NEWSLETTER
VOL. 1.3 – MAY 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
Heal Me at the Disco
Friday, June 6, 2025 • 8:00 PM • NYU Skirball
Saturday, June 7, 2025 • 3:00 PM • NYU Skirball
Saturday, June 7, 2025 • 8:00 PM • NYU Skirball
Celebrate Pride in NYC with "Heal Me at the Disco," a high-energy concert by the New York City Gay Men's Chorus!
Get ready to dance your worries away as we immerse you in the pulsating beats of gay disco and club hits that will lift your spirit and make your heart soar.
Why Attend:
• Electrifying music by artists like Ariana Grande, Chappell Roan, Janet Jackson, Taylor Swift, & Robyn!
• Celebration of love, pride, and unity
• An unforgettable highlight of Pride season in New York City
Don't miss this exhilarating event!
Gavin Kenny (2014-2015 – Baritone)
Gavin is currently appearing as Bobby in Theatre 2020’s production of Sondheim’s Company in Brooklyn through May 11. It’s a good production with some great talents and Gavin is a standout.
Rashaan Jiles (2022-2024 – Baritone)
First, my debut album 'Home' is set to be released on May 9, 2025. It's a 15-track y'allternative (alternative country/soul) project that I've been writing for about six years and that I've been recording since I formally took a step away from the chorus in Fall 2024. I've released several songs as singles in 2025 so far. Those songs are called dancing to you, would you rather, dreaming of you, and down in Tennessee. This music has been what's held me upright through a lot of change and heartache, especially with the passing of my beloved grandmother in October of 2024.
The album will be celebrated with a release show on May 9, 2025 (which happens to be my birthday) at 6 PM at Starr Bar in Bushwick (214 Starr St, Brooklyn, NY 11237), and tickets are available https://www.eventbrite.com/e/home-the-releaseshow-tickets-1305685543609 I would love to see any chorus members/alums there! It'll be a great night.
Additionally, I was recently promoted at Barnard College from the position of Senior Administrative Assistant to a new position as Junior Human Resources Partner and am excited especially because this coincides well with the beginning of my studies in Columbia University's M.S. in Human Capital Management program, which I begin Fall 2025.
Joseph Shapiro (1997-2012 – Tenor 2)
Following my project of writing the lyrics (with my co-writer, Amy Cook (aka my daughter) to “Don’t Take It For Granted,” music by Holly Near, soon to be published by Hal Leonard, based on the words of Cleve Jones, I began work on another civil rights anthem.
Last summer, on our way to GALA, the SFGMC did a mini tour of the Midwest, with stops in Omaha, Iowa City and Des Moines. While sharing a stage with the Des Moines GMC, I had the pleasure of meeting the
members of their trans/non-binary ensemble, TRANScendent. They are an impressive and courageous group of young singers, led by Tristan Miedema, a professor at Drake University who specializes in teaching transgender voice. One of their members told me their weekly rehearsal is the only time they feel safe. It was very moving.
Not long after Trump started targeting the trans community, the State of Iowa passed a law taking away their civil rights as trans individuals. Horrified, I got to work on an anthem for them, and commissioned an NYC trans composer, Pax Ressler, to set it to music. (The Columbus GMC premiered Pax’s commission piece “Banned” at GALA.)
The song, “They Can’t Erase Us,” will be premiered by TRANScendent at their Pride Concerts on June 13-14 and will then be published for use by other choruses. There are the arrangements: TTBB, SATB, and a three-part arrangement for transgender voices. Pax’s music is just beautiful, and I can’t wait for the world to hear it.
Warmest regards, Joseph Shapiro
Event Highlights:
Unapologetic: Our Celebration of Queer Black Love
Friday, June 20, 2025 • 7:30 PM Cathedral of St. John the Divine � Celebrate Juneteenth with "Unapologetic: Our Celebration of Queer Black Love" by the New York City Gay Men's Chorus in NYC! This powerful and inspiring free event honors the intersectionality of being Black and queer. Experience an evening where our Black singers share what Juneteenth means to them through personal stories, soulful solos, and favorite songs.
• Celebration of freedom, resilience, and Black LGBTQIA+ experiences
• Music that uplifts, educates, and unites the community
• A meaningful reflection on heritage, identity, and pride
Joel Hess (1991 – Tenor 1)
My name is Joel Hess. I sang with NYCGMC for one season in the early 1990s. I have been singing with the Portland (Oregon) Gay Men’s Chorus since 2014. (We just gave our spring concert in conjunction with the Portland Lesbian Chorus, the Rose City Pride Bands, and Bridging Voices, our city’s LGBTQ youth chorus, with over 400 people onstage.) Our next concert, Icons: Pride Goes Pop, will be on June 21.
I have also just joined a brand-new LGBTQ chorus, the Portland Sage Singers, which is one of the first SATB choruses in the country exclusively for LGBTQ elders, after Denver. We are under the leadership of conductor/composer Tim Seelig, who many of you may know from his past work with Dallas’ Turtle Creek Chorale and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Our first concert, It’s Our Time, will be on June 26, before Pride Weekend here in Northwest Oregon, which will be the third weekend of July this year. Portland has a thriving LGBTQ community, and we cordially invite everyone to join us in the festivities.
Norman Lasiter (1994-1997 – Baritone
Norman is returning to Don’t Tell Mama for a reprise of his cabaret show – Gray Pride for four performances in July. After a sold-out show last fall, he is coming back to share his songs and story once again with his long-time musical director, Christopher Marlowe.
This is your chance to experience his unforgettable performance, through a mix of witty and heartfelt songs and stories. Notman takes you on a deeply personal journey as an older, out, and proud gay man. Don’t miss this opportunity to witness a show that has resonated with so many.
Don’t Tell Mama – July 10 & 17 at 7pm; July 12 & 19 at 5pm. $20 cover/$20 min.
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
Jeffrey Norman (2005-2012 – Baritone)
I have retired from my job as VP of Communications and Public Affairs at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, CA. and begun my own boutique firm, JN Communications. I currently have a number of nonprofit clients serving the arts and human services communities. I am open to working virtually so if any of my NYCGMC brothers are affiliated with organizations that may not have the staff, time or bandwidth to work on proposals, solicitation letters, feature articles, case statements, social media and website content, etc, I would love to discuss how I can bring creativity and communication strategies to their projects. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreynorman/
Doug
Bell (1987-1993 – Baritone)
After 19 years living and working in NYC, Doug relocated back to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 2005 and continued his career as a college textbook editor, then transitioned to a position as a cardiovascular billing specialist with UPMC of Central Pennsylvania.
Doug retired in 2023 and now spends his time with his beloved friends, gardening and landscaping, and he has rediscovered his love of oil painting and attends regular art classes in other media. He travels to Provincetown, MA, several times a year with his faithful dog, Rainbow, to do artwork, and recently traveled to Amsterdam that included an inspiring visit to the Van Gogh Museum (Doug’s most beloved artist).
Doug cherishes his time in NYC, where he ‘escaped’ from his small home town in Pennsylvania, as utterly transformative and treasures his time performing with NYCGMC. His most memorable concert was his first – at the 1987 Holiday Concert at Carnegie Hall – where he recalls his overwhelming pride walking on
stage, as an out gay man, with such a wonderful, talented, funny, loving, and supportive group of men – and experiencing the love and support from the audience: pure bliss! You can reach Doug at duglessbell@gmail.com.
Eric Gordon (1980-1990 – Bass – Charter Member)
Published in March 2025 in the Los Angeles Times was this piece by Charter Member Eric Gordon titled –
L.A. Affairs: After my husband died, I found love again. This time with a woman
By Eric A. Gordon
March 7, 2025 5 AM PT
Hello again! Maybe you remember my L.A. Affairs essay from 2022 that described my relationship with Ruben. We married in Mexico in 2019 when I was 74 my first marriage. But COVID-19 and pneumonia brought him down in November 2021, and I was widowed at 76.
I’m truly at my best when I’m coupled. So, it wasn’t long before my yearning for partnership again started kicking in. I exchanged contact information with a number of guys, but without any serious follow-through. At my age and living with HIV, I guess I wasn’t what most gay men looked to as a potential romantic candidate. I had just about resigned myself to a lonely end of life.
Then I went to see and write a review of a remarkable Haitian artist’s show at UCLA’s Fowler Museum on March 25, 2023 the night of Myrlande Constant’s opening and I was waiting in line for the preopening lecture. I got to talking with the petite woman standing ahead of me. She was there with Olga and Tanya, two friends from her condo building who had gone off to the ladies’ room. When they returned to join the line, they saw how Lori and I were engaged in animated conversation. When the line started moving, Olga said, “You’ll sit with us, won’t you?” And I did.
After the lecture, Lori and I ambled through the galleries together, commenting on the spectacular beaded and sequined art and opening up to each other. She was about eight years past her divorce and had two kids, one of them with two kids of her own. We promised to stay in touch.
I invited her to the theater shortly afterward, and in turn, she asked me to her brother and sister-in-law’s house for a spring dinner as a sort of secular nod to
Passover. She told her brother and copied me on the message. She thought he would really enjoy meeting me but not like this was a “date” or anything.
Afterward, I wrote to thank her for the evening and added, “But you know what? Actually, I would like to date you.” And so, we started. It took a while to negotiate the HIV part, which turned out to be less complicated than either of us had imagined. I had to be reminded that U=U, or Undetectable = Untransmittable. One of Lori’s children is nonbinary, and they were thrilled to learn their mother was now dating a queer man!
Lori and I consider ourselves “apartners,” a word we learned about a year into the relationship to signify a couple committed to each other but still retaining their separate households. I’m over at Lori’s generally Thursday through Sunday nights and return home weekdays to continue my writing. She could stay at my place, but I have three housemates and no private bathroom, so it can be a little awkward. My favorite moment of the week is Thursday night when I tuck myself into her bed as I look forward to a long weekend together.
Lori is my first girlfriend in 52 years. My last was in 1971, just before I came out as a gay man. I’ve had a number of loving relationships with men. Being a romantic partner is not strange to me just now, again, with someone of a different gender. I would never claim to have “gone straight” or that my love life with a woman is morally or, in any other way, better. I’m neither converting nor proselytizing. It’s not a term I’d often used for myself in the past, but I think “queer” suits me just fine now.
Curiously, I learned that my three siblings some years back had speculated about what might become of me, and they laughed in disbelief when my brother said he saw me eventually settling down with a “frizzy-haired communist woman.” Well, Lori is no communist, but we are certainly on the same page when it comes to politics.
An old friend of mine reacted this way: “Remember the Kinsey scale? Zero being exclusively heterosexual and 6 exclusively homosexual. Well, I’m a total 6, but most people are somewhere in between. And it seems that includes you.”
On the 25th of each month, Lori and I celebrate another month together with flowers or a nice dinner out. On our first anniversary, we exchanged “apartnership” rings: Lori selected one from my jewelry box (given to me by a rabbi lover of mine over 50 years ago), and I chose one from hers (given to her in Mexico by a fellow she met on the street one day who just happened to find her enchanting). We’re now approaching two years of being a couple. We’ve met each other’s families. It turns out we knew a lot of people in common, and both of us worked at the same nonprofit at different times. Our paths had crossed so many times though we’d never met. We’ve traveled domestically and abroad and survived the rigors of
24/7 togetherness. We celebrated Lori’s 70th with a family getaway last April, and we just feted my 80th with a play reading and dinner for 40 of our friends in L.A.
When I first came out in 1971, I believed that in a masculine-dominated culture like ours, an egalitarian heterosexual relationship was near impossible and that if you sought a partnership of equals, your better chance was with someone of the same gender. There may be some truth to that, but I’ve come to realize how everything is always so much more complicated.
As Lori and I go about our evolving lives, shopping, doing food preparation, washing dishes, event planning, making love, playing Rummikub or Spelling Bee, I see that gender is rarely the determinative factor. We love each other irrespective of our personal equipment.
We know the days are getting shorter but hope they never end. And thank you to Haiti’s Myrlande Constant for introducing Lori and me. The author is cultural editor for peoplesworld.org, a biographer and translator. He can be found on Facebook at facebook.com/eric.a.gordon.585.
Richard Lear (2001-2003 – Baritone)
I just shot a very small part on Law & Order. It is episode 22, the last episode of the season, and it should air on either May 1st or May 8th.
Carl Moellenberg (1997-2005 – Tenor1)
Carl Moellenberg continues his busy entertainment life. On Broadway this season, he is a producer on Othello, Romeo + Juliet, Just in Time and Dead Outlaw. In Film , he is preparing to lead produce a feature film in the fall called Eye on the Sparrow , about the passing of intergenerational wisdom from grandfathers who fought in the same squadron in WWII to their grandsons. He is also collaborating on a studio film. Carl is also pitching a reality TV series in both the UK and US in the music arena. His Memoir can be found on Amazon, called Carl
Moellenberg’s Story: Broadway and Spirituality as a Path to Survival, created to inspire others with life challenges to create their own beauty.
If you’d like more information on any of these, please write me at CarlMoellenberg@gmail.com.
Tom Fenninger (2022-2025 – Tenor 2)
Hello, beloved Chorus! It feels weird to be saying hello as an alum. As most who know me are aware, I will be moving to Chicago this June. Hear My Song marked the end of my journey in the NYC Gay Men's Chorus, and WOW, what a way to end, with beautiful music in the most incredible venue, and my chosen family by my side. My boyfriend received a job offer at Northwestern Hospital as an ER Doctor. Northwestern is where he went to medical school, and his family is based in the Midwest, so this was always his longterm game plan, and I am excited to be along for the ride. Chicago is wonderful! Although I have never visited in the winter...
Tom Fenninger on the right I intend on auditioning for the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus, which would mark my third Gay Men's Chorus - I sang in the Washington D.C. Gay Men's Chorus for three years before moving up to NYC. I'm a bit tired of moving cities so *hopefully* this will be my last chorus, but who knows - anyone know what the record is for most choruses sung in? Not that I'm competitive...
Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but there were nights where I did NOT want to go to rehearsal. Exhausted from the weekend's festivities, rallying myself to sing for three hours on a Monday night was tough sometimes. But man, did I leave that auditorium every single time so glad that I showed up, feeling much lighter, happier, and so full of joy that sometimes I wouldn't be able to fall asleep that night with how much my mind was racing (and usually I had a song from rehearsal stuck in my head, I am looking at you, Parum Parum.) I owe it to you all, the once strangers that so quickly became friends, and then so quickly went from friends to chosen family. Chicago has some fierce competition.
I am comforted by the thought that while my time in the chorus was relatively short, my name will one day be placed on the quilt. I can think of no better way to be
immortalized - gravestones are drab. I will see you all at the next GALA, and we will pick up right where we left off. I cannot WAIT to experience Heal Me at the Disco as an audience member, the first time I will have done so. I'll try my best not to cry, but you all know that's not realistic.
Until next time, you fierce, fabulous, and talented bunch of friends, Tom Fenninger
Ora McCreary (1981-1990 – Bass)
I'm an "almost charter member" of the chorus. I joined the chorus in its second season in 1981 and sang for eight years, through 1988. We were nearly the first gay chorus in the country, second only to San Francisco founded a year before, in 1979. During this period, the chorus was a symbol of pride for the gay community a large group gay men who were "out" at a time when that was far from the norm, joyously making music together on the city's grandest stages.
I first sang in the chorus's Carnegie Hall debut in December of 1981, when we performed in tuxes for the first time. I remember our weekend retreats at Appel Farm and later in Connecticut, where the first Chorus Queen and Chorus Butch were crowned. Our joint concerts with the Boston GMC, the Chicago GMC, the Washington GMC. Our holiday concerts in Carnegie when we regularly sold out both nights. The first national festival of gay choruses, which we hosted1983, at Lincoln Center. For the festival finale, we had 600-plus singers onstage more accurately, spilling off that stage, which was not designed to hold so many performers.
With sadness I remember my many chorus friends who did not survive the AIDS epidemic.
I remember the many wonderful arrangements by Larry Moore and Mark Riese. Recording our first CD. The frenetic months when I was music director for the chorus's production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." I particularly remember Gary Miller's creative and enthusiastic leadership during his years as music director.
Good memories.
In more recent years I've enjoyed singing with Oratorio Society of New York. (I sometimes say that I've spent more time on the stage of Carnegie Hall than in the audience!)
Last June my husband and I celebrated the 50th anniversary of the day we met, on a warm, happy, memorable Saturday night on Christopher Street in 1974
Morgan Crawford (2014-2025 – Bass)
Personal update: I'm moving to Berlin at the end of June. This will be my last concert, at least for a while.
Without mincing words, America simply doesn't feel safe for my family anymore. As two queer socialist dads, one being a trans environmental activist, I don't doubt that our current government would love to try to take my five-year-old kid away if given the opportunity, or at least I expect we'll have to deal with a lot of fucked up extrastate Libs of TikTok style harassment if we remain in the US.
Thankfully, due to Nazi reparations since my grandfather was a Holocaust survivor, my daughter and I are German citizens. My husband's visa was just approved, and he has a new job that begins next month. We have a friend in Berlin with a place for us to land, I've lined up a German kindergarten for Rosa, it's all falling into place. Like, it really fucking sucks, and I hate feeling like we don't have another choice, but I know we'll be ok.
I joined the chorus in the Spring of 2014 for Big Gay Sing 6. Like most of you, the chorus quickly became a huge part of my life and another part of my family. I got pretty choked up during the retreat service this year when I realized that I probably wouldn't be back next year but, eventually, my name would be on the quilt. I've been singing in choruses for my whole life, and I don't plan to stop, but I don't expect to find a replacement for this. I'll miss you all terribly.
We're having a going away party on June 25th at a bar in Brooklyn, anyone who wants to come is invited. It's the same night as the MoMA gig (sorry Johnny!). I'll drop a link in the comments.
Alessandro Paiano (Alex P Bickel) (2022 –Bass)
I’d love to share a few things for the upcoming issue:
I’m currently based in London, completing an MFA at Goldsmiths, where I’ve been developing both video and installation work. A recent piece a short film I co-wrote and directed was selected for a screening at the Goldsmiths Unit Cinema on May 1st. It explores themes of identity, absurdity, and migration through a humorous yet reflective lens. You can watch it herehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGlbUzvlSeo
I had my first group show in NYC with the gallery Off Paradise last summer: https://offparadise.com/exhibitions/like-a-nightingale-with-a-toothache/installation-views-16/
I’ve also been hosting a monthly radio show called Everyone Is Invited, where I interview artists, musicians, and writers about their creative practices, lives, and current events. It’s become a way to stay connected with a wide range of voices. It airs every Thursday from 9:30 am until 10 am on www.ResonanceFM.com
My next show will be about Abby Robinson exhibition at Pratt: https://www.pratt.edu/events/abby-robinson-autoworks-waterworks/ She was my neighbor and a really good friend, she passed away last July:( go to see the exhibition if you can, really beautiful and powerful!
And here some of my music produced by Golden Factory Records in Italy: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1imUBhaDFyDj20itF9fZp0
A last thing, my Instagram @alexpbickel if you want to see what will come next. Hopefully back to NYC soon!
Warmly, Alessandro Paiano
www.iamafraidilostmyglove.com
Larry Moore (1981 – 2001 – Staff Arranger – Charter Member)
Larry retells the story of how Stephen Sondheim was nominated and won the Pulitzer Prize for Sunday in the Park with George. A bit of behind the scenes retelling –
LARRY MOORE – posted to Facebook on April 24, 2025
Forty years ago today, "Sunday in the Park with George" won the Pulitzer Prize. After "Merrily We Roll Along" failed on Broadway, I spent an afternoon in June 1982 chatting with Steve Sondheim in the balcony of Alice Tully Hall. He was attending a New York City Gay Men’s Chorus dress rehearsal to hear my arrangement of "Our Time." He was complimentary about my choral arrangement, which the Chorus later recorded, and he recommended it to his publisher Tommy Valando. The result was my first published choral arrangement.
Still very bruised by the failure of Merrily We Roll Along, he told me that afternoon that he would never write another musical; he was going to work on computer games for Parker Brothers. I was flabbergasted. This really upset me, and I called his office occasionally to ask his office manager Patricia Sinnott how he was, if by any chance he was doing any writing, and to let him know that I had been thinking about him. Then, one day, Patricia told me that he was working on a show with James Lapine.
Not long after that in the summer of 1983, Patricia called me. “Steve wants to know when you want to come to the show,” she said. I was floored. Steve Sondheim was inviting me to see the Playwrights Horizon workshop of Sunday in the Park with George! I was dying to see it, but I couldn’t afford a ticket on my salary. At the time I was working for a book shop on Sixth Avenue, making about $200 a week. After taxes and rent, I was lucky to have money for food or transportation.
So, I gave her the date for a Sunday matinee, saw a performance of the first act –all that existed then - on a very warm Sunday afternoon, and left the theatre in tears, overcome by its imagination, its message, and its glorious score. I remember calling
Steve the next day to thank him for the ticket and gushing effusively about how much I liked it and how “Finishing the Hat” had hit me so hard.
When my arrangement of “Our Time” was published, Patricia and I were chatting about a thank you gesture I could make. It was frustrating; I didn’t really know what to give to someone who could pretty much acquire whatever he wanted. I asked her about the Pulitzer Prize, and she told me that, to her knowledge, he had never been nominated. This surprised me; I’m still amazed that Follies wasn’t nominated. I thought, I could nominate Sunday in the Park with George, by George! The only problem was, neither Patricia nor I knew anything about the Pulitzer Prizes.
I called the New York Public Library Music Division and asked my librarian friend Charles Ogle if anyone there knew anything about the Pulitzers and learned its office was in the Columbia University School of Journalism. I called the school for further information, and someone promised to send all pertinent information to me. Once I knew what I needed to do, I called Patricia back.
I needed biographies and photos of Steve and James Lapine, a recording, a vocal score, and libretto. She said that she could take care of that. I would make the nomination and pay the entrance fee. I wanted to surprise Steve, but Patricia was worried about his reaction if he learned that she and I were up to something without his knowledge. She thought, for everyone’s benefit, that I needed to ask his permission. So, I asked her to have Steve call me, and that evening we spoke on the phone.
I never knew, when I spoke to Steve, if I would get the busy Steve who was cordial but gave an air of impatience, or the friendly Steve who enjoyed the socializing. He was always cautious on the phone until he knew the purpose of the call. So, what did I need, he asked.
I thanked him for the publication and told him that I wanted to nominate Sunday in the Park with George for the Pulitzer Prize. His immediate reaction was "We'll never win." My response was, perhaps, but you never know, and I think it's about time you were nominated. He relaxed, we talked about it for a bit, and he agreed. He promised full cooperation and told me to make all arrangements for the materials I needed through Patricia.
Big sigh of relief. I might have danced about the apartment for a bit.
Around August or September 1984, I made the trek to his home with the Pulitzer application and forms. Steve and I chatted while Patricia typed out the forms. I left with a huge bundle containing the score, which was a large, very heavy manuscript, the original cast recording, libretto, photos and biographies of the authors, and the application. I walked down Second Avenue to 42nd Street, picked up the uptown 104 bus, and rode to Columbia at 116th Street. I was pushing thirty-eight then, and,
as I walked about the campus in search of the School of Journalism, I looked at the students and thought, was I ever this young?
I found the office, turned over the materials to a gentleman who remarked how early this nomination had come in, paid the entry fee with a check, caught the downtown 104 bus home, and forgot about it.
On Wednesday morning, April 24, 1985, my dad woke me with a very early phone call. Early phone calls generally bode no good. He was in tears, which was rare, so I knew this was something serious. I must fly home immediately. My mother was having an emergency quadruple bypass the following morning, and he wanted me at the hospital with my brothers. I called my employer at the time – it was the Drama Book Shop at Seventh Avenue and 48th Street – and explained the situation. I spent the rest of the morning getting a check from an employer for whom I wrote occasional band arrangements, booking flights, and clearing my calendar.
When I returned home for lunch, there was a message from Patricia, and I called her back. She told me that the Pulitzers would be announced in the afternoon, the office phone had been ringing off the hook, and she was thinking about me. I told her about my mother, and that I had a few more errands to accomplish before I left for LaGuardia around 5:00. Then, my Chinese fortune cookie at lunch said, "You will hear great news today."
I returned home to pack around 4:00 to a phone message of Patricia screaming "We won!" We won!" I called her, and she said, "Where are you? Steve wants to talk to you." He called me from the theatre, we spoke briefly, and I flew home to my mother's surgery. That went well, too and I flew back to Manhattan on Sunday, April 28th. In the mail, there was an invitation to party at Steve’s home celebrating the 100th performance of "Sunday in the Park with George."
Since 1989, I’ve barely seen Steve. He was in a great, affectionate mood backstage at Avery Fisher Hall after a 1989 All-Sondheim concert by the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. Much of it
was my work. As soon as he found me, I got a huge, affectionate bear hug. There was a lovely note from him about my orchestrations for Bruce Kimmel’s 1994 recording “Unsung Sondheim.”
The success of that recording kept me busy throughout the 90s with a lot of recordings for various labels, concerts, and regional theatre before I abandoned that streak of work in 2001 for what I thought was the security of working for the Packard Humanities Institute and a demented dream of conductor John McGlinn to record all of Jerome Kern and Victor Herbert. I went from that foundation to another foundation for whom I produced five recordings between 2010 and 2014.
I did see Steve at the final performance of Gypsy with Patti LuPone at City Center in 2007. He was seventy-seven, I was sixty-one, and we were both walking slower than we did when I last saw him. I was heading backstage to see friends, and he was crossing the lobby in search of the closing party and the bar. I called, “Steve, it’s Larry Moore.” There was no hug, only a short “Good to see you,” as he hurried on. I agree; it was good to see him, and I smiled broadly all the way backstage. He had played a major part in my life when I was trying to get a foot in the door, and I will be eternally grateful for that. I am even more grateful that I, a minor player in the life of a truly great artist, was lucky enough to thank him in a major way.
Forty years ago today, April 24, was the luckiest day of my life. I tend to repost this story every year on this day, but this year - with Steve dead, Patricia possibly gone, and my mortality growing shorter - the events then seem more precious than ever.
SCRAPBOOK –
(from the
Harmony – March 31, 2025
– Daniel Reichard, Rob Byrnes, Troy Blackwell, Claybourne
John Atorino, Nick Sienkiewicz, Kelsey Louie, Jenn Colella, Bradley Hess, Julie Halston, George Takei, Dipal Shah, Lea Salonga, Rob Cordell, Aaron J. Albano, Diego Santiago, James Wesley Jackson, Seth Rudetsky, Gary Miller
Justin Vivian Bond – Origins of Love – YPC, NYCGMC – Cooper Union
left)
Elder,