Portland Gay Men's Chorus

Performances: pgmc holds three main concerts and a few smaller events each year. While covid-19 continued to have an impact on audiences and membership, pgmc was able to return to live performances in fiscal year 2022-23. The first concert of the season, "light the way home," was pgmc's traditional holiday concert and represented pgmc's first in-person concert since the pandemic. The next show, "the body electric," was pgmc's celebration of the human potential for creating a more just and equitable world. Cascade, pgmc's small ensemble group, presented its second in-person solo event, "it's complicated," selling just over 300 seats. The season ended with a pride concert, "disney: pride in concert" which was a record-breaking concert for pgmc in many ways: 1) it was the first time pgmc partnered (continued on sch o) with the Oregon symphony to present a concert, 2) this was the most successful selling concert over pride weekend with two scheduled performances rather than one (total of 3,299 tickets), and 3) pgmc was able to support a local elementary school, when their anticipated pride celebration had to be canceled due to threats and vandalism from outside groups, by offering free tickets to students and their families.

Outreach: through pgmc's community outreach efforts, audience members have learned about overcoming homophobia, made the life-changing decision to come out, developed positive personal identities, and addressed issues relating to hiv prevention. This season, just coming out of the covid-19 pandemic, pgmc celebrated the first season of its new artistic director and conductor. The Chorus also supported the Portland and vancouver pride events, and shared stories at concerts of being Gay, trans, and finding love in unexpected places. The Chorus is dedicated to reaching the broadest audience by providing speakers/performers at schools or non-profit events and, when possible, performing special concerts throughout Oregon. Members have spoken or performed at schools, universities, and civic groups,(continued sch o) and in recent years, the Chorus has perfored outreach concerts in over 14 communities throughout Oregon and Washington. Occasionally, the Chorus will perform in the Portland metropolitan area for lgbt and lgbt-supportive events that are consistent with our mission. Outreach events are typically produced by local nonprofit organizations and all the proceeds from these events are returned to those local nonprofit organizations. Although pgmc receives more outreach requests than it can accommodate, the Chorus schedules on average three to four outreach events in a season, between october and june. With the pandemic still on people's minds, we did not do any outreach concerts in Oregon in fiscal year 2022-23 but are planning more in the near future.

Membership: historically, more than 1,600 people from within the community have been members of the Chorus. The pandemic greatly curtailed the organization's membership, and the Chorus finds itself still facing challenges due to the pandemic. This season there were about 110 active members. Members of the Portland Gay Men's Chorus do not have to be from Portland, Gay, a man, nor sing in the Chorus. Pgmc is proud to be able to say that its membership continues to represent a full spectrum of diversity and is fully representative of the community as a whole. The bylaws, since inception, have stated: "anyone shall be eligible for membership in the Chorus, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, marital or veteran's status, or disability." (continued on sch o)pgmc's members come from all walks of life, including nationally, ethnically, politically, spiritually, musically, and vocationally. Members have come from many countries including china, india, indonesia, japan, singapore, taiwan, vietnam, panama, peru, france, germany, ireland, and even canada. Members of the Chorus participate in the following activities: monday weekly rehearsals, an annual retreat, and between 4 to 6 all-day rehearsals each year. Financial assistance to members with limited means for dues and retreat is awarded on a need basis.