“As soon as we start performing in front of audiences in South Africa, Oooh, it’s just gonna rework the magic for everyone,” says baritone Tyler Brewer, who co-chairs BGMC’s Membership Tour Committee for South Africa.
BGMC is particularly excited about the program we’ve prepared for South African audiences. You can see it on the promo page for “Together,” this year’s Pride concert. It’s an exciting array of genres and artists—Broadway showstoppers from “Ragtime” and “Once On This Island,” the Jazz-infused spirituals “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “Down By The Riverside,” Top 40 classics including Janet Jackson’s “Together Again,” and pop culture kitsch like Toto’s “Africa.”
In short, the music “shows the diversity of who we are,” said BGMC Music Director Reuben M. Reynolds III.
“In addition, we’ve learned two songs in Swahili,” Reynolds said. “One is a setting of the Lord’s Prayer and the other one, ‘Tshotsholoza,’ is a protest song that talks about a train coming and how that train gets closer and closer and we’re all on this adventure together.”
“Baba Yetu,” the Swahili setting of the Lord’s Prayer, is also a favorite of tenor Joe Valadez. “As a former church musician, I’ve sung settings of the Lord’s Prayer for years and this one is truly the most exciting arrangement that I’ve ever sung,” he said.
In choosing music for the South Africa Tour, Reynolds said he sought themes that were important to both LGBT people and South Africans or African culture.
“One is a continuum of life—that we are here because of people who came before us,” Reynolds said. Jackson’s “Together Again,” in which she sings of a friend who died of breast cancer but continues to make her presence felt in Jackson’s life, is one example.
“It then became kind of an AIDS anthem when we lost so many people, but it talks about being together in heaven,” said Reynolds. “And it’s this whole idea that we are part of—as one of the other songs puts it, ‘The Human Heart’ [from “Once On This Island”]—all people on this planet come together and create this human heart. We’re about creating bridges, about finding each other, rather than about creating barriers.”
The chorus will close its South Africa shows with the rousing “This is Me” from the recent musical film “The Greatest Showman.”
“It says a lot about [the chorus] and what we do is, we don’t try to change people’s minds,” said Reynolds. “We simply tell people who we are. And if minds do get changed by that, that’s a good thing. Our whole outlook about ourselves and why we exist is to sing the stories of our lives.”
He is eager to learn the stories of the South African people they’ll meet on the tour, too—in concert halls, at the LGBT organizations the chorus will visit and the Pride events they’ll attend, and at the cultural landmarks and local hangouts they’ll check out when they’re not performing.
“From the day I was born—I think my parents packed me up when I was four years old and went to Europe—I’ve been traveling. And I adore learning about other cultures and exploring cultures, exploring people,” said Reynolds. We’ve already made lots of wonderful contacts over there and I think the best thing is going to be the people that we’re going to meet.”
Learn more about our South Africa Tour or support our efforts here. We are donating all tour proceeds to South African community organizations that serve LGBT people—so every little bit helps!