A Brief History of the Southwest Florida Gay and Lesbian Chorus
The Southwest Florida Gay and Lesbian Chorus was formed in 1993, the inititative of Doug Gathers. Although Doug has moved to another state, his name lives on as our "founder". He collaborated with Stephen Brittain, who agreed to become the first director, despite the problems that would undeniably come with "coming out" publicly.
The SWFGLC is part of the GALA Choruses, formed in 1982 as a not-for-profit organization whose mission was and is to support GLBT choruses and to change our world through song. Locally, our motto is “Uniting Our Community in Song” and our mission is to “provide educational, cultural, and social enrichment for our audience and ourselves through excellence in the choral arts.”
Since 1993 the SWFGLC has not missed a performance season. There will be 5 concerts in this current season: 3 Holiday concerts in December 2009 and in the spring of 2010 there will be 2 performances of the annual Pride Concert.
Kevin Halesworth has been the unsalaried director for the past 10 years, out of love and not for money. Chorus members are committed to practicing weekly for 2 ˝ to 3 hours, as well as extra sectional rehearsals. Volunteer support members also play an important role in helping the Chorus function, from sending out newsletters to setting up lighting and sound equipment for our events.
The Chorus rents a room at St. John the Apostle MCC where all the music, props, etc. are stored. Although we are a non-profit organization, we have many expenses, such as purchasing music, renting the venues, paying our accompanist, hiring additional musicians for our performances, etc. This is why we sell tickets to our performances, sell advertising in our printed programs, and raise money through other kinds of projects such as the CD that we produced in 2003. We appreciate any donations we may receive from interested individuals or corporate entities.
Throughout its existence the Chorus has participated in numerous community activies such as Holiday House at the Edison-Ford Home, PFLAG, Ft. Myers Homeless Coalition, Fort Myers Downtown Development celebration, World Aids Day programs, and many other events.
