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SPEAKER: The new artistic director for the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus is Stan Hill. Hill served for 11 years as head of the nation's first gay choral group, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, formed immediately after the assassination of City Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1979. Hill describes the San Francisco group as a bunch of guys who wanted to revive the tradition of men's choral singing and have fun. But it quickly became something more.

STAN HILL: It started out as a gimmick. Let's go hear the queer choir, a bunch of guys singing. It's going to be cute.

Robert Commanday, who was the reviewer for the San Francisco newspaper gave us a review and said, not that just they sang, but that they sang very well, that there was real quality to it. Well, everyone pricked up their ears and said, well, maybe this isn't such a novelty act. Maybe they can be taken relatively seriously. And the art community in San Francisco especially took the Gay Men's Chorus seriously.

In 1981, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus did a 10-city tour of the United States-- New York, Lincoln, Nebraska. Several guys from here went to Lincoln, Nebraska, to hear the concert. And all over the country, choruses started up. In fact, the chorus here, its birth is in 1981. So we're celebrating this year its 20th anniversary here in the Twin Cities.

["TURN THE WORLD AROUND" PLAYING] We come from the fire

Living in the fire Go back to the fire

SPEAKER: It might seem somewhat surprising Hill would want to leave the birthplace of the gay choral movement, but he says he felt his work was done there. Hill was drawn to Minnesota not only by the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus' sterling reputation, but also by the fact that upper Midwesterners love to sing.

STAN HILL: One of the things that brought me to Minneapolis-Saint Paul is very simply the rich choral tradition that is here. The Lutheran colleges-- Gustavus Adolphus, Luther College and all of the rest of them have for decades been in the vanguard of choral music in America. And one of the products of that is even in the public schools, you have an appreciation for singing.

Now, in states like California, where arts are no longer found in the school, we have 22, 23-year-old men auditioning for the chorus, who have never sung before. So here I have an audition where someone lists the places he's sung, and it's as long as your arm. I mean, he's sung a great deal. So there's a richness in the choral tradition.

CHOIR: (SINGING) We come from the mountain Living in the mountain Go back to the mountain Turn the world around

SPEAKER: According to Hill, the most overtly political thing about gay choral groups is that many, but not all, have what he calls the G word in their name. If we're political, he says, it's on a more subtle level and some of the pieces the chorus commissions or chooses to perform, which illuminate life as a gay man. Hill claims one of gay choral groups' bigger contributions to the gay rights movement has been the face it presents to the larger community.

STAN HILL: So many people say, oh, my god, they're just like us after seeing a concert. So many times, we're categorized as either being drag queens, or leather queens or whatever. There's stereotypical images of gay.

When they go to one of our concerts, while we do have fun and we let our hair down once in a while, the Gay Men's Chorus is really the best face of the gay community. We are the cross section. We have a lot of doctors. We have a lot of lawyers, shop clerks. Relatively few hairdressers, relatively few florists, but we do have a cross section of the entire society.

["WHAT CHILD IS THIS?" PLAYING] This This is Christ the King

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing

SPEAKER: Another stereotype of gay men is that they like Broadway-style music, and they like opera and they like very upper echelon genres of music. Does the Gay Male Chorus dispel that stereotype?

STAN HILL: I think better than a lot of other aspects of the gay community because we have to keep an audience. If we did nothing but Broadway show collections one after another, we'd lose our audience. If we did nothing but excerpts from opera, we'd lose our audience. And so you'll find in all of the gay men's choruses, and especially here in twin cities, a rich diversity of repertoire, which allows them to sing in a variety of styles, allows them to sing about a variety of topics.

For instance, if the Gay Men's Chorus sings "The Man I Love" straight off the sheet music, suddenly it has a whole new connotation. And that can subtly be applied to a lot of other things too. When you're talking about "Any Given Thing" when it's sung by gay men, suddenly there's a cognizance in the audience that, oh, my god, it gives them a whole new perspective.

["LOVE POTION NUMBER NINE" PLAYING] I didn't know if it was day or night

I started kissing everything in sight But when I kissed a cop down at 34th and Vine, he broke my little bottle of love potion number nine

SPEAKER: One of Hill's goals is to raise the visibility of the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus first by doing more highly-produced shows that have themes and more colorful arrangements. He's also planning outreach performances for fledgling gay and lesbian organizations around the region. And he wants the chorus to sing in more high profile, even unlikely venues.

STAN HILL: We performed yesterday at the Mall of America.

SPEAKER: How did that go?

STAN HILL: Well, it was a challenge. It's not the greatest acoustic in the world. But imagine this, here's all these Midwesterners with their children, and their shopping bags, and fresh from Sears, and everything else and they walk by. And here I am proudly saying, we're the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus. I would venture to guess that the vast majority of them didn't know there was a Gay Men's chorus, didn't know there were that many gay men in the world.

I had 120 guys up on the stage and they're going, oh, my god, you mean there's this many gay people in the whole world? And I expected, jeering, from the young straight crowd, but we didn't get that. People just came by and they brought their kids. And they sat them down and they listened to the whole presentation. And we performed about an hour and got a standing ovation.

["IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR" PLAYING] It's the most wonderful time of the year

SPEAKER: For its annual holiday concert, this year entitled Making Spirits Bright, Hill is promising some camp, some slapstick and the impeccable singing of Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus has become known for. The concerts take place this Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon at the University of Minnesota's Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis.

CHOIR: (SINGING) It's the hap, happiest season of all There'll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting and caroling out in the snow In the snow There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago It's the most wonderful time of the year There'll be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing when loved ones are near

It's the most wonderful time of the year There'll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting and caroling out in the snow In the snow There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago Long ago It's the most wonderful time of the year There'll be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing when loved ones are near Loved ones are near It's the most wonderful, most marvelous, most fabulous, most joyous, most wonderful time of the year The most wonderful time of the year