NEW YORK CITY GAY MEN’S CHORUS
ALUMNI NEWSLETTER
VOL. 1.2 – FEBRUARY 2025
WELCOME – to the NYCGMC Alumni Newsletter. This was conceived as a quarterly (currently) project to communicate and inform members of NYCGMC, both current and former, with information about all members, past and present. What’s going on in their lives, what changes are happening, and anything else that might be of interest to members. We welcome your submissions and will try and include as many as possible each quarter (once per concert period as well as once during the summer). We hope you find this informative and welcome your feedback. ~With gratitude to our submitters, Jim Vivyan, Editor
HAPPENINGS
Our second concert for the 45th anniversary season is Hear My Song. It will be performed for one night only on Friday, March 14, 2025, at 7:30 pm, at Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Join us as we sing songs that need to be heard right now as we take flight into our most authentic selves. Through the transformative power of music, we reflect on self-discovery, acceptance, and the bonds that shape our lives. We bring you music that reflects on the past, celebrates the present, and creates hope for the future.
Featuring:
• Selections of NYCGMC favorites like "All I Know So Far,” “Unmistakable Softness,” “I’m With You,” and “The Future of Us”
• Guest performance by composer and artist Our Lady J backed by NYCGMC
• Other vibrant selections by RuPaul, Gloria Trevi, and Kim Petras
• One newly commissioned piece written specifically for NYCGMC
Set within the majestic Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the world's largest Gothic cathedral, this concert offers an evening of reflection, connection, and uplifting melodies.
Don't miss this unforgettable experience!
A Trans Day of Visibility Concert
Friday, March 28, 2025 • 7:00 PM –
The Cooper Union
� Honor Trans Day of Visibility with "Origins of Love," presented by the New York City Gay Men's Chorus in NYC!
This powerful concert centers the coming out stories and experiences of our Trans and NonBinary members, celebrating their journeys toward self-love, visibility, and acceptance.
Experience:
• Heartfelt performances and inspiring narratives
• Music that emphasizes the importance of visibility and understanding
• A supportive community event uplifting Trans and Non-Binary voices
Be part of this meaningful evening.
The annual NYCGMC Gala Benefit will be on Monday, March 31, 2025. It will again be at the Edison Ballroom with cocktails commencing at 6:30. The evening includes a 3-course dinner, performances, honors, raffle, silent and live auctions.
We are pleased to announce that this year we are honoring:
• George Takei – actor and activist, with the Gary Miller Award
• Kelsey Louie – former CEO of GMHC, current CEO of The Door/Broome Street Academy with the Gary Miller Award
• Seth Rudetsky & James Wesley Jackson – creators and producers of Stars in the House with the Arts in Action Award
Julie Halston will host the evening and there will be performances from Broadway actors Aaron J. Albano (Aladdin, Allegiance, Here Lies Love, Newsies), Claybourne Elder (Company, Sunday in the Park…, Gilded Age), and Daniel Reichard (original cast of Jersey Boys). Michael Tate from San Francisco will be our auctioneer this year.
You can find more information at the Chorus website – nycgmc.org – or copy this direct link – Harmony2025.givesmart.com
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
Troy Blackwell, (2021-present – BAPA Board Chair) had a position within the Biden Administration. With the elextion over, he left his position and posted this letter –
With profound gratitude, my last day as a Biden-Harris presidential appointee and as Deputy Chief Communications Officer at the United States Department of Commerce, Patent and Trademarks Office will be effective on January 20, 2025.
It has been the honor of a lifetime to work on behalf of over 340 million Americans and co-lead the communications team at the second largest intellectual property office in the world, with more than 13,000 employees.
My service in federal government has imbued me with a deep and abiding respect for both our government and its dedicated personnel. I will always take pride in having been an appointee in the historic administration of President Biden and Vice President Harris during this unprecedented period in history.
Always in service, Troy Blackwell
Robbie Braun (1999-2005 – Baritone)
Instagram.com/braun_robbie
• I became a member of Unity of NYC choir
• Since have moved to Ojai, California
• With 3 successful Art Exhibitions
• This June will be part of collective of Gay Senior Artists being show in Santa Barbara
• Now Viral Free and living the life IT WAS AN HONOR TO BE PART OF THE CHOIR
SINCERELY Robbie Braun.
Richard Lear (2001-2003 – Baritone)
I got married in 2014. My husband and I have lived in a historic house in Plainfield, NJ since 2010. I am still working as an actor. My husband is also an actor and is interested in joining the chorus. I starred in the OffBroadway production of Sump'n Like Wings for the Mint Theater Company in 2024. Another NYCGMC Alumni, Chris Fields, was the Props Master. His work was extraordinary. The year before I was in the OffBroadway revival of God of Carnage. I am also still running Gay Scuba Week. This year we will be going to Belize and Cozumel. I am currently directing a production of God of Carnage here in New Jersey, and I am producing a thriller film. When we are set to move forward with the film, I would love to share the promotional trailer with the chorus. I am very proud of what we have created so far, and I would love to let everyone see it.
Sincerely, Richard Lear
Delaney (1989-1999, 2005 – Bass)
It’s Michael Delaney. So happy you are doing this.
I have just been appointed as the Vicar of St James of Jerusalem Episcopal Church in Long Beach, Long Island. After having worked for the Bishop and Cathedral of the Diocese of Long Island for the past ten years. Was delighted to hear the chorus for their holiday concert in December and looking forward to the March concert.
Blessings Michael
Michael
Erik
Gosnell
(2023-2024 – Tenor 2)
To my fabulous NYCGMC family! (shoutout DIVAAAS & T-Twoooos)
Big news After "Spirits Bright" I was offered and accepted a role at Starbucks HQ in Seattle, Washington! (She's corporate now!).
While I’m excited for this new chapter, having to suddenly leave NYC & having to go on Alumni status from NYCGMC was definitely the hardest part. You all mean the absolute world to me, and I already miss singing and laughing with you (and NO ONE compares to you John Atorino! "I think I'll miss you most of all")
Naturally, one of the first things I did when I made the choice to move was to check if there was a chorus in Seattle. It just so happened the Seattle Men’s Chorus had auditions right before my first week of work so you know I had to do it. I’m happy to report I’ve been accepted as an Upper Tenor 1 (clearly, they were desperate). And as if that wasn’t serendipitous enough, on my very first day of rehearsal, I ran into none other than NYCGMC alum Jon Shepherd (2022-2023 Baritone)! It’s such a comfort having one of our own here to show me the ropes of SMC.
We’re kicking off my first season with a tribute to the queen herself, Dolly Parton, so if you find yourself in the Pacific Northwest this spring, come check us out:
Sun, April 6 - 2 PM - 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Sun, April 13 - 3 PM - Mount Baker Theatre, Bellingham Sat, May 3 - 2 PM - Pantages Theater, Tacoma
Sun, May 18 - 2 PM - Everett Civic Auditorium
Ron Baumanis (Tenor 1 1985-1990 and virtual 2020-21, Charlie Brown in YAGMCB) completed his PhD in Psychology at NYU and after working in NYC for five years moved back to Ann Arbor, Michigan where he has remained happily single. He owns BrainTrainers, a psychology practice and clinic treating brain injured clients.
Artistically, Ron has directed 54 musicals in Michigan and is a member of SDC, the professional directors and choreographers union. He’s directing 55 and 56 this year (Spring Awakening for Ann Arbor Civic Theater and Rodger’s + Hammerstein’s Cinderella for The Croswell Opera House).
He owns a brindle plott hound, goes to Walt Disney World several times a year, and is an Ann Arbor Who’s Who. He briefly lived in Florida a mile from the Magic Kingdom but found the Deep South to be far too conservative - but he did found the Horizon West Theater Company while he was there.
You can reach him at RonBaumanis@gmail.com or friend him on Facebook.
WENDELL WYATT (1982-1985, Tenor 2)– post from Facebook Why would anyone go to medical school at the age of 38?
BACKGROUND:
1977. Just after my 21st birthday. I show up for graduate school in NJ to work on my PhDs (Classical Language and Classical Archaeology). Lovely little room off campus. Working very hard.
But I lead a double life – because I also came out in all my glory. I had an apartment in the last habitable building on the south side of Horatio Street just before the trucks and around the corner from the Mineshaft to the north and 12 West to the south. Nights and weekends I was “Super Gay” – politically active, but especially socially active. New club? I’m there dancing. Hot party? I’m there. The baths. The sex clubs – I said to my best friend who was also my cruise buddy that even if it didn’t appeal to me, I wanted to see it, smell it, touch it to understand the range of sexual practice in our community. And I did. And of course, in the summer when I had time off I’m in the Pines and the Grove with the Meatrack in between. It was an amazing, liberating time.
1980. I was being forced out of my grad program (homophobia – a story for another place and time) and spending more and eventually all my time on Horatio Street. I transitioned through a job at the Metropolitan Opera Guild (glamour with a salary of $135/week, tough even in those days for Manhattan – thank Hestia my apartment was cheap, (a rent-controlled sublet) to a ground-level position at HBO – “OK”, I said, “I’ll be a TV executive.”
In 1980 two men my age (one of them my best friend) got very ill very suddenly –and died. One had a weird pneumonia (which we later learned to call PCP) and the other a very rare brain disease. This was before it even had a name. Very shortly thereafter the term “GRID” appeared to describe it. And friends, dance buddies, men I talked to on the street and in the bars started disappearing.
Suddenly I led a triple life – (1) visible to the general public, by day the ambitious, in-your-face-gay (which corporate America was not thrilled with) man trying to claw his way up the TV ladder. But my invisible life after work, my life was quite different. (2) On my way home from work (I always walked from Sixth Avenue in the 50s to West 86th near Central Park where I had moved when I got kicked out of the illegal sublet) I would stop by sick friends’ apartments to make sure they were OK and that they had something to eat - a one-man hospice service - and would sit
with them when they needed me.. (3) To compensate, the social life I had before, when I had time, became more intense and more, shall we say, “goal oriented”. GRID became AIDS. As time passed, more men died. I was attending more funerals (in a week I’ll never forget, FOUR). Though I had a newer social circle I met in the 80s. the 1970s men seemed all to be sick or at least “diagnosed”. I stopped counting in 1983 at 150 deaths – that I knew about. The only things that kept me sane were singing in the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus and my “social activities”.
THE EVENT
1984. My career was going well at least – I had managed to work up to manager of scheduling at the first satellite TV network and was about to be promoted to Director of Scheduling and Continuity. And I planned a leapfrog into one of the major Networks the following year (remember “networking”?).
Until the red spot appeared in the middle of my back just before my 28th birthday. 1 cm square, just to the right of my spine. And it itched like CRAZY. I took the afternoon off and went to my (straight) doctor. He came into the exam room where I was seated shirtless, walked around, glanced at my back, came back to the front and said “I don’t know how to tell you this.” “English would be good” I said, ever the smartass. “You have AIDS. On average you have nine months to live. I would get my affairs in order.” And he left the room. Three minutes at most. The nurse explained I had shingles, a sign of a collapsing immune system – they gave me a prescription for the relatively new drug Acyclovir, which wiped the whole thing out in less than a week.
You may recall that, though Luc Montagnier had identified HIV in 1983, the Americans were fighting a pitched battle with him, convinced HTLV3 was the actual cause of AIDS (a combined case of who has the bigger microscope and who wants a Nobel Prize worse). So, there was no test, and of course no treatment. AIDS diagnoses were based on the presence of certain diseases. And at that point most of us had seen our friends die such horrible deaths many men committed suicide when they got “the diagnosis”.
I did not – I did not tell anyone except a dear friend from college days – he lived in San Francisco and convinced me to come there where it was beautiful and peaceful, and he would take care of me when the time came. SO – I quit my job, packed my few things in a U-Haul with the help of my friends (none of whom knew any of this and were puzzled about my going to SF all of a sudden), and drove across country
to see things I’d always wanted to see (like the Grand Canyon) and to die in San Francisco.
1986. I’m not dead. I haven’t even had a cold; let alone all those horrible diseases my friends had had. And there was a test. I took it in the Castro. It was negative.
I took it three more times at three different “straight” health centers. All negative. I went to my (gay) doctor and told him he was going to test me for HIV. “Absolutely not – we know you have AIDS from your doctor in NYC and you’ll lose your insurance.” I told him. He was gobsmacked. And then he did what the straight doctor didn’t: took a history and figured out why a 27-year-old man got shingles. I know now there are several possibilities, but the straight doctor did a simple equation: “shingles + sexually active gay men = AIDS = death.
Anger does not encompass what I felt. “Sue him” everyone said. But with my life stretched out before me for decades I thought, “No. I have to do something about this”, reaching the decision that I was going to go to medical school to change how LGBTQIA+ people were treated by the medical system.
OK – but how does a Classical Greek major with ABDs in classical language and archaeology get into medical school? He works nights and goes to school part time during the day for 6 years to get the requirements. Then he takes the MCATs, aces them and at 37 applies to 12 medical schools, being told he’s “too old, too white and too male” to get into any of them. And gets into 10 of them.
And so, I came back to NYC to go to Cornell (the Med College is attached to New York Hospital) and to do my Residency at St. Vincent’s in the Village where 2/3 of my friends had died.
Picture below: West Village. My inner circle and I had just finished dinner the night before I drove away to San Francisco to die. A dare was made – and I am never one to turn down a challenge! I wasn’t terribly successful, but everyone on the street was laughing uproariously at my antics – a good way to make an exit!
PASSINGS
As time charges on, so does life. Each December 1 we provide an updated In Memoriam slide show of the members who have passed, of which we are aware. There will be quite a number that we have for this year. Some of these have passed since the last slide presentation, and others we just learned about even if they had passed several years ago. It would be helpful as we move forward if there is a former member you are aware of that has passed on to send us that information so we may include them in our listings.
We have now created a full In Memoriam listing of names on the Chorus website under the In Memoriam tag under the About Us link. We also create one-page minibios of them which include photo, their dates, time in the Chorus, and a memory or obituary so we all can remember those who have passed.
Here is a listing of those we have for this year with their dates in the Chorus – (this is the list from Newsletter 1, with those we have identified since then in bold.)
William Blaber – Tenor 1 - Spring 1998 – Pride 1998
Ted Bloecher – Tenor 1 – Holiday 1985 – Pride 2007
Ken Carpenter – Bass – Spring 1987 – Spring 1996
Sylvester Centrone – Baritone - Holiday 1985
Joe Donovan – Bass - Holiday 1990 – Spring 1994
Kenneth Gould – Baritone – Spring 1997
Hugh Groman – Baritone – Spring 1994 – Spring 1995
Bill Haasters – Bass – Pride 2006 – Holiday 2007
Jeffrey Wade Hall – Baritone – Spring 1998 – Pride 1998
Michael Hayward-Jones – Tenor 1 – Spring 1985
Asim Javid – Baritone – Holiday 2010 – Pride 2012
Alan Kaleleiki – Baritone – Holiday 2001 – Pride 2002
Randy Lerner – CHARTER MEMBER Tenor 2 – Pride 1981 – Holiday 1987
Ernie Lijoi – Tenor 2 – Pride 2002 - Pride 2002
Karl Manger – Tenor 2 – Holiday 1986 – Pride 1992
Manuel Ovando – CHARTER MEMBER – Tenor 2 – Spring 1981 – Pride 2012
David Roggensack – CHARTER MEMBER – Bass – Holiday 1980 – Spring 1990
Michael-Blue Sikanas – Baritone – Holiday 1981 – Spring 1986
Eric Spector – Baritone – Holiday 2001 – Pride 2008
Anthony Vitta – Tenor 1 – Holiday 2005 – Pride 2006
John Whalen – Tenor 2 – Pride 1987 – Spring 1992
SCRAPBOOK – As we are also digitizing pictures for the archives, we will post a collection of pictures from the past here. If you wish to share pictures, please send them along (preferably with names of the people, what event, year).
These photos come from the photo albums of Charter Member, Edgar ColónHernández.
Ed Dryer Weaver and Gary Miller during retreat at Ivoryton, CT in December 1983.
Mark Riese & Phil Butler at DC Pride 1984
Edgar Colón-Hernández, Jon Kirbie, Clark Taylor at Retreat in December 1984, Ivoryton, CT.
Icon Rollerena with the front line of Chorus – can you name them?
1985 Pride March –
Clark Taylor and Lee Stern
Retreat at Apel Farm in 1981 – Martin Teitel and JimBob Williams
Paul Kowal at Chorus House – Fire Island Pines – 1981
Lots more pictures to come in the future.
The next edition of the Newsletter is planned for late May. If you wish to submit something for that issue, please send by April 30. Submissions can be sent to Jim Vivyan at jim10010@hotmail.com
FOLLIES
– April 9, 1983
A fundraiser for the Chorus held at The Town Hall and featuring performances from Chorus members and some special guests.
That’s Mr. Leather San Francisco, Jim Cvitanich, center with Chorus members
