40 years of the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus: A Journey of Love and Compassion through Song

By JP Emerson

In August on 1985, the notice went out: “The San Diego Men’s Chorus is Happening!” With the AIDS Crisis crushing down and anti-gay fervor on the rise, the idea of gay men standing on a stage singing together wasn’t an easy sell. However, a local “group of friends and lovers” were undeterred. They knew there was enough talent in San Diego to start something great. The early chorus founders enlisted the help of the six year old Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles to help host a concert fundraiser at Balboa Park’s Casa del Prado theater. The event raised $1,500 and was used to launch the new chorus. The following month, on September 9, 1985, 50 gay men gathered with the promise “to sing, to unite in song and to share the special magic that only music can create”. It began with Barry Manilow’s “One Voice” and was performed at the First Unitarian Church. The show was titled Premier Performance and featured the special guest, “Daybreak Quartet”. According to a 1986 Los Angeles Times article, the group decided not to use the word “gay” in its name mostly because of San Diego’s “military town/conservative image”. It just wasn’t a word that set well with some of the first members. So, the San Diego Men’s Chorus was born. 

The Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego was founded in 1992 by eleven San Diego Men’s Chorus members who wanted to sing in a self-identified “gay chorus.” The Chorus began singing in 1993 under the baton of founding member Gary Holt, rehearsing in the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul on 5th Avenue. 

February 1993 was the first ever program where the Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego was officially “announced”. It was for The Flirtations! The world’s most famous openly gay, politically active, multi-cultural a cappella singing group. The show was presented by Finest City Productions and Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego and was held at the Casa del Prado Theater in Balboa Park. They placed a small ad auditioning singers for the 1993 season. Then in December 1993, the Chorus presented its first public concert,Don We Now… before a standing-room-only audience. Within this first year the membership tripled to over 30 singers, and San Diego’s newly elected mayor, Susan Golding, invited the new gay chorus to be the opening entertainment at her gala celebration inauguration. 

In January 2010, The San Diego Men’s Chorus formally merged with The Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego, forming a new performing arts entity titled the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus. Each of the two ‘legacy’ choruses participated under their separate names in a joint holiday concert at San Diego’s Balboa Theatre in December 2009. Subsequently, they have been performing as a combined unit under the new name San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus.

We got together with these 4 Members of the chorus family for a chat;  (click on image for full interview)

Sarah Thompson Director of Donor and Audience Engagement

Joe Gregore-Duffield Member of the SDGMC for 27 years

Dr. Charles Beale Artistic Director

Dustyn Borreli Evans Incoming Board President 2025