Denver Women’s Chorus sings out with ‘30 Rock’
In light of their 30th anniversary, the Denver Women’s Chorus is setting the stage with their kickoff show at the First Baptist Church on Jan. 25. Rocky Mountain Arts Association Executive Director Kevin Marvin said that their first performance will be a “high energy” show.
“There’s quite a bit of pop music in it, they have some musicians with it, so it’s a lively concert,” Marvin said.
In 1984 Carol White, founder of the Denver Women’s Chorus, directed PFLAG’s chorus at the national conference held in Denver. After the conference she decided that Denver needed its own women’s choral group, and started the Denver Women’s Chorus.
Since then the group has expanded to 85 singers and is a member of the GALA choruses, an association serving gay and lesbian choral movements around the world.
“The Denver Women’s Chorus is one of the largest and most recognized women’s choruses in the GALA movement,” Marvin said, “it really has a great reputation for good choral music, but more importantly for social change.”
The Denver Women’s Chorus works with community involvement on several levels. Artistic Director Mark Zwilling said that in the past they have done concerts for Earth Day, Habitat for Humanity and some hospice organizations.
“We’re always looking for venues that help the gay and lesbian community,” Zwilling said.
“We decided that having the concert at First Baptist would be a signal to the community to support this church and the mission that they’re doing of changing and understanding that social change is important no matter what denomination you are,” Marvin said.
The Denver Women’s Chorus will be performing twice at the First Baptist Church on Jan. 25, at 2 p.m. and at 7:30 p.m.
Their 30th Anniversary Concert will be on April 4 at the Gates Concert Hall. The concert will honor Carol White with the Robert “Melba” Moore Community Award and will be emceed by Suzanne Westenhoefer.
