Life, Love & Librettos: SFGMC's Artistic Director Tim Seelig Tells All!
Join us for a conversation w/ the SF icon Tim Seelig about his time in SFGMC & his memoire "Tale of Two Tims".
About this event
What was your favorite memory from SFGMC?
What do you want to see from SFGMC in the future?
Who were your biggest inspirations?
Are there any people in your circle that inspire you today?
Join us for an in-depth conversation with Tim Seelig as we reflect back on his time in SFGMC and what he sees for the future of the Chorus.
About Tim Seelig:
Tim is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. He is Conductor Emeritus of the Turtle Creek Chorale, which he conducted for 20 years. He holds four degrees, including the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of North Texas and the Diploma from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. His 6 books on choral technique include several best-sellers, and his memoire, Tale of Two Tims: Big Ol’ Baptist, Big Ol’ Gay, published last year.
Dr. Seelig has conducted and performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center for 25 years. He carried the Olympic as a Community Hero and holds the Guiness World Record for the longest choral concert - 20+ hours..
His over 50 recordings have been on Billboard Top Ten and iTunes Top Ten classical charts. His choruses have produced three documentaries. The PBS documentary, After Goodbye: An AIDS Story was awarded the national Emmy for best documentary and Gay Chorus Deep South is available on streaming platforms. It won the Audience Favorite award at its premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, NYC in 2019.
His choruses have been creating new music for over three decades beginning with the first AIDS Requiem in 1991. The last 10 years have been filled with new works by Andrew Lippa, Stephen Schwartz, Ola Gjeilo, Jake Heggie, James Eakin III, John Corigliano, Stephen Sondheim, Ann Hampton Callaway, and Stephen Flaherty.
About SFGMC:
The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus was one of the first of its kind, and was the first to include "gay" unapologetically in their name. Fighting against discrimination and bigotry while losing countless loved ones to the AIDS epidemic, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus not only persevered themselves, but they inspired an LGBTQ+ choral movement worldwide.
Since the first 115 members sang on the steps of City Hall in 1978, over 2,000 different men, cis and trans, and non-binary people have sung with the chorus. Jon Reed Sims, who founded the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, went on and founded a number of gay and lesbian choral and instrumental ensembles before his tragic untimely death from AIDS. In addition to releasing a number of recordings, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus has been featured in several documentaries, including Singing Positive, which received an award from GLAAD in 1996, and Gay Chorus Deep South, which chronicled their "life-changing Lavender Pen Tour through five southern states in the fall of 2017."
After over 40 years of performances and still going stronger than ever, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus is itself a testament to the notion that "it gets better." This is the untold story of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus.
