“Royal Subject” – In its 43rd Season, the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus Keeps Calm and Carries On

When an old-timey sailing ship would encounter a storm at sea, the key to survival was keeping the storm’s lashing waves against the ship’s bow (known, in the lamentable lingo of landlubbers, as the big boat’s pointy front).  One vital component to keeping a storm’s lashing waves against the ship’s bow was keeping the ship’s bow above the churn of the mad, white brine, and the surest way to achieve that effect was the poignant jettisoning of all dispensable cargo.  

The fairly-recent pandemic and the subsequent lockdown composed a quieter, deadlier storm that forced virtually every endeavor into similar change.  For a decades-old institution like the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus, the jettisoning was especially poignant as popular culture and viral culture do not the friendliest of shipmates make.  Notes TCGMC’s Matt Hudson, “After the pandemic, we started exploring performing in different venues.”

Hudson had signed on as a singer years before the dark clouds of the pandemic began to coagulate.  “I joined TCGMC in 2017 looking for a new way to get involved in our community outside of the bar scene,” he remembers.  “I had been performing in drag for six years and was looking for another creative outlet. I had enjoyed chorus in high school and after seeing TCGMC’s Pride concert, I decided the following fall I was going to join.”

That joining, it turned out, was merely the foremast of Hudson’s community involvement—backstage beckoned just as compellingly as onstage had.  “Production was fully done by volunteers but required countless hours which was a heavy lift for our general members, so our Board of Directors decided to make a formal contracted position,” Hudson says.  “I had been acting as one of the production co-chairs at the time, a position I took up based on my love of theater and project management.”  This background in production management led, logically enough, to Matt Hudson becoming the Chorus’s first production manager.

In this capacity, Hudson’s quest for a new creative outlet has been fully realized. “Every season, we produce a more upbeat, pop style concert which typically happens during our Pride concert,” Hudson observes.  “However, this year our Pride concert will be featuring a brand-new commission that we’ll be performing for the upcoming GALA festival, so we are doing our pop concert for spring.”

Each concert needs a theme in the same way that a ship needs a sail, and coming up with those for TCGMC’s 43rd season evoked storms of a happier sort.  Catalogs Hudson: “Our artistic director, Doctor Gerald Gurss, had a think tank section with a wide variety of singers late winter of 2022 and brainstormed different themes that our singers would like to see TCGMC present.”  

The second concert‘s core was conscripted from the other side of the Atlantic.  “British artists was a theme that came up and one that resonated well with Doctor Gurss,” says Hudson.  “From there, our marketing and artistic staff worked to name the concert, and you have ‘God Save the Queens.’”

“God Save the Queens” will be presented on two consecutive nights, and this pair of presentations are…pretty much what you’d expect.  “This concert will feature all queer or queer adjacent artists,” Hudson promises.  “From Sam Smith and Boy George to Queen and Adele there is a something for everyone in this concert.”

Being both production manager and a singer offers Hudson a singular perspective on the Angophilic presentation.  “I’m most looking forward to the opening of our second act,” he anticipates.  “When I saw the lineup of music, I knew this song needed to make a statement and I hope that the audience will enjoy the vision that comes from it as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it.” 

Such creation entails a longer-term process than most might think.  “While the chorus is currently working on learning our spring concert, Doctor Gurss and I are already looking at Season 44–the theme of the concerts, the venues, et cetera,” Hudson says.  “It’s nearly impossible to solely focus on one concert at a time in this role…but it’s also one of the joys that come with the role to which I greatly enjoy.”

Those joys can pile up pretty quickly.  “I want to say not only as a singer but as one of the staff for TCGMC,” Matt Hudson proclaims, “I am proud at the advances we’ve made over the past few years since coming out of the pandemic.” 

Despite its obvious detriments, the pandemic has left an improbable legacy.  Says Hudson, “If you want to experience the magic of TCGMC from the comfort of your home we have an entire COVID season of concerts available to stream via YouTube that was truly the heart and soul of our organization and that kept many of us sane during the pandemic.”

While the lockdown forced every endeavor to grow lighter, the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus is sailing away from that silent storm by growing bigger.  “We’ve engaged a Diversity Equity and Inclusion team to help us with some of our initiatives, we’ve made our wardrobe more gender expansive, and TCGMC welcomes many singers who are on their own gender journeys,” Hudson asserts.  “It’s a wonderful organization of like-minded individuals that share their love of music that get to gather once a week from September to June.”

Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus: “God Save the Queens”
March 22-23 – both performances at 7:30p
Ted Mann Concert Hall, 2128 S 4^th St., Minneapolis
www.tcgmc.org/
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