Chorus Leadership
Randy and friends protest the Castro Station Bar for denying them entrance. Anti-Racism Protest, 1980. From San Fransisco: The Making of a Queer Mecca, 2009 exhibition.
Curated by Julia Haas / Jonathan D. Katz. Photo credit: Rink Foto
Randy Kikukawa
MUSICAL DIRECTOR
Randy has voluntarily directed GAPA Men’s Chorus since 1991.
Born in Wisconsin as a fourth-generation Japanese American (yonsei), and raised there and in Hawai’i, his musical journey started in church choirs in elementary school, with the Honolulu Symphony Chorus in high school, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum and the U.C. Berkeley Collegium Musicum in university. In 1982, he became a founding member of the Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, serving its board and in various executive capacities. He also sang with and served the board of the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco.
Randy has been a queer activist for more than 30 years. He holds an AB, German Literature from Harvard and MA, Germanic and Historic Linguistics from UC, Berkeley.
Desmond Tan
Desmond demonstrating note pitches to choir brothers, Taipei, 2015. Photo credit: O.V. Cacananta
Accompanist
Originally from Singapore, Desmond received undergraduate and graduate degrees in Piano from the Sherwood Conservatory of Music, now a constituent department of the Columbia College Chicago, and the Music and Arts Institute of San Francisco, and his licentiate from the London College of Music. He has in the past toured and performed in New Zealand and Brunei (for the royal family). He has been a choir member since 1993.
FAQs
We don’t audition. The musical director will do a couple of exercises to place your voice.
We are multi-API-ethnic. A few of us speak only English; some speak or understand other languages which helps when trying to learn new lyrics that we have no idea how to pronounce.
We are up to 172 performances and counting! 96% of them have been in the Bay Area – three quarters in San Francisco, a fifth in the East Bay and the rest is scattered South, North and the Peninsula.
Our international debut was at the Out Games in Montreal, Canada in 2006. That was followed by representing our side of the Pacific at the Hand in Hand Festival in Taipei, Taiwan in 2015 and in Tokyo, Japan in 2019.
GAPA Men’s Chorus has been a member of GALA Choruses since 1999, the only all-API chorus in the organization. GALA Choruses leads the North American LGBT choral movement with more than 190 member choruses and 10,000 singers.
May 31, 2015 was GAPA Men’s Chorus Day in San Francisco, declared by proclamation by the late Mayor Ed Lee.
We have been invited the most by our friends at the Eden United Church of Christ (Hayward, CA) and the Buddhist Church of San Francisco.