

In June, you expect the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco (LGCSF) to be proud, but this year they’re busting their buttons over their new artistic director. Professional countertenor William Sauerland makes his Pride Concert debut this year at the 33rd Annual Pride Concert, a family friendly event that brings together five pioneering LGBTQ musical ensembles in one fabulous show.

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BAY AREA RAINBOW SYMPHONY (BARS) JOINS 33rd ANNUAL PRIDE CONCERT® PROGRAM & PRODUCTION TEAM

The newest LGBTQ community music group in town, and one of San Francisco’s hottest concert tickets, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) joins the performance line-up for the Annual Pride Concert™, making BARS the first string orchestra to perform at the Pride Concert in the event’s 33-year history.

Cleveland's Blazing River Freedom Band seeks new members

Blazing River Freedom Band, a member of FGG member organization Lesbian and Gay Band Association, is Cleveland's LGBT/Allies concert and marching band. Over the past several years they have performed around Cleveland (including The Rock Hall) and marched in Cleveland's Gay Pride parade.

Members have also represented Cleveland across the country in other pride marches, concerts organized by the GLBA and President Obama's Inaugural Parade.

Blazing River Freedom Band is currently seeking new members. All skill levels are welcome. They have a range from music majors to people who just picked up there horn again after 30 years. They desperately need players to fill these empty chairs for brass, woodwind and percussion players in the Cleveland area.

The rehearsal space is located in the basement of Franklin Circle Christian Church, 1688 Fulton (the corner of Fulton and Franklin in the Ohio City area of Cleveland).

You can find out more about the band at their website HERE.

San Francisco Freedom Band part of celebration of Harvey Milk Day

On 22 May at the intersection of Market and Castro Streets in San Francisco, the second "Harvey Milk Day" was celebrated with powerful speeches, the opening of a new Call Center targeting youth in crisis (based in Harvey Milk's former camera store where he in turn counseled many LGBT youths seeking hope), and live music provided by the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, a member of FGG member organization LGBA. Among the speakers were many local and state politicians plus Harvey's nephew Stuart Milk.

This was the second time that gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk's birthday has been celebrated since it became an official California state holiday in 2009. The event in 2011 actually fell on what would have been Harvey's 81st birthday. Milk was shot and killed at his City Hall office in November, 1978 along with mayor George Moscone.

More about this holiday and the sponsoring Harvey Milk Foundation can be read HERE and HERE.

Photos: Thanks to Chip Hoover.

Crowd outside Harvey Milk's camera store

SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band provided live music,

Stuart Milk, nephew of Harvey, and local politicians address the crowd

Latest issue of LGBA newsletter

You can read the latest issue HERE. And sign up HERE.

LGBA board meets at Florida FFA Leadership Training Center

Laura Blake, Shelly Snider, Salvador Tovar, Betsy Smith, Scott Helms, Michael Tolliver, Erin Frawley, Mark A. Ozanick, Leslie Becker, Robb Blackwell, Travis Tester, Adam DeRosa, Chris Schlenker

A look back at Lesbian and Gay Band Association's performance in Obama Inaugural Parade

From WNYC radio's The Takeaway, preparation for FGG member organization LGBA's marching band performance in January 2009:

Another Video of LGBA in the Obama Parade

Interestingly, the most widely circulated blog "Unzipped: Gay Armenia" found the best video feed of the Lesbian and Gay Bands of America's participation in the Obama/Biden Inaugural Parade. See Unzipped: Gay Armenia. That blog says:

''The Lesbian and Gay Band Association. They are a national music organization who has concert and marching bands from cities across America, that makes up a network of Lesbian and Gay bands. Their participation marks the first time that an openly-gay and lesbian group has been invited to march in an Inaugural Parade.''

WTTG Fox5 news anchor Brian Boulter announcing on air the appearance of the LGBA in front of President Barack Obama at the viewing stand near the White House. Unfortunately, the parade started late and crowds had almost completely disappeared for the parade after waiting up to half a day in below-freezing temperatures. The LGBA appearance came 2/3 of the way into the program, and Barack and Michelle Obama can be seen waving warmly to the GLBT participants. The band reportedly had 177 people representing 17 states, and played John Philip Sousa's "The Washington Post March."

This video is also on the LGBA website.

*source: Metro Weekly / Last Word