“Nine artists, nine composers, nine choreographers, one GMCW” is how Thea Kano, the artistic director of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, introduces the group’s almost-Olympic undertaking for its upcoming performance Portraits. The groundbreaking and multidisciplinary project is a nine-movement oratorio, featuring commissioned visual artworks brought to life by original music and dance performances. Timed perfectly with Pride Month, Portraits takes place at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on June 16. 

For each of the nine movements, GMCW members will recite the lyrics of each song before it begins. The artwork will be projected above the stage, where more than 25 singers and 15 dancers from GMCW’s dedicated dance ensemble will perform the commissioned pieces with a quartet of musicians. The dance numbers will be a mix of solos, partner dances, and full ensembles. In accompaniment to the live show, GMCW is publishing a coffee-table book featuring 50 of the portraits submitted for the project. 

“We’re really hoping that everyone—audience members and performers—see themselves represented on that stage at some point in the show, so they feel seen and recognized,” Kano says. 

The project, four years in the making, began with a visual concept. In early 2020, GMCW singer Bill Lipsett approached the chorus he’s been a part of since 1991 with a new commission inspired by the 2010-11 National Portrait Gallery exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, a groundbreaking show that detailed the visual histories of sexuality, queer representation, and changing societal attitudes through historical portraits of LGBTQIA people and their communities. 

While the exhibit featured portraits of famous queer people such as the poet Walt Whitman and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Lipsett was especially taken with images of anonymous people—sailors at a bar, couples at the beach. He asked himself: “Wouldn’t it be great to have songs to go with some of these portraits?” He presented his grand idea—capturing the images of daily queer life through both visual and performing arts—to the advisory board of GMCW in March 2020, and they planned for a multiyear undertaking, though there were additional setbacks due to the pandemic. 

“There’s been so much faith in this project, despite difficult times with the COVID shut down and I’m glad we took our time,” Lipsett says, who suspected the project would take about four years to complete. He was right.

This massive undertaking really picked up speed in 2021, with a global call for artists to submit their painted portraits—of themselves, their friends, lovers, and inspirations—for consideration. “We received more than 250 images submitted from 25 countries and most of the United States,” Kano says. “It really was overwhelming and incredible.” 

Ultimately, GMCW’s advisory team selected nine chosen artworks that each tell the compelling story of everyday queer folks from diverse backgrounds, orientations, and expressions. There are portraits detailing marginalization and isolation, as well as grappling with issues such as mental health. But the works also capture moments of beauty, intimacy, resilience, and vulnerability—the full spectrum of humanity. 

In 2022, GMCW issued a second call, this time for composers to choose the portraits that resonated with them, and in 2023 GMCW invited choreographers to create dance pieces inspired by the chosen artworks in concert with the musical compositions. 

“We invited the choreographers to look at the art, and it was really magical because nobody fought for the same thing,” says Kano. “It was wild. We’re so very proud and humbled because of how all these amazing artists have come together.” 

Zoom meetings were held for the artist, composer, and choreographer of each piece—often all hailing from different states or countries—to connect and discuss the synesthetic approach, culminating in powerful and emotionally resonant multidisciplinary art. 

Lipsett contrasts the Portraits project with GMCW’s more well-known concerts dedicated to divas such as Dolly Parton or Judy Garland. “I think that it is more representative of the community than just focusing on celebrities or known gay icons,” he says. “These subjects are anonymous people before you read about them in the program, but then you’ll hear the poetry, read and see the artwork. There will be a lot of interpretation by the audience, who will all experience it somehow differently.”

In celebration of this momentous production, GMCW’s website has transformed into a gallery now featuring some of portraits alongside interviews and artist statements from the creatives, and snippets from the compositions. Importantly, it’s a living gallery that will continue to be updated.

Moving forward, GMCW plans to continue Portraits with newly commissioned artwork, musical composition, and dance to premiere at their annual June Pride concerts. Kano shares that next year’s call for artists will center on trans and nonbinary creatives, and future iterations may include youth artists, Latinx artists, and other members from underrepresented LGBTQIA communities. 

But for now the original production remains the focus. In July, GMCW will perform Portraits at the quadrennial GALA Choruses Festival in Minneapolis, which features queer choruses from all over the world for five days of concerts, workshops, and social events. “It has been eight years since we’ve come together [due to COVID], and there’ll be 7,000 delegates and 150 choruses performing,” says Kano. “We’ve been selected to be one of the headliners with this project. We’re really glad to do the performance at the Kennedy Center—in its large hall—and also this opportunity to share with the world.” 

Through this ongoing project, GMCW hopes to inspire other choruses to create similar interdisciplinary and multimedia initiatives within their own communities, fostering a culture of artistic expression, inclusivity, and understanding.

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington’s Portraits starts at 5 p.m. on June 16 at the Kennedy Center. A postshow talkback follows the performance; the accompanying art book will be available for purchase. gmcw.org. $25–$80. 

Editor’s note: this post has been updated to clarify that the call for artists was open to everyone.