[photo credit: First United Methodist Church of Pasadena]
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, a 200-member ensemble that has performed at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Academy Awards, will sing in a century-old Pasadena church sanctuary on Saturday, April 18 — for free.
The concert, which begins at 4 p.m. at First United Methodist Church of Pasadena, is part of the Third@First series’ twelfth season. GMCLA returns to the series after a May 2024 appearance at the same venue, where local choirs joined the chorus for a collaborative performance. Admission is free, with a voluntary offering collected at the concert or through the Third@First website.
The Gay Men’s Chorus was founded in 1979 during the emergence of the gay rights movement and is now in its 47th year of music and service. The chorus was the first gay men’s chorus to perform for a sitting U.S. president, singing for Bill Clinton in 1997.
In 2013, GMCLA appeared in the opening musical sequence of the 85th Academy Awards.
Music Director and Conductor Dr. Ernest H. Harrison leads the chorus. Harrison, a native of Tuskegee, Alabama, holds a doctorate in choral conducting from the University of Southern California and joined GMCLA in 2019. He is also an assistant professor of music at Cal Poly Pomona and a member of the Grammy Award-winning choral ensemble Conspirare.
“I have always believed that what we do as musicians saves lives, and the work that GMCLA does — on and off the stage — exemplifies that belief,” Harrison said upon his appointment, according to a Broadway World report.
Lou Spisto, GMCLA’s executive director and producer, has described the chorus’s concerts as offering a message of connection. “Our message is a theme of unity, commonality and connection through music,” Spisto said in a 2024 interview about the group’s previous Third@First engagement, according to Pasadena Now.
The Third@First Concert Series was founded in 2014 by pianist Junko Ueno Garrett, a faculty member at Occidental College, and Sébastien Vallée, the church’s former music director, and currently a professor at McGill University.
The series presents concerts on the third Saturday of each month from October through June, featuring performers ranging from Los Angeles Philharmonic musicians to local ensembles. All concerts are offered free of charge, funded by donors rather than church funds.
“The Third@First concert series is our congregation’s own musical gift to Pasadena, free monthly concerts of high-quality,” a retired Rev. Gregory Norton of First United Methodist Church said.
First United Methodist Church is located at 500 E. Colorado Blvd. in the Playhouse District. The current sanctuary, a neo-gothic building, was dedicated in December 1924 and features an E. M. Skinner pipe organ and stained glass windows. Off-street parking is available behind the church, accessible from Green Street.
Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, Saturday April 18| At 4:00 PM 5:00 PM |For more information about the series, visit www.thirdatfirst.org.