2008 Pride Concert Performer Bios

Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco

The world's first mixed lesbian and gay chorus, LGCSF is dedicated to building and enriching the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) community through song and a love of music. Since LGCSF's first concert 23 years ago at a local middle school, the Chorus has performed around the world, and hundreds of times in San Francisco. The Chorus has provided a forum for San Francisco's gay and lesbian music lovers to develop their talents, find good friends, and share their gifts with San Francisco's diverse communities.

LGCSF was founded in 1980 by Bay Area musicians and community members, and first named the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Men's Community Chorus. Under the direction of conductor, singer and pianist Robin Kay, the Chorus participated in a number of historical gay and lesbian community events. Some of the highlights included the Gay Musical Celebration at Grace Cathedral in 1980, and the annual Gay Freedom Day Parade. The Chorus was a part of the nonprofit arts organization, Golden Gate Performing Arts, Inc. (GGPA), whose mission was to "support the growth and expression of performing artists in the [LGBT] community." The Chorus helped to found the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA) in 1981, and was renamed the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco in 1984.

LGCSF continued to serve its community by celebrating gay and lesbian culture with performances at events such as San Francisco's annual Pride Concerts, Gay Games II in 1986, and Joan Baez's Christmas Concert at the Warfield in 1987. LGCSF also performed at many AIDS fundraisers throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, including "In the Memory of Friends" at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, and a cabaret show at the fabulous Venetian Room of the Fairmont Hotel, with Marga Gomez as emcee.

The 1990s saw many accomplishments for LGCSF. Under the direction of Pat Parr, LGCSF produced its first CD in 1994, "Together in Harmony," and performed Carmina Burana with the Peninsula Ballet Company and full orchestra at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater in 1996. The Chorus received the Bob Cramer Award for Excellence at the Cable Car Awards in 1992, as well as several Best Concert Awards in past years. LGCSF was the first gay and lesbian group to win the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Arts Excellence Award (1994).

LGCSF has always sought to contribute to the LGBT community by promoting the work of gay and lesbian composers and providing positive examples of LGBT culture. The Chorus produced a Lesbian and Gay Composers Concert in 1993. In 1994 the Chorus performed at the 13th Annual International Convention of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). It also participated in several GALA Choruses Festivals, with thousands of singers attending. In the Fall of 2002, LGCSF members travelled to Sydney, Australia for Gay Games VI, "Under New Skies." They sang with the Gay and Lesbian Choruses of the World in the Opening Ceremonies, and in the sold-out "Sing Out" performance at the Sydney Opera House. More recently the Chorus performed at the historic Castro Theater Christmas Eve Holiday concerts in 2001 and 2002, with the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (SFGMC).

Some words from the GGPA and LGCSF's first concert program might best capture the spirit that moves the members of LGCSF to this day:

"For the first time in the known history of the world we as homosexual men and women find ourselves in possession of a 'blank check' with which to write our own culture, to establish our own community. . . . 'Yes, we can love one another proudly. Yes, we can build, and create, and establish. Yes, the world is a better place because we are here."

Stephanie Lynne Smith, Artistic Director and Conductor

Born and raised in Wichita Falls, Texas, Stephanie Smith is an active pianist, conductor, clinician, vocal coach, worship leader and chamber musician in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, studying with Alvin Chow and Larry Graham, and a Master of Music degree in chamber music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Paul Hersh. Her professional experience of more than a decade includes performing in master classes for Menahem Pressler and Emmanuel Ax, working with renowned composers such as Alden Jenks, David Garner and David Conte, and providing accompaniment for such luminaries as Sharon McNight, B.D. Wong and Tony Award winner Alan Cumming.

After accompanying the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco Chorus for two years, Stephanie was appointed Artistic Director and Conductor in 2002. She directs LGCSF in multiple performances annually and regularly collaborates with other organizations including the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. In July, 2004, the Chorus presented works by living Bay Area gay and lesbian composers and recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary. An exciting highlight of her career with LGCSF came in July, 2004, when she led the Chorus at the quadrennial Festival of GALA Choruses in Montreal before an audience of 3,500.

In addition to her work with LGCSF, Stephanie serves as Music Director of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco and is looking forward to teaching K - 5th grade music at Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy.

San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus

The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus made its official debut on December 20, 1978, though it first appeared informally singing a memorial hymn on the steps of the San Francisco City Hall in late November 1978, the evening Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated. The historic December concert was greeted enthusiastically by an audience stirred by recent events associated with the rise of human rights activism and the development of political strength and social pride among San Francisco's expanding gay community. Joy and love were the overwhelming elements of that performance, which initiated an aesthetic and musical odyssey unparalleled in community arts organizations across the country.

The first several years of the Chorus's existence, under the direction of Dick Kramer, were marked by an abundance of creative energy channeled toward serving the community and developing musical excellence. These two priorities remain the Chorus's primary objectives.

From its beginnings that day as the world’s first openly gay men’s chorus to its triumphant tour in 2001 to the stages of the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall conducted by Artistic Director and Conductor Dr. Kathleen McGuire, SFGMC has been a source of gay pride and musical accomplishment. SFGMC is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary season through to the end of this year. (www.sfgmc.org)

Dr. Kathleen McGuire, Artistic Director and Conductor

Hailed as one of the most versatile and dynamic conductors of her generation, Australian-born conductor Kathleen McGuire has appeared in major concert halls in England, Australia, and America, working with such orchestras as The Women's Philharmonic, the Empyrean Ensemble, and the Boulder Philharmonic. In 2000 she began her tenure as the first woman conductor of the incomparable 200-voice San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (SFGMC). With the Chorus and others she has worked with numerous celebrities, including: Broadway legend Carol Channing; the Oscar winning actor Sir lan McKellen; Broadway and movie composer Jerry Herman; Tony Award® winners Alan Cumming, Kristen Chenoweth and Joanna Gleason; comedienne/author Kate Clinton, actor B.D. Wong and author Armistead Maupin.

McGuire recently has made critically acclaimed conducting debuts in Washington, DC, at The Kennedy Center, in New York City at Carnegie Hall, in Sacramento in the premiere season of the Mondavi Center, and at the Sydney Opera House. In November, 2003, she made her conducting debut at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and in July, 2004, she toured with the SFGMC to Boston and Montréal. In June, 2005, she will be the guest conductor at Disney World®, Florida, for the inaugural Voices United choral festival.

McGuire is equally at home with orchestras in the theatre and on the concert platform, she also servers as the Artistic Director of the Community Women’s Orchestra and has worked with professional orchestras including the Women's Philharmonic (San Francisco), Boulder Philharmonic (Colorado), Empyrean Ensemble (California), and Guildford Philharmonic (England). She has been responsible for the preparation and performance of such major operatic productions as Rossini's La Cenerentola, Mozart's Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro, Puccini's Madama Butterfly and La boheme, Ponchielli's La gioconda, Britten's Albert Herring and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Bizet's Carmen, in addition to countless musical theatre productions. She has collaborated with and received mentoring from some of the world's foremost opera conductors, including Martin Isepp (Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera), Robert Spillman (Aspen Music Festival, Boulder Bach Festival) and Sir Andrew Davis (Glyndebourne Festival Opera). She recently completed three years with the Lyric Theatre Opera in Colorado, and is currently working with Goat Hall Chamber Opera Productions (San Francisco) and Opera By the Bay (Sausalito).

McGuire earned a Doctor of Music Arts degree from the University of Colorado (studying with the renowned maestro Theodore Kuchar), a Master of Music degree with Distinction from the University of Surrey in England, and was elected as a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, the venerable National Music Honor Society (USA). In Australia, she studied composition at the University of Melbourne, music education at Monash University, and conducting at the Victorian College of the Arts (with Robert Rosen and Nicholas Braithwaite). Her numerous awards include Best Music Director from the Victorian Music Theatre Guild and the prestigious Rotary International Ambassadorial Fellowship. Other professional affiliations include the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Conductors Guild, the College Music Society, the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, GALA Choruses and the Bay Area Community of Women.

The San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band

Founded in 1978, the year the rainbow flag was created and Harvey Milk rode in the Freedom Day Parade as supervisor, the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Marching Band & Twirling Corps claimed a symbol of Americana for the newly emerging Gay community as it struggled for its civil rights. The Band quickly became a symbol of pride for the Gay community and played music to build understanding between its community and the larger world. At its first mainstream event, the San Francisco St. Patrick’s Day Parade (a parade LGBTQ bands still cannot march in today in most other cities), the Band won “Best Civilian Band” and became an important part of San Francisco’s musical life, performing at Davies Symphony Hall the year the concert hall opened, headlining at Bread & Roses with Robin Williams, opening for Sylvester, and playing for Francis Ford Coppola’s 40th birthday bash.

The Band’s success triggered an explosion of gay performing arts groups in the Bay Area, across the country and in major cities around the world. The wild enthusiasm the Band received at its first parade encouraged Jon Sims to found the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Varsity Drag, Lambda Pro Musica Orchestra, a Lesbian Chorus, among other music groups. Soon after, LGBT bands sprang up in Los Angeles, New York City, Houston, Chicago, and other cities across the continent. Today there are more than twenty bands in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe. In 1982, these bands formed the Lesbian and Gay Bands of America (LGBA), supporting the formation of new bands and performing en masse at such milestone events as the 1987, 1993 and 2000 marches on Washington, Gay Games’ opening and closing ceremonies, and both Presidential Inaugural celebrations of Bill Clinton.

Named the Most Absolutely Fabulous Contingent of the 2006 San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade and the Official Band of the City of San Francisco in 2003, the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band continues to perform for hundreds of thousands at parades throughout the year, including San Francisco’s Chinese New Year’s Parade, the Corte Madera 4th of July Parade and at pride parades throughout the region, including Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Marin, Reno, Los Angeles and Fresno. Some of the Band’s credits include performances at the Hayward Gay Prom, the Union Square Grand Reopening, the 9/11 memorial ceremony, the Jewish Community Center, Clarendon Elementary School’s Gay Awareness Day, the 5th anniversary of the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Cultural Center and the Lucasfilms company picnic at Skywalker Ranch. In 2008, the Band recreated its debut march in the 1978 Freedom Day Parade for the filming of the Gus Van Sant film “Milk,” starring Sean Penn.

Since 1993, the Band has presented its award-winning Community Concert Series featuring major wind ensemble repertoire free of charge. Conducted by Artistic Director Roberto-Juan Gonzalez, the Band’s 30th anniversary season has featured professional soloists in concerts on themes offering a range of exciting music: With Trumpets, Fifes & Drums (trumpeter Douglas Morton), RHAPSODY/Rapsodia en Chapultepec (pianist Daniel Glover), A String of Pearls (vocalists Trauma Flintstone, Donna Sachet and Don Tatro). The Band’s renowned Dance-Along Nutcracker®, a Bay Area holiday tradition, takes place each December at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Forum and has been featured in major local and national media including the Wall Street Journal; a front-page review in the San Francisco Chronicle, HG-TV’s Christmas Across America; Good Morning, America; the Today Show; S.F. Weekly and Harper’s Bazaar.

The San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, welcomes new members and invitations to perform. SFLGFB is proud of its diverse membership, living out the hope for a world where differences in gender, culture, sexual identity, age, faith, and class fail to divide us. The Band welcomes invitations to perform at community events and inquiries from wind and percussion players looking for musical challenges in a friendly group. It offers volunteer opportunities at events and is expanding its flag corps. For information, phone 415/255-1355. Mailing address: 584 Castro Street, PMB #841, San Francisco, CA 94114-2594. Website: www.sflgfb.org.

Dr. Roberto-Juan González, Artistic Director and Conductor

This concert season marks Dr. Roberto-Juan González’ debut as Artistic Director/Conductor of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band. Dr. González has served as music director of the North Bay Philharmonic Orchestra at Napa Valley College since 1988. In 1992, he was awarded the McPherson Distinguished Teaching Award, presented by the Napa Valley College Foundation, celebrating the unprecedented growth of music programs at the college under his leadership. He is also currently the Associate Principal Conductor of the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra, known for its concerts featuring Liszt and Beethoven. González holds a doctorate in instrumental conducting and organ from the School of Music at Ball State University in Muncie, IN, and earned his bachelor’s degree in music at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico at San Germán, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1976. In 1980, he was selected to be the private conducting student of Guillermo Bonet-Muller, Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Santa Fe in Argentina. He was also a private conducting student of famed Hollywood composer David Raskin for 10 years, and has studied with Francis Schwartz, Robert Hargreaves, George Markey, Ernesto Pellegrini, Kirby Koriath and Emanuel Rubin. In 1983, Dr. González debuted with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra as conductor and organ soloist and returned to conduct concerts in 1997 and 2000 to critical acclaim. In 1983, he debuted as conductor with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and in 1999 conducted the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra and the Iwanuma Beethoven Chorale in Japan. He will be returning to Japan to conduct the Beethoven 9th Symphony in December 2008. A proud member of the San Francisco gay leather community, he is also active in such groups as the Leathermen’s Discussion Group (Steering Committee), San Francisco Leather Pride (Pride Parade Contingent), and the Leather-Levi Weekend (Steering Committee). A singer and pianist, Roberto also performs regularly at the Octavia Lounge.

Nancy Corporon, Artistic Director Emeritus

Nancy Corporon, co-founder of the New York Big Apple Corps and artistic director of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band from 1990 to 1996, was a close personal friend of San Francisco gay music impresario Jon Sims, dating back to their college days in Kansas. “Basically, Jon harassed me until I agreed to start a band in New York City , even finding a band manager, Bob Wolff, to co-found it with me. Ever since those days in the late ‘70s, my life has been so much richer. I owe Jon so much for bringing me into this wild, wonderful world of LGBT music.”

Nancy, a freelance professional French horn player for 15 years, started her professional career in the Oklahoma City Symphony. From there she moved to Chicago, studying with Dale Clevenger and playing extra in the Chicago Symphony, with whom she toured and recorded with Sir Georg Solti, , before moving to New York City, where she performed on Broadway and at Lincoln Center as part of her freelance career there.

After she earned an MBA from NYU in 1985, Nancy worked for American Express (in New York City as well as San Francisco ) and Wells Fargo Bank before moving into consulting work with companies such as Charles Schwab & Co. Family needs required Nancy and her longtime partner, Doreen DiBiagio, to move to the Baltimore MD area in 2003. Nancy now works as a RE/MAX realtor, and exercises her musical muscles by playing in the Columbia MD Concert Band and singing in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia’s Chalice Choir.

Jadine Louie, Artistic Director Laureate

Jadine Louie watched the Band’s first performance in the 1978 Pride parade perched in a tree near the main library. She was music director of two orchestras by the time she was twenty-one and majored in French horn, but earned an engineering degree and worked as a contractor for over a decade before joining the Band and pursuing a fulltime profession in music. Dubbed both the “perfect deadpan” and “spiritual center” of the Dance-Along Nutcracker by the San Francisco Chronicle, Ms. Louie has explored the terrain from campy shtick to contemporary wind ensemble music with SFL/GFB during her decade as Artistic director from 1996 to 2006. Ms. Louie brought to the Band’s Community Concerts a love of music written in our time and an ability to make complex musical ideas understandable to audiences at different levels of sophistication. She has been recognized for her work converting audiences to the cause of music as a vital component of community life as the Bay Guardian’s 2003 Best Justification for Music in the Public Schools and as 2002 Honorary Grand Marshall of the SF Pride Celebration. Louie currently plays French horn and teaches the next generation of musicians. She served as artistic director of the 2005 LGBA annual conference in Palm Springs in a program featuring the compositions of Frank Tichelli, who guest conducted, and served as a conductor for the LGBA massed band at Gay Games V in 2006 in Chicago. Other past conducting/coaching credits include All-City Honor Orchestra, SF Recreation Symphony, Symphonic Tornado, Swingfever Big Band, Bay Area Women’s Philharmonic, Golden Gate Opera, Oakland Civic Orchestra, Community Women’s Orchestra, and Prometheus Symphony.

Jeff Foote, Former Conductor

Jeff Foote taught instrumental in music in Houston before moving to San Francisco in 1987, when he joined the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band as a saxophone player. In 1988, he stepped into the role of the Band’s conductor, a position he served in until 1989. During his tenure, he conducted the Band’s 10th anniversary concert at First Congregational Church, a concert at the Victoria Theater titled “A Springtime Social with Sousa and Friends,” and the Tropicana Christmas rendition of the Band’s Dance-Along Nutcracker at Theatre Artaud, featuring Marga Gomez as Rickie and Gail Wilson as Lucy. Jeff currently lives in San Francisco with his partners, Cosgrove and Jeff.