ARTBEAT interviewed Diane Gilfether just before a Tuesday night rehearsal.  We caught up with her at the Blackhawk Country Club in Danville, where the Blackhawk Chorus meets weekly, except during the summer, for vocal training and rehearsal.  As members of the chorus began arriving, Diane took a few minutes to sit with us.  A vibrant woman with a glimmer in her eye and a crystal clear voice, Ms. Gilfether explained how the chorus started. 

"The chorus began in 1991 with 12 women who knew that I had an operatic background and a voice teaching background.  They came to me and said 'we would like to learn to sing'.  I agreed to give them group voice lessons and I invited them over to my house, and planned to meet with them one night a week for six weeks.  Pretty soon a few more people started coming and at the end of six weeks we had about 20 people, and we decided to go for another six weeks, and then it just started blossoming and about a year later we added men to the group.  From then on it has been wonderful.  It’s been my service to the community that I felt nobody else could have or would have done.   It’s turned out to be a very big job and it is a labor of love for me.  I don’t get paid and I continue to do this because I love it.   We have wonderful dedicated people that work in the chorus and a wonderful board that make my life much easier.  As you can imagine handling 140 singers and going on tour is very challenging."

A critically acclaimed lyric-coloratura soprano, Diane has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. She has appeared with the San Francisco Opera, Pasadena Opera, City Opera, and was a long-time leading lady with Donald Pippin's Pocket Opera. Her symphonic solo appearances have included the Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, Stockton, Santa Cruz, Contra Costa, Monterey, Washington-Idaho Symphony Orchestras, as well as others. Ms. Gilfether has also sung with the Crown Chamber Players, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Masterworks Chorale, Schola Cantorum, Music in the Mountains, the Lamplighters, and on radio and television. She has appeared in recitals throughout California, Washington, Oregon, Louisiana, British Columbia, Austria, Germany and France.

The Blackhawk Country Club allows the chorus to use space for rehearsals.  In exchange the chorus performs twice per year, offering a concert and dinner dance for the club at no charge.  The country club benefits and the chorus enjoys performing there.  It is one of the biggest events, twice a year.   The chorus also does an annual program at the Diablo Lodge, which is the senior’s living space in Danville.   And they just performed sold out shows at the Lescher Theater in Walnut Creek.  Plans for the future include upcoming performances locally and overseas.  When asked about upcoming performances, Ms. Gilfether replied "We are booked through the Spring of 2012.  Our international travel has been relatively close to every other year.  Now since the economy hasn’t been so great, I think the last  trip was in 2007 to Great Britain.  Our next trip is in 2012.  We did also have a trip to New York and Lincoln Center in 2010.  And plans are under way for 2012.  We have an agent on the other side of the Pond who is helping us.  He manages all the venues and the hotels and so on.  There is no fee for us, but our agent does get paid.  And if there is a box office charge, the theater and the management company share in those profits.  This is purely for our own fun and enjoyment.  Typically we do four concerts on an international tour in different cities.  So there is an opportunity for people to site see and have fun and it’s a great bonding experience for everybody."

On a side note, ARTBEAT has learned that Diane Gilfeather was recently named a Hometown Hero, a designation bestowed by a program which is the result of a partnership between Bay Area News Group and Comcast that celebrates people who contribute to their communities.  Watch the YouTube interview here. 

For more information about Diane Gilfether and the Blackhawk Chorus, visit www.blackhawkchorus.com.

Arts Recognition Award Honoree
Kathryn G. McCarty, Founder and Director, The Galatean Players Ensemble

"As a writer I do sometimes incorporate lines that come from conversations with people.  A lot if it relates to universal consciousness and things that are on everybody’s mind - what’s happening, and what we need to talk about."

ARTBEAT spoke with teacher, playwright, poet, and director Kathryn McCarty at Contra Costa College during a break of the rehearsal for ROCKIN’ AT THE RICHMOND PROM.  McCarty is upbeat, enthusiastic and passionate about her work, about teaching and directing, and about making a difference in her community by supporting young people in pursuit of their artistic aspirations.  

"Teaching and directing in many ways are very similar" says McCarty.  "When I first started teaching, I taught six years at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill.  I came out here from Chicago, and before that I had been in New York.  I am from Illinois originally.  After college I did an internship at Princeton and then I went back to Chicago and worked for Forbidden Broadway and some others, and then I went to Europe and did West Side Story.  When I came back, I realized looking back, what a great experience it was, doing theater within a community.  I think it totally changed me as an artist to work within the community.  Because I look at how people view art or view themselves and the art, much differently in a community than people who do professional theater.  A lot of it has been teaching the importance of everybody working together as a community to say something.  So it’s a whole different feeling, especially with writing because so much of what I write about is about community, about what we face as a community.  I am known for Rivets but I also wrote a piece called Straight Laced.  It is about a young man who goes through reparative therapy to 'heal' him from his homosexuality.  In my teaching career I have dealt with some young men who have gone through the pain of that.  So a lot of what I do is based on trying to take relevant topics from my experience, and make it speak to a community."

As Artistic Director and Founder of Galatean Players Ensemble Theatre, Ms. McCarty has received critical acclaim for her work as director of Falsettos and Making Mary, for which she won Shellie Awards for Best Director, and Best Musical Production.  Before settling in the Bay Area in 1990, McCarty worked at the McCarter Theatre at Princeton University as well as the Chicago Company of Forbidden Broadway.  She has also toured Europe extensively over a two year period as Production Stage Manager for the Broadway Musical Company's West Side Story.

As a playwright, she has a long list of works including Straight Laced, a Cantata, an attempt to heal a young man of his homosexuality, The Garden Club, the last surviving member of the club conducts the group’s annual meeting, The Star Polisher, an elderly woman maintains Joanne Woodward’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, An American Sketch, a painter dazzles her granddaughter with her paintbrush and with teaching the components of a well-lived life, A Real Possible, a widow braces herself for the arrival of her prom date, Bessie! The Life of Bessie Smith, a celebration of her life and music, The Fitting Room, a voyeuristic perspective on the search for meaning, truth and the perfect pair of jeans, Defining Form, the struggle in caring for a mother with the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and Rivets, a Musical story of Rosie the Riveters (book and lyrics).

"I think as adults we lose creativity that we had in our early childhood", says McCarty.  "I think it is important to realize how much energy and how much spirit is in the present, is in right now.  Every single show that I’ve written has come out of some form of reality.  For example the show that I wrote, Henry Ever After, was about a friend of mine, for whom I was house sitting.  When I was there I noticed that everyone could see in her living room window.  I asked her if she knew her neighbors.  All her neighbors could see right into her house.  She said that she didn’t know any of her neighbors.  I thought that was such a strange thing, that these people could see right into her home and yet she knew none of them.  This was the basis for the play, about a about guy who dies, and his neighbor felt so bad that she never talked to or got to know her next door neighbor and now he is dead, that she throws a party and invites all her crazy neighbors.  As writers, I think that everything that we write comes from some essence of reality; it has to, because how else are we going to be able to speak to people?  Writing for me is teaching on the greatest scale.  And yes, it is often a two o'clock in the morning job!"

When asked about her future plans, McCarty says that her play Rivets, will be put on again this summer.  She is in the process of making some changes to the play and is excited that it will be performed at Contra Costa College this year.  Last year Rivets was performed by the Galatean Players on the SS Red Oak Victory in Richmond.  The ship is in restoration in preparation to be sailed again, and there are a group of hard working and dedicated people who through their efforts in the restoration project, have also helped to make the Rivets performance a huge success.  McCarty says that in addition to the college performance, parts of the Rivets production may be presented on the SS Red Oak Victory again this summer.  Stay tuned!

For more information about Kathryn McCarty please visit www.kgmccarty.com/ and for the play Rivets, http://rivets.homestead.com/, for Contra Costa College Drama http://cccdrama.homestead.com/, and for the SS Red Oak Victory http://www.ssredoakvictory.com/beforeandafter.htm.

Arts Recognition Award Honoree
WomenSing, Martín Benvenuto, Artistic Director

"Believing that music is transformative and enlightening for both singer and listener, WomenSing is devoted to the study and performance of great choral repertoire and to sharing it with a broad audience."

WomenSing, an auditioned community chorus of fifty women, has played an active and creative role in support of the arts and culture in Contra Costa County for the past 44 years.  The chorus, under the direction of Dr. Martin Benvenuto, presents three concerts annually at a variety of venues in Contra Costa County, Berkeley and Oakland.  Performances feature a broad selection of classical, contemporary, ethnic and folk music. 
ARTBEAT was fortunate to sit with Benvenuto just before the evening rehearsal in Lafayette.  A thoughtful, self-assured presence, Benvenuto speaks passionately about how he started with WomenSing and what makes the chorus unique.  

"We are celebrating our 45th Anniversary season… the group is as old as I am, actually." He smiled.  "I joined in the Fall of 2002. I had recently moved to the Bay Area after finishing my doctorate at Boston University.  In 2002 the Artistic Director position for WomenSing became open, and I had done a considerable amount of treble choir women’s chorus work in the past, so I decided to pursue it, and I have now been with them for ten years.  It’s been quite a trip, the group has grown artistically; it has broadened its horizons, has gotten more recognition, including this award that the AC5 has given us.  It has explored different things over these last ten years that hadn’t been done in the past, which is very rewarding to be a part of."

WomenSing has a long tradition of partnering with other musicians and organizations to increase exposure to the arts for all.  These collaborations include other musicians and musical groups, and often incorporate other art forms such as dance, poetry, and theater.  The choral group has collaborated with California Shakespeare Theater, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Young People’s Symphony Orchestra of Berkeley, Dancer’s Circle of Orinda, Beijing Children’s Choir, Contra Costa Children’s Choir, Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir and Con Brio Women’s Choir of Seattle, among others.