#lgbt choir

[queerbreadcrumbs]

I sang publicly in an LGBT+ choir yesterday. We're an SATB choir. I'm a trans guy and I sing bass. The last time I sang publicly with a choir I was an alto, but testosterone is a hell of a drug. Our director likes to have shorter people at the front when we sing, so that she can see everyone, and the audience can see all of us. I'm on the front row. I look to my left and see another trans man. I look to my right and see two more. I realise that every bass on the front row is transmasculine. I smile. I'm singing for my brothers and my brothers are singing for me. Later, when we're all talking about the performance, I resist the urge to make a joke about how short we all are. We go to a pub to celebrate a successful performance, and with them I dance like someones dad at a wedding, and we talk about visibility, invisibility and navigating being trans at work. One of them has infectious joy when he dances. Another is the most fabulous looking man I have ever met. I finally feel like I found my people and I'm somewhere I belong. This is my community. This is where I am safe. Being with other trans men is so healing and affirming. Being one of the boys. Dancing to ABBA.

#personal #transmasc #trans man #transgender #transmasculine #queer #trans #lgbt choir #singing

[knuckleblaster]

ULTRAKILL IS 25% OFF UNTIL OCT 5

treat someone (or yourself) to a stylish, ultraviolent character action FPS with cool robots (and faceless characters), an incredible drum-and-bass soundtrack, the destruction of oppressive cruelty, and a ton of accessibility options

#ULTRAKILL #the game is about a gay awakening & the main devs are lgbt (or outspoken allies) if that sweetens the pot for anyone #totally preaching to the choir here but think it's worth saying because people don't get notifs for sales if they already own the game lol

[transboysoprano]

Almost one month until I start testosterone!

It's also that time of year when directors start sending out their contracts and letters of availability to musicians like myself, and I've had to start coming out to all of them in response. So far, I've gotten nothing but support from everyone and it genuinely makes me so grateful.

The general message I've been sending to them has been as follows:

"As part of my transition, I have decided to undergo hormone replacement therapy, and will be taking testosterone starting May 28th of this year. One of the effects of testosterone (as I'm sure you are aware) is on the voice. Its effects are the same as young men undergoing puberty, so my voice will most likely deepen over time into that of a phenotypically "masculine" voice. This is a decision I do not make lightly, and have come to after many years of consideration. I will be taking regular lessons with Dr. (DM me if you're looking for resources) who specializes in transgender voices as I undergo these changes. My goal is to continue singing at the highest level regardless of how my voice changes, but where it will most comfortably settle and how long that will take is up to genetics and fate. By next year, I may be able to sing tenor or baritone, though I intend to train my upper register to sing countertenor if possible."

Then I thank them and let them know that I'd like to re-audition for their ensembles when my voice has settled more. They've all responded positively and with excitement for me, and the chorusmaster for my city's opera company even said there would be no need, as she knows the work of the professor I'm taking lessons with and thinks I would benefit from being on stage this season(!!!!)

In other news, the symphony I do admin for had their soprano soloist drop out of the Mozart Requiem so guess who's learning the part and performing it in two weeks? Your boy!! It feels a bit kismet. What better way to honor the end of my soprano career than with a requiem?

I'm still nervous to all hell but I'm just so tired of living like this. I just feel like this decision is going to change everything for the better for me.

#trans #transgender #ftm #trans man #ftm trans #lgbt #choir #choral music #choir music #queer #lgbtqia #opera #opera chorus #opera singer #opera singers #trans musicians #transgender musicians #transgender singers #trans singer #trans musician #transgender opera singer #trans opera singer #trans opera singers

[brazenskald]

In my first year of university, I was going through a very tumultuous time. There was all the many new things that come from leaving home, some good, some bad. There were the difficulties of a demanding if rewarding job, and I first became acquainted with the not-so-fondly-remembered and not yet fully un-internalized “student lifestyle.” Terrible food, awful sleep schedule, and this omnipresent sense of impending doom that was, at least in my case in Fall 2019, surprisingly prescient. Throughout all of this, I was not prepared to be struck by the warmth and depth and resonant Truth that cut through the noise and spoke to me with a certain book I picked up, by happenstance, because of its pretty cover. That book was A Conspiracy of Truths by @ariaste. You may have heard of them. https://www.alexandrarowland.net/a-conspiracy-of-truths

Now, needless to say I devoured aCoT, and subsequently its excellent sequel A Choir of Lies. I was sorrowfully disappointed to find out after finishing the absolute rollercoaster of Choir that there was in fact, no further reading yet to do. And so, profoundly affected as I was by this (for now) duology, which I will doubtless craft a dedicated and appropriately lengthy treatise at some point in the future, I set the books in a prime place upon my shelf and turned to face the rest of the year buoyed in my hopes for the brightness of Spring and the long lusty laughter of Summer. Alas, they were all of them deceived for another global epidemic was to begin. One (or two) life-altering years in a pandemic later… I returned to university, fully prepared to enjoy the hell out of an actual honest-to-gods academic institution that didn’t begin and end with a computer screen. It hit like a truck. Same awful student lifestyle, more bad habits piling up, and a rapidly growing sense of my own undiagnosed issue rearing its ugly head. I made one decision that saved me, probably. I kept buying and reading phenomenal books. I kept looking for stories to motivate, enervate, and inspire. Somewhere deep in my subconscious, I remembered that fateful message spoken by a Chant on a page three years past. To loosely paraphrase, “Stories [are] people, and the way people are.” I chose to focus on resilience, made it my motto, and sure I still had lots of work to do, but it helped. It gave me the push I needed to keep going.

That last long Winter that seemed so dark that the sun was never going to come back? I went a-wandering, and lo, a new instalment from @ariaste ‘s Mithalgeard universe! Not a Chant sequel as such, but I couldn’t get my hands on it fast enough. It was an oasis. A respite from the grind and dreary routines. It was also gay as… well as gay as a rainbow covered in gold, let’s say. And I cannot recommend A Taste of Gold and Iron fiercely enough, because although in many ways I managed to end my degree on a high note, that book drew me out of the darkness of the coldest part of the year. It gave me the sense to smell the flowers, to bask in the green and golden glow of a soon-to-be-attained victory, long overdue.

Alex had by this point also published several shorter works, (and a whole library’s worth of content on AO3, naturally) which I leapt to read whenever they crossed my radar. It helped that I joined their discord community which was leaps and bounds more reliable in terms of getting updates and also just having the chance to share in mutual fandom gushing. If you’re even remotely interested in learning more about what I’ve talked about here, you should join in! https://discord.gg/XHJ9Uy5gef Everybody there is absolutely lovely. So why do I bring all this up? To summarize a preamble that is, to put it mildly, not short, Alex’s writing sings to my soul. I love it more deeply than my non-existent children, and their body of work continues to evolve and grow and deliver on the themes and core messages that hooked me with that first book.

But wait, there’s more! Life carries on, and with it comes new stories! Specifically, Running Close to the Wind! It’s Our Flag Means Death meets Mithalgeard, which if I haven’t convinced you to go and read those other instalments, well just trust me when I say that is a potent and persuasive pairing! It’s also going to be dropping at an important time for me, what with convocation, another big move in my life, and a whole whack of uncertainty. Much like Avra, Teveri, and Julian though, I’ll just have to brave the rocky waters and hold on to those nearest to me, and that’s what I’d like to focus on at the end of this post. A Conspiracy of Truth taught me that stories are people, A Choir of Lies showed how stories can change people, and A Taste of Gold and Iron drove home that stories we tell ourselves are the hardest to rewrite, but also the most rewarding when we take ownership of them. I anticipate that with Running Close to the Wind, Alex will likely show us (with ample amounts of pomp and queer circumstances) how the story of ourselves can only ever be written by interweaving the tales of those closest to us. Perhaps, we’ll even discover how to navigate the often stormy seas of uncertainty that seem omnipresent these days, whenever we deign to pull our noses out from whichever books we’re currently nestled within. I know that’s certainly something I’ll be looking out for, come this June, and now hopefully you will be too! (This last link does go to the webpage for Running Close to the Wind, Tumblr’s just being weird I guess.)

#fantasy #queer #lgbt #writing #booklr #books #A Conspiracy of truths #a choir of lies #a taste of gold and iron #running close to the wind #pirates #resilience #tor books #stories #new books #books that got me through the pandemic #ofmd #hopepunk #books as therapy #spec fic

[sparrowsrandomthoughts]

Me and my friend were in choir once and our teacher said boys sing the first verse and girls sing the second verse and my friend (who uses they/them pronouns) turned to me and went “I guess we don’t have to sing then” and I said “yeah lol” and then I just stared at them in disbelief for a solid 5 minutes like what the fuck I haven’t come out to anyone yet is it that obvious??

#sparrowsrandomthoughts #lgbtq #trans #genderfluid #nonbinary #lgbt #lgbtqia+ #queer #transgender #trans problems #wtf #choir #school

[warblercore]

vampire hunter/vampire quinntina because art is about making things i think are cool!!!!

#vampires etc au #warblerlore #my art #glee #glee fanart #quinntina #quinn fabray #tina cohen chang #good evening to goths. ex-cheerleaders. show choir members. vampires. vampire hunters. the lgbt community. emos. #i am keeping it spooky all year round #side profiles are the bane of my existence and its because of the chins

[lindsayraindrops]

So “A Taste of Gold and Iron” by Alexandra Rowland is an unmitigated delight.

I am not even kidding, I consumed this book in a haze and consciously made myself slow down while reading so I could better savour it. It’s unspeakably good. The world is so rich and detailed and woven into the characters’ personalities and quirks and how they experience their surroundings, it was a joy to read and I cannot stop thinking about it.

(I started writing this review after I read the advanced reader’s copy months ago. In March!! Rest assured I have not stopped thinking about it.)

In this fantasy romance novel with a limited though plot-relevant magic system, Kadou is the Prince of Arasht, struggles with chronic anxiety and his-sister-the-sultan’s annoying lover, and constantly tries his absolute best to do well by his kingdom and the people entrusted to him.

Evemer is a supremely capable bodyguard who gets assigned to Kadou in an effort to keep him out of trouble. He starts out being supremely unimpressed with Kadou. Take one look at the US cover of the book to see just how much he will become attached to his prince—

All of the characters are fleshed out and multidimensional, with realistic flaws and strengths and so much tangibility to them and the context in which they exist, I am absolutely FLASHED by the character work!

Do you like fealty?? Do you like Fealty with Feelings?? Do you like an achingly tender love story of growing devotion where they talk about their positions in each others’ lives long before they realise or admit they’re in love? You will love them. I love them.

Listen to me. Do you enjoy the liege/vassal dynamic but are particular about the power differentials in play? EXCELLENT NEWS the complications therein are addressed in the book, both in general ways relevant to the worldbuilding and relationships with side characters, and between the main couple themselves. Both of them broach the subject on several occasions! Laying open their expectations and fears in scenes most tender and caring and my god it is so well done.

Do you enjoy a world that is dealing intimately with mechanisms of fealty that is gorgeously constructed and thought through and then there is on-page deconstruction of that situation and dissection of what it means and what responsibilities come with it for both vassal and liege, and how the characters deal with that responsibility?? I know I do!!

Are you unsure about the fealty? Have you literally ever looked at fealty in fiction and thought to yourself, “This makes no damn sense—compels me though” ?? Rowland will make you look closer. They will hand you your own emotions and say, look at it. Hold it. Feel the weight of your own heart in your hands. You are allowed to have feelings about it. You are allowed to admit that this is intense, and it is not the same devotion as love is devotion, but it is just as Much, just as Heartwrenching, and NOW watch me add love to it and see how it transforms.

This author lays hands on this trope with absolute precision down to the molecular level and it is so. fucking. good.

And this is not even the only excellently executed and close relationship in the book. Kadou has family he loves, and who love him: the sibling relationship is politically strained and is immediately influenced by the plot. Another plot thread concerns a sexual relationship that ends, with the characters expending effort to transform it into a friendship, and it is not less valued for it.

The plot is gripping! There is a counterfeiting operation going on that threatens the kingdom’s economic stability, and our main characters are charged to investigate it. It flows seamlessly into the worldbuilding and character work. The world itself is queernormative, both regarding relationships and regarding gender, and nuances of it are discussed in narration and between various characters.

I cried about this book twice in one evening bc it has the ABSOLUTE AUDACITY to follow up an intense scene of fealty with an intense scene of the love that is developing underneath.

This book hits is like a needle-fine arrow directly into your heart.

The US edition came out today, the UK edition will be out in two days (September 1st), please read G&I, get it now, enjoy <3

#a taste of gold and iron #alexandra rowland #queer fantasy #queer lit #book rec #book recs #queer romance #bookblr #lgbt #fantasy #romance #fealty #a conspiracy of truths #a choir of lies #ALSO. do you like ariaste fanfiction?? THIS IS THEM. YOU WILL LOVE THIS.

[uncanny-tranny]

hi, what are some good binders that have a zipper in the front? if you know any, if not thats ok :) love ur blog ❤️

I haven't been looking around in years, not gonna lie, and I have the ability to wear traditional binders, so I unfortunately haven't done research into that, but I know zippered binders can definitely be a necessity

If somebody knows of safe binders with zippers, don't be a stranger! It's very appreciated <3

#ask #trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtq #ftm #nonbinary #that said (and i know - preaching to the choir) don't get those amazon binders with zippers

[cryptidwithaninternetconnection]

So my gay awakening was in my old choir class 2 years ago when the world was starting back up and people were going back to in person classes, I was at a Christian choir class and it was practice time for the big concert, and there was this girl who had really silky hair (other girls were noticeably jealous and I think she knew it) and she was sitting next to me while the teacher (who I’m calling Mr. Buss as that’s decently close to his actual name) was outside getting some air (the sopranos were too loud bc there was so so many of them- there were like 4-5 altos and I think 10+ sopranos) and she just.. patted my head out of nowhere and said “your hairs very soft” and left it at that, I was slightly off-key from shock for the rest of practice-

#choir stuff #choir kid #lesbian #lesbian awakening #lgbt #lgbtq

[oxbowreality]

hello it is Earth Day! I had a lovely time cleaning the local park and I have returned with some new knowledge.

did you know that cigarette butts are not biodegradable? the filters are made from plastic fibers! after the paper decomposes, the fluffy fibers cling to foliage or collect in waterways, seeping chemicals that are toxic to fish! cigarette butts are the second most common form of litter, but their small size makes cleanup incredibly difficult.

please dispose of cigarettes properly: the power is in. your hands!

#ilysm if you are trying to quit smoking and I believe in you #it's pretty common in the LGBT community to smoke so hopefully I'm not preaching to the choir #sorry I got possessed by the spirit of a middle aged environmentalist mother of five #I touched grass and it altered my brain chemistry #I promise I shall post normal bullshit after this

[deenahalaqsa]

Gay men have made amazing traction and visibility with shows like It’s a Sin, which was so widely watched [that it broke records]. “And it wasn’t just gay men that were watching it. I really felt the full country come together to watch this show about a moment in history that impacted gay men so profoundly. I don’t see the same happening for queer women on as big a scale. I don’t see a Queer Eye or RuPaul for lesbians.

Epic new comedy about lesbian choir wants to do for queer women what It’s a Sin did for gay men

#lesbian choir #lesbian #lesbiandayofvisibility #it's a sin #gay men #gay #lgbtq #lgbtq+ #lgbt #pride #tumblrpride #queer eye #rupaul #lesbians

[capriciousvisage]

#ai the somnium files #ai: the somnium files #happy pride #lgbt #i really worked on this. i think it being kinda hard to read #is in character to Boss #cosmic choir

[mcnuggyy]

So glad god made me too shy to be a theater kid but just good enough at singing to end up being a choir/church choir kid but now that just means I know how to sing AND ended up with extra weird religious trauma that could have been avoided 😭

#though there was a time in my life where I could have ended up being both #cause I got superrrrr into phantom of the opera and it’s still one of my favorite musicals #and even auditioned for my high schools grease production but luckily I’m very stupid #and didn’t realize it was a 2 part audition and only came to 1 part of it #so they just assumed I wasn’t actually interested LMAO #but no I was just dumb LMAO #anyways #singing is like drawing to me I have to do it once a day or else I go crazy LOL #but now I just wish there was a gay fruity little choir club or something I could join as an adult #i wanna make silly little friends and sing songs and be gay :-( #some hidden izel lore for you I guess LMAO #callate guero #though the few times I’ve gotten to perform with a mariachi have been some of the coolest fucking moments for me #especially at my quince cause that’s one of the first times I ever saw my dad cry #I felt so powerful LMAO #i KNOW la probably has like a gay mariachi group or two I could look into since they have multiple lgbt+ folklorico groups I’ve seen

[transboysoprano]

In other news, I sang tenor for the first time last night. I talked to my choir director about it, and she agreed to let me try it out for our next concert. There are two choirs I'm in, the treble and mixed choirs, so I still get to get my fill of singing soprano in the treble while stretching my low range in the mixed.

I immediately fell in love. I bottom out around F3 right now (pre-T, still), but the pieces we're doing almost never go lower than that. I thought I wouldn't be able to sight-read as easily or it wouldn't be as satisfying as singing soprano but I am SO happy to be wrong. I LOVED singing in the middle of chords and feeling my voice rumbling in my chest. It's exciting and novel and it made me feel like I was falling in love with choral singing all over again.

My best trans girl friend also sings tenor in that choir, and my fiancé sings baritone, so I was grateful to get to sit between them. I'm usually pretty quiet and serious in choral rehearsals but we had so much fun sitting together. Even just being on the other side of the room for once felt like my whole world was different.

It's silly sometimes how big the small things are and how small the big things are. I thought I could only ever be a soprano. That was my lot. I was good at it and I'd never done anything else so I could never be anything else. Then one day I try something new and I realize it's not that different. I still know how to read music, I still know how to sing, it still feels good. Even better in some ways. But what felt momentously different was how much I felt like I belonged there. My voice didn't stick out nearly as much as I thought it would. I still know how to blend to the voices around me. Even just responding to "tenors" or "tenors and basses" rather than to "sopranos" or "sopranos and altos" felt like I finally was where I always wanted to be. Being surrounded by my loved ones helped of course, but I just felt... welcome there.

I am filled with hope today. I really think I can do this. I think I'm ready for whatever happens come May. Testosterone, please let me be a tenor. I found where I want to be.

#trans #transgender #ftm #trans man #ftm trans #lgbt #choir #choral music #choir music #choirs #singing #trans singers #transgender singers #queer #lgbtq #lgbtqia #queer pride #trans pride

[daily-classical]

#sacred music #classical music #american music #jewish music #psalms #tehellim #leonard bernstein #lgbt composers #choir #choral music #orchestra #Youtube

[queershakespeare]

i love meeting other autistic people and realising we are basically the exact same person

#im in a little transmasc autistic trio at my lgbt choir and its absolutely delightful #one did the same degree as me and the other does the same job as me #wild #robin talks