The Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps (LGBAC), like the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, which also performed at the end of the second week in December, is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its inception, and on December 14, at Symphony Space, our community’s symphonic band offered a concert that not only marked that milestone, but also gave us a measure of holiday good cheer. The performance was billed as “Our Favorite Things,” so we knew some “Sound of Music” was in store, but classical music, rarities, and comedy—and sing-alongs—were given their due as well. Music Director Henco Espag presided and Assistant Conductor Royden Ringer spelled him for a couple of selections. The players introduced the pieces programmed and, for a welcome personal touch, explained why these were among their ‘favorite things.’
Julie Giroux’s “Paprikash” served as the evening’s spicy, ringing, and percussive overture. In Claude Debussy’s “La cathédrale engloutie” (the engulfed cathedral), as transcribed for concert band by Merlin Patterson, the players thoughtfully and colorfully limned the mysterious edifice, reappearing as the waters receded in the sunlight, only to disappear undersea once again. LGBAC’s percussion ensemble shone in the compelling hues and rhythms of Matthew Curley’s “Boulderdash.”
Songs by Sherman brothers Richard M. and Robert B., from “Mary Poppins,” seem to make for apt holiday fare, and Espag led us all in singing lustily along with LGBAC to “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Chi Chim Cher-ee,” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” A whimsical “March of the Cute Little Wood Sprites,” by P.D.Q. Bach aka Peter Shickele, found the musicians themselves multi-tasking, singing as well as playing.
The percussion ensemble, guided by Ringer, took center stage again, this time for a propulsive third movement scherzo from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony Number Four, as arranged by Nolan Dresden. Espag returned to the podium for a rollicking “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity,” from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” with the musicians reveling in illuminating the myriad exploits of the jovial, free-wheeling king of the gods.
Twenty-three members of LGBAC evoked the picturesque countryside in Australian-American composer Percy Grainger’s “Hill Song Number Two.” The full corps helped to pay tribute to Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and George Gershwin in Roger Cichy’s “Divertimento for Winds and Percussion,” a piece of rough-and-ready Americana, quoting some of his favorite composers, and incorporating a contrastingly gentle third movement, entitled “Remembrance.” Ringer took up the baton for another no-holds-barred American work, a boisterous “Take the Ribbons,” meaning a stagecoach’s reins, by Gary Gilroy, celebrating a 19th century woman who broke boundaries by driving such a vehicle for Wells Fargo as a teenager, Delia Haskett Rawson, but for one musician also called to mind California transperson, One-Eyed Charley Parkhurst, née Charlotte, who lived—and voted—as a man.
It was time for further singing, when Espag and the Big Apple Corps invited us to join them in a quintet of Rodgers and Hammerstein songs from “The Sound of Music”—the title song, “My Favorite Things,” “So Long, Farewell,” “Do, Re, Mi,” and “Climb Every Mountain”—certainly a sweet seasonal offering. We also sang along with the breezy and bustling encore, Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride.” During the evening, LGBAC presented its Golden Apple Award to one of several of its founders who were present, Jacqui Aquilino-Jirak.
LGBAC returns to Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street, on April 4, 2020, for “Folk Music from Around the World.” Visit www.lgbac.org for further information.