The Stonewall Chorale is celebrating Pride 2024 with two exciting performances: "Great Music from Great Movies," the group's annual Pride Concert on June 13 at Holy Apostles, and a special appearance at WQXR's "Queen of the Night with Thorgy Thor" event on June 7. Under the baton of Artistic Director Cynthia Powell, the nation's first gay and lesbian choir is poised to commemorate pride with uplifting performances that validate and celebrate its community.

"Our Pride concert is a program of sheer fun with music from some of my favorite films," shares Powell. The night includes tunes from the silver screen that span nearly a century of music--from Puttin' on the Ritz (1929) to "What Was I Made For?" from Barbie (2023). In between, the audience will experience a wide variety of music: American Songbook classics Cheek to Cheek, Moon River and All the Things You Are; a dance solo for Singin' in the Rain, popular tunes Nine to Five, Let it Go and New York, New York; and the theatrical numbers Be Our Guest and Poor Unfortunate Souls, performed both a cappella and with a piano, bass and drums trio.

The Pride concert also serves as a welcome home for educator Melissa Tempel, who garnered national attention when a Wisconsin school board blocked her first-grade students from singing Dolly Parton's Rainbowland, deeming it controversial. At its 2023 Pride Concert, the Chorale welcomed Tempel and, in recognition for her courage and support of the LGBTQIA+ community, formally recognized her as an honorary member of the Chorale.

Before its June 13 concert, the Chorale will kick off Pride festivities on June 7 at the Greene Space in Soho, when WQXR presents "Queen of the Night with Thorgy Thor." A Stonewall ensemble will share the bill with LGBTQIA+ performances including Thorgy Thor, a drag performance artist; Conrad Tao, pianist and composer; Sunny Laprade, a trans comedian; Queer Tango!, queer dance troupe; and Sugar Hill Salon, a black- and queer-owned wind ensemble. The live performance, open to the public, will also be broadcast and live streamed on WQXR-FM.

"I can't think of a better way to wrap our 47th season than to celebrate our gay selves with WQXR and bring our community together through song at our Pride concert," said Powell. "Our talented singers will make this a Pride to remember!"

Tickets for "Great Music from Great Movies" at Holy Apostles, 296 Ninth Avenue, are available online at www.stonewallchorale.org/tickets. General admission: $35 in advance, $40 at the door (subject to availability); student/senior: $25 in advance only.

About The Stonewall Chorale

Based in New York City, The Stonewall Chorale is the first LGBTQ chorus in the nation, founded in 1977 in a Greenwich Village living room by "people who dig each other." Over the span of its 47 seasons, the Chorale has become an important cultural presence in NYC performing arts, producing three concerts a year in venues that include Merkin Hall, Carnegie Hall, Church of the Ascension, Riverside Church, the Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall.

Hailed by ClassicFM as one of the "12 the best LGBTQ+ classical music ensembles around the world," the Chorale's repertoire ranges from great classical works to contemporary pieces by cutting-edge composers like Ricky Ian Gordon, Eric Whitacre, Chris De Blasio, Meredith Monk, Gerald Busby and Tõnu Kõrvits.