All of the virtual choral music innovations of the last 14 months have been amazing, but there's nothing quite like a live performance. So I was there (virtually) on Saturday --- Harvey Milk Day --- to watch the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus perform in person for the first time since March of 2020 --- socially distanced but free of masks --- in the Mission Dolores Basilica parking lot.
There had been no face-to-face practice sessions, so the selections all were familiar pieces performed many times.
Holly Near's "Singing for Our Lives," for example, performed for the first time by chorus members who walked from their fourth formal rehearsal during the fall of 1978 to join a candlelight vigil on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Nov. 27, 1978, following the assassinations of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.
And Billy Steinberg's and Tom Kelly's "True Colors," most notably performed by Cyndi Lauper.
Here's the YouTube version of Saturday's performance, released Tuesday by the chorus:
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