Pride Chorus ready to rock too.

Volume Number 1 Issue Number 10 / Devember 1 - 7, 2006

By Lawrence Lerner

Youth Pride Chorus, the first L.G.B.T. youth chorus in New York City, will usher in the holidays with “Queer Hallelujahs,” a rock ’n’ roll musical program. Conceived by the chorus’s director, Wes Webb, the program includes hits by Bon Jovi, Leonard Cohen and The Mamas and The Papas. Joining Y.P.C. as guest artist is Magdalen Hsu-Li, an internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter and cultural activist. The concert takes place Mon., Dec. 5, at 8 p.m. at Merkin Hall on the Upper West Side.

A collaboration of the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus and the L.G.B.T. Center’s Youth Enrichment Services (Y.E.S.) Program, the Youth Pride Chorus began in 2003 as part of Y.E.S.’s ongoing effort to expand its arts programming for L.G.B.T. youth, ages 13 to 21.

Coming from a variety of racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, Y.P.C. members not only vary widely in their musical experience but also embrace a range of sexual orientations and gender identities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, genderqueer and non-gender-conforming.

“We represent a lot of voices that are not being heard. We make queer youths visible, and we do it through music,” said 19-year-old alto and soprano Nickkita Ramnine, of Brooklyn.
General admission tickets ($12) are available from the Merkin Hall box office at 212-501-3330 or at www.kaufman-center.org. Free tickets are available for youth, ages 13-21, by calling the Y.E.S. Program at 212-620-7310 x265. Merkin Hall is located at 129 W. 67th St. (between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave.).