GAPA MEN’S CHORUS
Celebrating More than Thirty Seasons of Love
Our Mission
The GAPA Men’s Chorus showcases the vocal music talents of Queer and Transgender Asian and Pacific Islander men. We create a safe space for queer API men of all ages to find fellowship and share our worldviews by providing a supportive community through song.
Our Story
GAPA Men’s Chorus was established in 1989 shortly after GAPA formed. Our first performance was at the Metropolitan Community Church San Francisco on November 3, 1989 in a humorous “talent/un-talent” show. The founding group wanted to celebrate their respective cultures through song and showcase a strong, proud collective of queer API men in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a way to come out, establish a creative and social support network, and raise awareness within the wider LGBTQ and API communities.
We remain GAPA’s longest running, uninterrupted program. True to our mission, as an all-API queer men’s chorus, our ethnic and sexual identities are front and center and in your face, which has the most direct impact to representing our achievements and the diversity in our communities.
About the Men of Chorus
At its heart, we are a social group whose members have built deep friendships bound by music (and love of food!). Hence, we are non-auditioned and we welcome queer and transgender API men of varying skill levels. Our roster is an inter-generational, 20s-60s, multi-ethnic mix of 30 regular and recurring singers. We are multilingual and our TTBB repertoire heavily emphasizes songs in the languages of Asia and the Pacific Islands, in addition to your typical choral arrangements of European and American music.
In three decades, we have sung in friends’ weddings and memorials, in festivals and fundraisers, and in our own celebratory concerts. In backyard parties and drag shows, in theatrical halls, in churches and temples, at a coliseum – no venue is too small or too large. It’s all about being seen, heard and celebrated!
REHEARSAL Updates
We generally have weekly rehearsals, alternating between San Francisco and Oakland.
1st, 3rd and 5th Mondays of the month: San Francisco
2nd and 4th Mondays of each month: Oakland
For address of rehearsal venue and to confirm a scheduled rehearsal, email: chorus@gapa.org
We hope you can be part of our Chorus family. Join us!
Musical Director
Randy Kikukawa
Randy has led the chorus since 1991. He is for a long time an activist and advocate for the queer and API community.
Read more
GAPA Fund
GAPA Men’s Chorus is a GAPA Fund program. All donations made on behalf of GAPA Men’s Chorus are tax deductible.
Donate to Gapa fund
Join us in Song
Regular rehearsals are every Monday from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Feel free to join in!
