Dustin Cates was announced as the new artistic director of Heartland Men’s Chorus today. Cates will assume the role starting with the 2014-2015 season, the 29th season for the chorus.

A search committee comprised of chorus members, past board chairs, community arts leaders, donors and chorus staff conducted a months-long nationwide search to fill the position.

“Dustin exhibited the best balance of all the many attributes the committee was looking for in an artistic director,” says Keith Wiedenkeller, chair of HMC’s board of directors, who also led the search committee.

“His unique blend of choral musical expertise, programming experience, conducting style, people skills, personal charisma, and passion are a great fit for where the chorus is now, but more importantly, for where we hope to be in the future.”

Cates is currently Director of Choral Activities at Olathe East High School and a member of the music ministry team at United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, and a Master of Science in School Leadership from Baker University. He is a member of the National Association for Music Education (NAME) and American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). He serves on the Alumni Board for the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance and is the President-Elect of the Kansas Choral Directors Association (KCDA), a group that awarded him the Kansas Outstanding Young Choral Director Award in 2009.

Cates first worked with Heartland Men’s Chorus this year, as a guest conductor for “I Am Harvey Milk.”

“I am humbled and honored to have been named artistic director of Heartland Men’s Chorus,” says Cates. “Over the past 28 years, it has become clear that HMC plays a vital role in the richness of Kansas City. It is my hope that we can build on our strong history of music-making, service, and advocacy to transform the lives of our singers and our community by spreading a message of inclusivivity, hope, and love.”

Cates will be the fourth artistic director in HMC’s history, following Gina Scaggs Epifano, Reuben Reynolds III, and Dr. Joseph Nadeau.

The chorus will conclude its 2013-2014 season with “Vegas, Baby,” June 13-15 at the Folly Theater, under the leadership of guest conductor Anthony Edwards. The concerts will coincide with the announcement of the 2014-2015 season, the first under the artistic leadership of Mr. Cates.

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. In recent years, the chorus has become known for its musical documentary format which uses music, narration and multi-media to illustrate issues of social justice. 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.

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For more information:

General Contact:
Rick Fisher, Executive Director
Heartland Men’s Chorus
(816) 931.3338
hmc@hmckc.org

Marketing Contact:
Tom Lancaster
Kansas City Direct Response Marketing
(816) 471.1120
tom@kcdrm.com

High-resolution photos of Mr. Cates and Heartland Men’s Chorus are available here: https://hmckc.org/photos/

Two gay men’s choruses will come together in Columbia, Missouri, to present a free concert celebrating the life and legacy of civil rights icon Harvey Milk. Heartland Men’s Chorus and Gateway Men’s Chorus will perform at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, March 8, at Missouri United Methodist Church, 204 S 9th St, Columbia, Mo. The concert is presented by the University of Missouri LGBTQ Resource Center and is open to the public.

Harvey Milk became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk served almost 11 months in office and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor who had recently resigned.

Despite his short career in politics, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the gay community. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

The two choruses will present musical selections inspired by Milk’s life, as well as selections from the oratorio, “I Am Harvey Milk.” Written by Tony® and Grammy Award® nominated composer Andrew Lippa (Broadway’s “The Wild Party,” “The Addams Family” and “Big Fish”) and co-commissioned by Heartland Men’s Chorus, “I Am Harvey Milk” tells the moving story of Milk’s life from his childhood to his assassination.

“It’s not a straight-forward biography,” says HMC’s executive director Rick Fisher. “The songs touch on universal themes including bullying, activism, and the building of community.”

The concert will be conducted by Dr. Tim Seelig, who conducted the 2013 world premiere production of “I Am Harvey Milk” in San Francisco. Milk’s story is entwined with the history of San Francisco as well as the history of the LGBT choral movement: the candlelight vigil on the night of his assignation in 1978 marked the first public performance by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.

“This is not a story specific to San Francisco,” says Seelig. “This is about a man who stepped forward and did something remarkable –even though he was not particularly remarkable by most accounts. It is about a man who became a hero and a martyr for what he believed. Composer Andrew Lippa’s goal was that every single person who hears this will somehow resonate with the person who was Harvey Milk and look for the part of Harvey within them.”

The University of Missouri LGBTQ Resource Center presents “I Am Harvey Milk” at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, March 8, at Missouri United Methodist Church, 204 S 9th St, Columbia, Mo. Admission is free.

Heartland Men’s Chorus and Gateway Men’s Chorus will present an expanded, two act version of the concert at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, March 29 and 4:00 p.m. Sunday, March 30 at the Folly Theater, 300 West 12th Street, Kansas City, Mo. Tickets are $15-$40 and can be purchased online at https://hmckc.org or by calling 816-931-3338.

The choruses will present an encore performance at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at WashingtonUniversity’s 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Ave, St Louis, Mo. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at http://www.gmcstl.org.

High resolution photos of the chorus may be downloaded at https://hmckc.org/photos and program notes for the concert are available online at https://hmckc.org/milk

For more information:

General Contact:
Rick Fisher, Executive Director
Heartland Men’s Chorus
(816) 931.3338
hmc@hmckc.org

Marketing Contact:
Tom Lancaster
Kansas City Direct Response Marketing
(816) 471.1120
tom@kcdrm.com

Heartland Men’s Chorus has announced its 28th season: a series of programs notable for its scope and variety. It will also be the last season programmed by outgoing artistic director, Dr. Joseph Nadeau. Nadeau will conduct the chorus for its holiday concert in December, and then join the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles as artistic director. The entire season was programmed by Nadeau before the announcement of his departure, and it will reflect his artistic vision and ambition.

“Joe’s artistic leadership is largely responsible for the phenomenal growth of HMC during the past 15 years,” said Kathy Dunn, Board chair. “We’re lucky to have one last season to savor his artistic influence as we continue to grow.”

That growth is evident in the season ahead, which includes the Midwest premiere of a major new work co-commissioned by the chorus, and an expansion of its season from seven performances to eight.

The chorus begins its season with the holiday concert, Baby, It’s Cold Outside, December 6-8, 2013. More than 3,000 audience members each year join the chorus for its holiday program due to its mix of traditional music and outrageous humor. This season’s offering is woven around the theme of winter weather. The chorus will sing “White Christmas,” as one might expect, but the comic songs “Lavender Christmas” and “Black Christmas” are also on the program.

“We’ll also get the chance to showcase the musicianship of the chorus,” said Nadeau. “We’ve got some numbers featuring tight harmonies arranged by Deke Sharon, the arranger for the group Straight No Chaser and musical supervisor on the film ‘Pitch Perfect.’”

March 29 and 30, 2014, the group presents the Midwest premier of the oratorio I Am Harvey Milk, a song cycle written by Broadway composer Andrew Lippa (the Tony Award®-nominated composer of The Addams Family and The Wild Party), commissioned by HMC and five other gay men’s choruses. Celebrating the life and legacy of the first openly gay person elected to public office in California, the work’s eleven movements represent the eleven months Milk spent in office before his assassination.

“I was struck with Harvey Milk’s quote ‘You gotta give ‘em hope,’” said Nadeau. “I think audience members will find this concert inspirational and informative, but above all hopeful.”

Gateway Men’s Chorus from St. Louis, Missouri, will join HMC for the concert, and HMC will travel to St. Louis for an encore performance the following week.

The chorus presents Vegas, Baby June 13-15, 2014, its most elaborate physical production to date. The concert will feature the music of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra from the Las Vegas “Rat Pack” era, as well as hits from contemporary Las Vegas headliners such as Celine Dion and Bette Midler. Guest artists include renowned Liberace impersonator Martin Preston and magician David Sandy.

“And our own unique take on Las Vegas showgirls, of course,” added Nadeau.

Guest conductors for the chorus’s spring and summer concerts will be announced in autumn. 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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Heartland Men’s Chorus takes on the ambitious task of examining two radically different periods in German history through song. The 130-voice gay men’s chorus will present Falling in Love Again March 23 and 24, 2013 at the Folly Theater. The concert provides a fascinating glimpse into a period of history often ignored: the halcyon days of gay life in pre-war Berlin, and the subsequent persecution of gays during the Holocaust.

In 1920s Berlin, gay culture flourished: hundreds of cabarets offered a bawdy, excessive and vibrant nightlife. But the next decade would bring unspeakable horrors: gays sent to their death for an inappropriate look or touch.

Using music of the period (“Mack the Knife,” “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön,” “Love for Sale”) and songs from Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret, HMC seeks to capture the raucous and outrageous gay culture of pre-war Berlin in the first act of the concert.

Eric Lane Barnes, assistant artistic director of Seattle Men’s Chorus, was given the difficult task of researching, selecting, and arranging the pieces for the concert’s first half. “I loved creating the atmosphere of this half,” he said. “The whole Weimar period is so culturally, artistically, philosophically and theatrically rich. There is so much documentation of the period; it’s been so fascinating and rewarding to learn about it.”

A particularly astonishing find was Lane Barnes’ discovery of a song written in 1920 and entitled, “Das Lila Lied,” or “The Lavender Song,” one of the first known gay liberation songs. German cabaret singer Ute Lemper recently released her own version, calling out the bigotry of those who “make our lives hell here on Earth/poisoning us with guilt and shame.” With a chorus that begins, “We’re not afraid to be queer and different,” the song delivered a bold statement in its day, even for Weimar-eraBerlin. Nonetheless, several surviving recordings by major band leaders suggest that it was a popular cabaret act.

Act II features the Midwest premiere of Jake Heggie’s For a Look or a Touch, a stirring dramatic tale of two lovers sent to the Nazi concentration camps—one who is exterminated and one who lives to recount a love lost and unspoken. Originally commissioned by Seattle non-profit Music of Remembrance, and featuring a libretto by Gene Scheer, the one-act opera is based on stories from the documentary film Paragraph 175, and the journal of Manfred Lewin from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

The piece features two major characters. The first is the ghost of Manfred Lewin, murdered by the Nazis in 1942. The role was sung during the work’s premiere by operatic baritone Morgan Smith who will reprise his role in the HMC production. Actor Kip Niven plays Gad Beck, Manfred’s lover, who managed to survive the War and is now elderly. One night Manfred visits Gad to help him remember their love and time together; they share memories, and relate what happened to each of them in the camps. In the end, Gad not only remembers, but embraces those memories.

In addition to guest artists Smith and Niven, dancer Stephen Plante will appear in the concert’s second act, performing choreography by William Whitener, artistic director of Kansas City Ballet.

In researching the program, HMC artistic director Dr. Joseph Nadeau discovered fascinating background material concerning the music of the period, the gay culture of pre-war Berlin, and the characters portrayed in For a Look or a Touch. The Chorus has created an online journal at http://hmcblog.org to enhance the concert experience for audience members.

One of HMC’s most ambitious concerts to date, Falling in Love Again has allowed the Chorus to collaborate with partners across the Kansas City’s cultural and academic communities.

In partnership with The University of Missouri-Kansas City and The Kansas City Museum, the Chorus will co-present the exhibition Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945, on loan from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Through reproductions of some 250 historic photographs and documents, the exhibition examines the rationale, means, and impact of the Nazi regime’s attempt to eradicate homosexuality that left thousands dead and shattered the lives of many more.

Admission is free and the exhibition will be open to the public from February 16 through April 10 at the Dean’s Gallery of Miller Nichols Library, University of Missouri-Kansas City (800 E 51st, Kansas City, Mo.). The library is open Sunday, 1-11 p.m.; Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-11 p.m.; Friday, 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Metered parking at UMKC is available Monday – Friday in the lot directly North of Miller Nichols Library at Rockhill Road and 51st Street. Parking is open and free on Saturdays and Sundays. The exhibit is sponsored by the UMKC Division of Diversity, Access and Equality, and the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America.

Additional events, including screenings of the films Paragraph 175 and Bent, will take place throughout the spring. Complete details are available at http://www.kansascitymuseum.org/persecution

Heartland Men’s Chorus presents Falling in Love Again, Saturday March 23, 2013 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, March 24, 2013, at 4:00 p.m. at the Folly Theater (300 West 12^th Street, Kansas City, Mo.). Tickets from $15 – $35 are available at https://hmckc.org or by calling (816) 931-3338.