River City Mixed Chorus

Around the nation and the world, June is a month of celebration and reflection for the LGBTQ+ community. In keeping with this month of pride, RCMC presents Here’s Where We Stand, featuring songs curated by our members and honoring 40 years of music dedicated to joy and love, and to the struggle and striving that continues to be demanded by those who seek equity and justice for all.

This concert also features music that RCMC is taking on the road to Minneapolis, MN, when they perform at the quadrennial festival of GALA Choruses (Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses) in July. These commissioned songs highlight the life and work of American civil rights activist, Pauli Murray. Murray was a legal scholar whose seminal work in 1950 on States’ Laws on Race and Color was described as “the bible” of the civil rights movement by Thurgood Marshall, then general counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In her later life, Murray became the first African American woman to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. All during her life and certainly after her death in 1985, Murray, was considered a trailblazer in the fight for equality for women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community.

As RCMC reflects on 40 years of commitment to supporting diversity, inspiring change, and empowering communities through music, we honor Murray’s courage and tenacity. Because of her and our founders, we can lovingly say we are: Standing for many. Singing as one.