Conducting the all-Australia LGBTQ Chorus at 'Out and Loud'

The Out and Loud Festival is Australia’s major LGBTQ choral festival, and an opportunity for the major Aussie LGBTQ groups to get together every couple of years, to sing for each other and sing together. I was booked to direct the combined chorus, which included singers from the major choruses from Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Western Australia.

I was booked to direct the combined chorus, which included singers from the Canberra Gay and Lesbian Qwire, the Gay and Lesbian Singers of Western Australia, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir, the Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus and Youth Pride Chorus, and Brisbane Lesbian & Gay Pride Qwire and the newest choir to the Out & Loud family QTas, Tasmania’s own Gay and Lesbian Qwire.

We worked for 5 days, the spirit was very special and the joy was palpable. We did two performances as a combined group. The first on Saturday 13th July was in the extra-ordinary MONA, a world-class museum of contemporary art cut out of the sandstone rock, and second in Hobart’s main Federation Concert Hall, where we sang opposite the other main ensembles created for the festival. These included a (nother) kids’ choir directed by Harley Mead (see my previous post about Maryborough), an a cappella choir directed by Deke Sharon and a classical group, directed by David Lawrence. We also workshopped some material from Popular Voiceworks 2.

Below is a picture of how we looked in the final show at the Federation Concert Hall on the 14th.

And here is our group photo of the workshop group of 120, which was augmented at the end of the Festival by the ‘weekenders’, who brought the group up to 170 for the final couple of days. Feedback was amazing, and it was an especially inspiring few days, certainly one of the highlights of my professional year.