Matthew Schulte joined the HMC Board in 2015.

He is also a member of the Kansas City Royals Family. Matthew started with the Royals 10 years ago in the front office. While he started out in the Ticket Sales department, he has spent most of his time in various roles within the Marketing team. He now serves as the Senior Manager of Special Events and Promotions and is responsible for the giveaway items and special ballpark events. He was involved in executing MLB Jewel events that the Royals hosted, including the 2012 All-Star Game Festivities, 2014 Postseason, and the 2015 World Championship.

He was also a member of the Kansas City Chamber’s Centurions Leadership Program and received an ACE Diversity Award from this same Chamber. 

Heartland Men’s Chorus Performs at GALA Festival 2024

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The sports world may have the Olympics but GALA Choruses hosts Festival every four years. It had been 8 years since we gathered due to Covid cancellation in 2020, and we were more than excited to return with festival veterans and many new singers.

Festival is not a singing competition but a choral celebration where 7,000 LGBTQIA+ delegates gather to sing for our siblings in song. A safe space to meet others over the common bond of making music together and telling wonderful stories through song.

HMCKC had strong representation with 140+ singing and non-singing delegates. The HeartAches performed in a Small Ensemble Showcase and were a feature in one of the nightly Blockbuster Concerts.

“Through their powerfully strong, melodic voices, Kansas City’s Heartland Men’s Chorus educated, inspired, motivated, and asked us to self-reflect. While being thoroughly entertained and enlightened, an endless flow of tears of pride and self-awareness were shed throughout their captivating concert,” said Dennis Maddux-Phillips after watching via Livestream Pass.

The full chorus performed a stunning 20-minute set and then joined with the Kansas City Women’s Chorus for two songs to finish our concert block with 160 voices strong.

“… it was the most moving thing we’ve seen and we’ve never heard a GALA Chorus sound that good,” said a Portland Gay Men’s Chorus member.

It truly was an honor to represent Kansas City at the Minneapolis, MN hosted event in July. Four months later we are still celebrating the success we had there in building community and celebrating pride while singing to inspire a world of love and acceptance.

National Coming Out Day – Jacob’s Story

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To celebrate National Coming Out Day, we are sharing the story of one of our members, Jacob Horton. Jacob joined the chorus in 2019. During our Summer Concert, Rise Up, he shared his story with our audience at The Folly Theater. Here is his story:

So, while I was always an effeminate kid, my coming out story was in “tiers,” and I didn’t really come out to most of my family on my own, and in fact, I was outed to most of them.

The first one that found out was my Mom. I was 14 and in 8th grade, and I was just going through a lot, and mentally, I was feeling low. I found solace in a boy a year above me who was out at the time, and I was just pouring out feelings of fear and uncertainty with coming into my own as a gay man on top of saying I liked him via text.

Needless to say, my mama’s intuition kicked in, and she could tell something was up. I had a flip phone then, so she saw my texts. Her only regret was that I was too scared to tell her because she was completely accepting (she comes to our concerts too!).

My sister was the next one, and she found out from my mom, but she was immediately accepting because she is an open member of the LGBT community herself.

It was really just them two when it came to family that knew for the longest time, but something was eating at me because I hadn’t told anyone else.

My dad was the one I was most scared of telling just because we had differing views on things and I did not want him to stop loving me. We ended up having an argument over text, and I just so happened to blurt out that I was gay. He then called me to say that I am his son and he loves me unconditionally. We have been on greater terms ever since.

Then, for the rest of my family, I have to thank the chorus for helping me “come out.” My family knew how much the chorus meant so much to me, so they started researching so they could know more and start coming to concerts. They knew we were primarily a chorus of gay men and we did a lot for the LGBT community, so they began to ask my mom lots of “questions.”

Every time she told someone, she did it out of love and didn’t mean any harm. I thank her a lot for it because while I have “come out” in different ways to my family, I have always been met with blankets of love and acceptance.

I feel so grateful and lucky to have them.

– Jacob Horton, Tenor 2

HMCKC Time Capsule – The Amazing Marilyn Maye

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