NYC Gay Men's Chorus to celebrate Pride at Carnegie Hall
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- For 40 years, the New York City Gay Men's Chorus has been lifting spirits, inspiring resilience and offering community through song.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the chorus will take the stage at Carnegie Hall for a very special performance.
We invite you to watch our special "ABC 7 Celebrates World Pride NYC" on Saturday, June 22 at 7:00 p.m. hosted by Ken Rosato on Channel 7. Then join our team of Ken, Lauren Glassberg, Sam Champion and Kemberly Richardson for live coverage of WorldPride NYC 2019 on Channel 7 and abc7NY.com beginning Sunday, June 30 beginning at 12:00 p.m.
First, Charles Beale will lead the chorus through some more recognizable songs.
"The first half is about light and joy, really," he says.
And then comes the second half, featuring a brand new commissioned work called "Quiet No More."
It's a choral suite made up of eight movements from six different LGBTQ composers.
"We chose one for each movement, because we want the different voices of the LGBT community to be heard throughout the piece," said Beale.
Julian Hornik is one of those composers.
"The parameters that were set were to cover everything from the morning after the riots to basically marriage equality," he said. "So kind of like the extent of everything," he added, laughing.
Julian graduated from Yale, where he focused on LGBTQ history. He continued his research to write the song "We Walked."
"I hadn't really thought about it for six months," he said, "and then came in and was walloped by this wall of sound by these men, and it was... it's insane. It's just crazy."
"We make people cry, that's what we do," said Beale. "I was actually unprepared by how much the music touched the singers."
For "Quiet No More," the New York City singers will be joined on stage by 300 other members of LGBTQ choruses from around the country - a choral community connecting for a very important milestone.
Find more Pride stories from this year and year's past at abc7NY.com/pride.
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