History: from Stonewall to Portland

Choirs specifically featuring LGBTQIA+ singers create a space where performers and audiences can come together to build community, foster personal expression, and celebrate their authentic joy. The earliest gay men’s choruses were founded alongside the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis and became spaces of connection, where classical music brought a sense of unity and hope to a suffering community. New York City’s Stonewall Chorale describes itself as “the nation’s first LGBTQ+ chorus.” Founded in 1977 as the Gotham Male Chorus, the group originally specialized in Gregorian Chant and Renaissance Music. In 1979, they made the shift to begin including women. Today, the Stonewall Chorale aspires to “unify the greater community through the transformative power of music” (stonewallchorale.org). They perform throughout the year in New York and across the tri-state area.

Founded 1978 by Jon Reed Sims, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Choir (SFGMC) formed on the heels of the Stonewall Chorale and remains perhaps the biggest name in LGBTQIA+ choirs today. Their first public performance was a rendition of Mendelssohn’s “Thou, Lord our Refuge” at a vigil following the assassination of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. This performance cemented the group as a pillar of both the LGBTQIA+ and choral music communities in the city. It also demonstrated that classical music and the fight for equality could go hand in hand. In the following years, the chorus “became a refuge where [gay men] could process their shared trauma, celebrate their identities, and quite literally sing their joy even in the face of immense pain” (sfgmc.org).

In more recent years, the network of US-based gay and lesbian choirs has expanded to become inclusive of gender-diverse performers and audience members, welcoming people of all identities. Pioneering the inclusion of gender diverse voices in the choral world is the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles, which aims to uplift and spread awareness around the trans, non-binary, gender nonconforming and intersex community (transchorusla.org).

Here in Oregon, the LGBTQIA+ choir is alive and well. The Portland Gay Men’s Choir (PGMC) was founded by Portlander Mark Richards after he was inspired by a San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus concert he attended in 1980. The PGMC performs locally and has toured across the United States and internationally. The Portland Lesbian Choir (PLC) was formed shortly after in 1986 and seeks to build “harmony and community through compelling musical performances” (plc.org). PLC has performed at venues such as the Keller Auditorium, and the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. They also volunteer locally at food banks, women’s shelters, and other community organizations.

Coming Home: Jane Abbott Lighty and Pete-e Petersen

While the SFGMC is the chorus most known for its involvement in LGBTQIA+ activism, there is another choir closer to home that intersects the road to marriage equality in Oregon and Washington: The Seattle Women’s Chorus. Founded in 2002, the group provides a musical community for LGBTQIA+ singers, particularly lesbians. In 2012, the group performed at the fist same-sex marriage to take place in Washington, which happened to be between two of its founding members, Pete-e Petersen and Jane Abbott Lighty.

Loretta “Pete-e” Petersen came out late in life and found community with members of the Seattle Men’s Chorus before realizing that she wanted to cultivate a similar space for women. In 2002, she helped to found the Seattle Women’s Chorus, whose members came to include both Petersen and Lighty (Seattle Times). After spending years fighting for marriage equality, and in many ways acting as the face of the movement in Washington, Lighty and Petersen “married on the first day it [was] allowed, December 9, on stage with their beloved Seattle Women’s Chorus and Seattle Men’s Chorus providing the musical background at Benaroya Hall” (ACLU). At the time of their marriage, Lighty was 77 years of age, and Peterson was 85. Petersen died in 2025 at age 97 and is survived by her wife.

In an article following Petersen’s death, the Seattle Times writes that, in the late 1990s, Petersen and Lighty “became two of the state’s fiercest gay rights advocates, helping found Seattle Women’s Chorus and appearing in TV advertisements pushing for marriage equality in Washington.” These women serve as an inspiration for many and remind us of the power that choral music holds to build community and generate lasting change in the world.

Forged in the crucible of the AIDS crisis and driven the fundamental desire for belonging and personal expression, LGBTQIA+ Choirs are a thriving thread in the greater fabric of the classical music world. These institutions remind us of the power of classical music in building community that can carry us through the hardest of times and change the world for the better.  

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MORE TO EXPLORE

• Five Contemporary LGBTQI+ Artists We Love to Play On Air (2024) by Rebecca Richardson
• Five LGBTQI+ Artists You Need to Know (2023) by Rebecca Richardson
• Music Exploring Queer Experiences (2021) by Emma Riggle
• Nine Fantastic LGBTQI+ Classical Music Groups in Oregon (2020) by intern Kelly Lantz

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As part of our mission to advance knowledge of and appreciation for classical music, All Classical Radio recently launched a new resource for those curious to learn more about this beloved genre: the Classical Music Glossary.

In this glossary, we comb through commonly used terminology and historical timelines to help you feel more confident about and connected to the music you love.

Today’s blog post is another preview of this new resource, this time focusing on terms related to instrumental music, including popular genres you are likely to encounter while listening to classical music.

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Symphony

An elaborate musical composition for an orchestra, typically in four movements. Out of all classical music works, symphonies are the longest, the most complex, and involve the most instruments. The word “symphony” comes from the Greek word symphonia, which translates to “sound together.”

Example: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in d minor, “Choral”

Concerto

A musical composition that is similar to a symphony but written for a featured soloist and orchestra. A concerto is traditionally written in three movements.

Example: Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in c minor

Overture

An orchestral piece at the beginning of a play, opera, oratorio, or extended composition. Sometimes, an overture can be written as a stand-alone, single-movement orchestral piece.

Example: Bernstein’s overture to his operetta, Candide

Chamber Music

Music written for smaller instrumental ensembles, maybe just one or two musicians per instrument, such as a string quartet, piano trio, or wind quintet.

Program Music

Instrumental music that carries some extra-musical meaning, such as a literary tale, a famous legend, or a scenic description. Fun fact – Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons was one of the earliest examples of program music.

Example: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, based on One Thousand and One Nights

Prelude & Fugue

Sonata

Over centuries of development, the sonata has taken on two meanings in classical music:

1. A solo instrumental piece comprised of several movements, such as Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in c minor, “Pathétique” 
2. A musical form consisting of an exposition, development, and recapitulation and used in one movement of a larger, multi-movement work, such as the first movement of Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter.”

Basso Continuo

A form of accompaniment used during the Baroque Era, where a keyboard instrument harmonically elaborates on a bass line through improvisation. During this time, it was common for only the bass line to be written out in a score (typically played by a cellist or bassoonist), leaving the full harmonic accompaniment for a piece of music unspecified. The keyboard would consequently be tasked with fleshing out said bass line into a fuller harmonic foundation.

Basso continuo (continuous bass) is also referred to as “figured bass” or simply “continuo.”

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If you enjoyed this post and would like to dive deeper, be sure to check out the Classical Music Glossary!

Have you ever wondered why classical music is referred to as a “work” or “piece” rather than a song? Or perhaps the difference between a motif and a theme? Do you want to understand what differentiates classical music from other genres and what aligns with music heard all over the world?

As part of our mission to advance knowledge of and appreciation for classical music, All Classical Radio recently launched a new resource for those curious to learn more about this beloved genre: the Classical Music Glossary.

In this glossary, we comb through commonly used terminology and historical timelines to help you feel more confident about and connected to the music you love.

Today’s blog post is another sneak peek into this new resource — this time, sharing insights into terms that instruct musicians on how to play the notes and the composer’s musical vision.

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Tempo

Tempo is the speed of a piece of music. Tempo can also indicate the mood in which a piece, or a section of a piece, should be played. In classical music, tempo is usually indicated in Italian at the beginning of a score. In modern classical pieces, this word may be replaced by a metronome mark in beats per minute (bpm).

Tempo markings provide a general “feel” to the tempo of a piece. Tempo does not have to be fixed; it can change within a piece of music. Some examples of tempo markings are:

• LARGO – Very slowly and broadly. Translates to “wide” or “broad;” similar tempo to Lento but with a sense of expansiveness.
• ADAGIO – Slowly and stately, “at ease.”
• ANDANTE – Moderately slow and sometimes described as “at a walking pace.”
• MODERATO – Translating to “moderate”, this term implies a medium pace tempo typically ranging from 108-120 bpm.
• ALLEGRO – A faster tempo that translates to “cheerful.”
• VIVACE – A fast and brisk tempo that translates to “lively.”
• PRESTO – The fastest tempo marking that can be described as rapid, quick, and immediate.

Dynamics

Dynamics are markings in a score that indicate the volume at which notes or phrases within a piece of music should be played, such as:

• p [piano] – played softly.
• f [forte] – played loudly.
• Crescendo – Increasing in volume.
• Decrescendo – Decreasing in volume.

Articulation

Similar to the way we articulate our words, composers and musicians use articulation markings to indicate how notes should be played. Each marking can affect the start or “attack” of a note, the end or “release,” and the overall length and connection to and from the next note.

Articulation markings are usually placed above or below a note or phrase in written music. Here are some examples:

• STACCATO – Meaning “detached.” Notes are played short and disconnected, creating a detached, buoyant, and crisp sound. In music, it is marked as a dot above or below the note.
• LEGATO – Meaning “tied together.” Notes are played smoothly and connected. Legato articulation is played or sung in the same breath/bow stroke.
• ACCENT– A note played with more emphasis compared to notes without an accent. This can be achieved by playing the note louder with more “front” to the start of the note. An accent looks like “>” above or below a note.

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If you enjoyed this post and would like to dive deeper, be sure to check out the Classical Music Glossary!