With a little less piano and a whole lot of heart, Heartland Men’s Chorus, Kansas City’s gay men’s chorus, presents “Perfect Pitch,” a concert that celebrates the power and beauty of the human voice.

Singing mostly a cappella arrangements, the 135-voice chorus will perform songs featuring intricate arrangements of contemporary popular music including “The Good Life” by OneRepublic, “Stitches” by Shawn Mendes, and the Pentatonix arrangement of the Imagine Dragons hit “Radioactive.”

Some classics will also be offered with the same distinctive sound of Heartland Men’s Chorus, including “Ave Maria,” “Home on the Range,” and “Loch Lomond.”

“Only at an HMC concert can you hear the beauty of “Ave Maria” on the same bill as “Radioactive,” says HMC Artistic Director Dustin Cates. “We respect the serious music while bringing an exciting edge to the stage with some very popular numbers.”

As is customary with an HMC concert, the first half is more subtle and sublime, while the second half kicks it up a few notches with songs that will have the audience and the singers moving to the music and laughing to some wonderful surprises.

Guest artists include the amazing sounds of local beatboxer artist Luke Harbur who will open the ears and eyes of audience members with his unique sounds and rhythm. We’ll also be joined on stage by “Kansas City A Cappella,” a group of area high school students who bring youthful excitement to the a cappella art form.

Heartland Men’s Chorus welcomes new and returning audience members of any age to experience what The Kansas City Star calls “one of the most beloved arts institutions in Kansas City.”

“Perfect Pitch” will be performed at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 19^th and 4 p.m. Sunday, March 20^th at the historic Folly Theater at 300 W. 12^th Street in Kansas City. Tickets are available online at https://hmckc.org/tickets/ or by calling 816-931-3338. Prices range from $18 to $43 with special student pricing at $7. Come as you are, dress is casual, be ready for fun!

Heartland Men’s Chorus usually takes the summer months off, but this year the group is poised to launch a new event as part of the Kansas City Fringe Festival. The Chorus will present Big Gay Sing, an interactive sing-along variety show for four performances, July 17-19, 2015.

“It will be more of a party atmosphere, as opposed to a concert atmosphere,” says artistic director Dustin S. Cates. “And it’s all about audience participation.”

Lyrics for the songs will appear on the screen for audience members to sing along. The repertoire will feature songs familiar to audience members, including television theme songs (from “Friends,” “The Golden Girls” and “The Brady Bunch,” among others), disco hits from ABBA and The Village People, and karaoke favorites like “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Sweet Caroline.”

Kansas City’s favorite drag entertainer, Daisy Buckët, will emcee the shows and will sing with the Chorus on several numbers. Other drag entertainers, including Summer Tryst, are scheduled to appear and some audience members will be “drafted into drag” live on stage.

Big Gay Sing was a concept originally developed by the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus in 2009. The high-energy, informal, party-like atmosphere of the event made it an audience favorite and reinvigorated NYCGMC’s artistic program. Big Gay Sing became and annual event and brought the group’s music to a wider audience.

Heartland Men’s Chorus will present Big Gay Sing at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 17, 6:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Saturday, July 18, and 3:00 p.m. Sunday, July 19. All performances will take place at H&R Block City Stage at Union Station. Tickets are $10 (plus a $5 Fringe Festival button, required for admittance to any Fringe events), and are available in advance at http://kcfringe.org.

About Heartland Men’s Chorus

Proudly singing out in Kansas City since 1986, Heartland Men’s Chorus is a not-for-profit, volunteer chorus of gay and gay-sensitive people who are making a positive cultural contribution to the entire community. HMC performs a varied repertoire of music, including jazz, Broadway, popular and classical works, and regularly performs with more than 130 singers. The chorus performs a three concert season at the historic Folly Theater to an annual audience of more than 7,000, and performs dozens of community outreach performances each year throughout the Midwest.

About the Kansas City Fringe Festival

KC Fringe Festival is an annual 11-day performing and visual arts extravaganza. It straddles a thin, frayed line between mass appeal and eclectic tastes. Fringe links these two worlds together, showing that it is the bridge you take to be inspired and entertained no matter what your taste may be.

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Heartland Men’s Chorus will celebrate the diversity of the American family in its spring concert “Modern Families,” March 28 and 29, 2015, at the Folly Theater. The concert is the latest in the group’s series of “musical documentaries” that use music, narration and multi-media elements to illustrate a particular social issue.

Artistic director Dustin S. Cates has a personal connection to the topic. He and his husband are the parents of a 3 year-old son.

“I wanted to celebrate the love and dignity that all families deserve,” said Cates. “There is no such thing as a ‘typical’ family. It seems every person defines the word family in slightly different way.”

As expected from a gay men’s chorus, HMC will present a number of songs and stories specific to LGBT families, but Cates expects the concert to appeal to people from all types of families. The music included is diverse, including classical works, contemporary pop songs and rap.

Lawrence Children’s Choir will begin the concert with a set of four songs. Heartland Men’s Chorus will join them for “The Weaver,” a new commission by local composer Jacob Narverud. HMC will finish the first act with musical selections celebrating love and family, including “Luminescence,” a song written by Dr. Andrea Ramsey commemorating the birth of Cates’s son, Emmaus.

The musical documentary comprises the concert’s second act, and includes “Not My Father’s Son” from the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, Annie Lennox’s “A Thousand Beautiful Things” and Rene Clausen’s “Set Me as a Seal.” The chorus will reprise two songs by composer Robert Seeley that have been popular in previous performances: the marriage equality anthem “Marry Us” and the plaintive “In My Mother’s Eyes.”

For the first time in its history, the chorus will perform a contemporary rap number, Ryan Lewis and Macklemore’s “Same Love,” featuring a guest appearance by local rap artist EvoKlone Alex.

Narration linking the songs together comes from the stories of individual chorus members, as well as stories collected from members of the Midwest Alternative Family Alliance (MAFA), a local nonprofit group that acts as catalyst for social action on behalf of LGBT families.

Nancy Bean, a Kansas City adoption social worker and member of MAFA, will facilitate a pre-show discussion on the topic of family building in the LGBT community beginning 20 minutes prior to each performance.

To further illustrate the diversity in contemporary families, audience members are invited to submit photos of their “modern families” via the chorus’s website, to be shared on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #OurModernFamilies. To date, more than 50 photos have been received.

“Modern Families” is the second concert in the HMC’s 29th season. The group regularly performs with more than 120 singers, and draws the largest audience for choral music in the region.

Heartland Men’s Chorus presents “Modern Families” at 8:00 p.m. March 28, and 4:00 p.m. on March 30. All performances are at the Folly Theater, 300 W. 12th Street, Kansas City, Mo. Tickets range in price from $15-$40 and are available at https://hmckc.org or by calling 816-931-3338.

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Heartland Men’s Chorus has announced its 29th season, the first under the artistic leadership of Dustin S. Cates. Cates was chosen as artistic director after a national search earlier this year, and guest conducted the chorus during the spring 2014 program I Am Harvey Milk.

The season will begin with the holiday concert, Kansas City Christmas, December 5-7, 2014. The program will highlight local holiday traditions, as well as local musicians. Five Kansas City area composers, including Eugene Butler, Jake Navarud and Mark Hayes, will create new arrangements for the chorus.

More than 3,000 audience members join the chorus for its holiday program due to its mix of traditional music and outrageous humor. This season’s offering will follow the same proven format, with well-known carols (“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”) and some holiday hijinks courtesy of cast members from Kansas City’s Late Night Theatre.

March 28 and 29, 2015, the group presents Modern Families. The chorus has achieved critical and popular success with previous “musical documentaries,” combining music, narration and multi-media to illuminate a timely social issue. The changing face of American families was an issue close to Cates’s heart. He and his partner Raymond Cattaneo became parents to a son, Emmaus, born in 2011.

“The two most important aspects of my life are my family and music making,” said Cates.  “When working to create a series of meaningful, diverse and entertaining concerts for HMC’s 29th season exploring the power, dignity and love of families in all forms was a natural starting point.”

Lawrence Children’s Choir will join HMC for the concert, which includes such varied offerings as “Not My Father’s Son” from the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, an encore performance of the popular song “In My Mother’s Eyes,” and Andrea Ramsey’s “Luminescence,” a song written to commemorate the birth of Cates’s son.

The chorus closes the season with A Little Bit Wicked June 13-14, 2015, a concert celebrating the music of composer Stephen Schwartz. Currently represented on Broadway with Wicked and Pippin, Schwartz’s catalogue includes the musicals Godspell, The Magic Show and Children of Eden, plus scores for the films Enchanted, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The program also includes lesser-known Schwarz works, including “Keramos,” Schwartz’s choral setting of a Henry Wadworth Longfellow poem. The finale to the concert will be the Midwest premiere of “Testimony,” a poignant new work inspired by the video testimonials of the “It Gets Better Project.”

Also on tap for the season will be The Big Gay Sing. Part raucous variety show and part audience sing-along, the event is modeled after the wildly popular New York City Gay Men’s Chorus event of the same name. A venue and dates for The Big Gay Sing will be announced later in the year.

The chorus will welcome new members when rehearsals begin on September 2, 2014. Cates expects the group to perform with 130-150 men this season. Heartland Men’s Chorus is Kansas City’s gay men’s chorus, singing out in the Midwest since 1986.

All performances take place at the Folly Theater, 300 West 12th Street, Kansas City, Missouri. Season tickets from $72.00 – $114.00 are available now by phone at (816) 931-3338 and online at https://hmckc.org.

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