March 5, 2024 • 43 mins
Spencer Zembrodt is the Artistic Director for the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus, in existance for over 30 years. We find out about the current season and how you can get involved with the group.
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You're listening to Out Cincinnati on ninetyone point seven UVXU h D two Radio
artifact from any time Nichol Listen atout Cincinnati dot com. My name is
Chris, Welcome to another episode herein the month of March. Thank you
so much for coming along. Thisis radio for the LGBTQ community and beyond
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here in the city of Cincinnati.You can get in touch anytime. Our
social media is real easy to findat out Cincinnati or out Cincinnati at GPI
dot com. My name is Chris, and I was so honored this week
to get into the musical frame ofmind and speak to one of our favorite
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organizations, Cincinnati Men's Chorus. Yes, they've been around for over thirty years.
We'll get into it. We'll talkabout the history and what they've got
coming up with Spencer Zimbald. Heis the artistic director. Very interesting guy.
We'll speak to him coming up onOut Cincinnati. Out Cincinnati would like
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to thank our sponsors Scott E.Knox Attorneys at Law with over thirty five
years of experience in working with theLGBTQ plus community. Scottnox dot com for
more information. Mad La mccaffee locatedin Madisonville at five thousand and one Kenwood
Road. It is the best Cincinnaticoffee shop and bakery. Nak after an
(01:34):
angry mammal. You're listening to outCincinnati. It's radio for the LGBTQ plus
community here in the Queen City.But I'm with Spencer Zembrot. He is
the artistic director for the Cincinnati Menschorus. Thanks for coming on out Cincinnati.
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Hi, Chris, thanks for havingme. So what is this? I've
heard of the Cincinnati Men's Chorus.I've been to a few concerts. I
follow them because I do the showand I'm queer and I love the guys.
You guys are great. So whatare you up to now? What
is the Cincinnati Men's Chorus or folkswho might not be aware it's been around
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for a minute. So the Men'sChorus, we're in our thirty third season
and it's a chorus of gay,by trans and straight allied men for them
to come and sing and find communityand for us to make a little bit
of difference in our community and morebroadly the world. So it's a standard,
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it's a standard chorus. How manymembers? And do you have to
what's the question identify is you canidentify as mail enjoying, correct, right,
right? So right now we haveabout forty members. We've had back
in our heyday, you know,when more people were out singing, I
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guess you could say there were onehundred people, and we've been as low
as about thirty. So right now, being at forty, it feels like
we're growing. Things seem fresh comingout of the pandemic, and we're really
excited for what's coming up. Sodid you revamp everything for the pandemic?
Well, I mean, what wasthat this might be before You're involvement with
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the Cincinnati Men's Chorus and we're speakingto Spencer zembrots On out Cincinnati, the
artistic director for the chorus, andso what did you and I know you
can find more about that on theYouTube page, But what did you all
do for COVID And is there stillkind of like a reluctancy to join.
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So I've been involved off and onfor the better part of a decade.
Actually, when I got out ofmy undergrad I joined at the behest of
a friend and sang for a partof a season and then I you know,
ended up going back to school andgot my master's, But when I
would come home for Christmas or youknow, around the summer break when they
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were doing their June concert, Iwould come back and I would play second
keyboard in their band for the concerts. And then the year before I took
over as artistic director, I wasactually their accompanist. So I know that
during the pandemic, I kind ofhave a good idea of what they were
doing. Everything pivoted to online andwe were, you know, making videos
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and everybody was singing from home.We were doing zoom rehearsals, lots of
practice tracks for people to work with, so it was a lot of tech
and a lot of the same thingthat I think everybody else was experiencing all
at once, a lot of Ithink I remember Steve Molloy telling me learning
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how to be an audio video producer, you know, it was like producing
music videos. Yes, Eve andI are good friends, and that was
I think a really big challenge ofthe job when he was the artistic director.
And it's certainly something that I've gottena little taste of too, having
to learn lots of music, editing, softwares and such while I've been in
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the job. It's really a learningcurve that I didn't expect. That's been
really fun to learn. And sowhat does the artistic director do? Are
you the one playing the piano becausefolks might not have never seen what might
have never seen one of the shows. So are you playing the piano or
are you directing? Are you malthingthe words to the singers? Yeah,
it's a little bit of all ofthat, I think. So as the
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artistic director, my main responsibilities areI'm conducting the rehearsals. I'm helping to
set the schedules for you know,when we're doing events, and finding those
events and connecting with those people inthe community that want us to sing.
Picking the repertoires a really big responsibilitythat I have, and making sure that
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everybody's prepared. It's a lot ofcommunication with a lot of different moving parts,
but overall it's super fun. Ilove doing it. It's it's really
a blast. I want to getinto how do you pick the music?
And it's always it's something I've alwaysasked on out Cincinnati when I speak to
the chorus, there's got to besome drama. There's got to be it's
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got to be tough to please everybody, right well, and that's the thing.
You're never going to please everybody.But I think my philosophy is hoping
to find a little bit of somethingthat everybody can like. You know.
It's it's a really big task,and I actually spend hours and hours listening
to music and doing as many randomGoogle searches in the most oblique ways that
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you can think of to find themusic. It's a lot of asking friends,
asking the chorus members what they want, using my networks to you know,
see what other people have done andwhat other people are doing, what's
what's hot now, and then youkind of I keep big long lists of
it and you just kind of choosefrom that, and you have to fit
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together something that isn't just fitting thetheme. But for me, it has
to create a story. It hasto tell, you know, some kind
of tale of who we are orwhat we are or where we want to
go. Or it can even youknow, just be simpler than that,
can it just it can be justhaving fun. And we're speaking with Spencer
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Zimbro, the artistic director of theCincinnati Men's Chorus. You can find them
onto Facebook Cincinnati Men's Chorus, Cincimen'sChorus on Instagram, Cincinnati Men's Chorus on
Twitter, and a very nice YouTubepresence if you want to check out Steve
Malloy's editing editing prowess Cincinnati Men's Choruson YouTube. Thank you so much for
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joining us, Spencer. What isyour what is your next like? What
is your next concert offering? Iknow it involves a couple of different groups.
Sure, so we have several thingscoming up. The next event that
I think you're talking about is ourMarch sixteenth concert. We're doing a community
engagement concert with the Cincinnati Boy Choirand Saint Xavier High School. It's kind
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of a bunch of groups that youwouldn't necessarily think would come together and sing,
but we're really excited for it.We're calling it the Sons of Song,
and it's really just about this intergenerationalcommuning and making music together and finding
ways for us to support younger peopleand to be a positive influence and to
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you know, just get out thereand make a difference. That's what it
always comes back to for me.So Saint x So is it the is
it the different choirs from these differentwell, obviously the Cincinnati Boy Choir,
but the choir from Saint X andthat Cincinnati bill a choire singing with the
entire chorus all together at once.Obviously, good question. So we are
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all singing our own separate sets,and then that the end we're going to
sing together. It's going to bea really special surprise. I guess it's
not a surprise anymore, that isit? Well, no, it's not
a So what are the details andwhere is that going to be? And
how can folks? I know,you have cincinnatimens Chorus dot org for everything,
and it's a great website. Youcould even chat with somebody on there,
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which I was kind of got lostin the other night. No,
I'm just kidding that you can goto Cincinnatimentschorus dot org and grab tickets for
that. But what are the detailson that event? Sure? So of
course details are at cincinnatimenschoruse dot org. The concert is March sixteenth at three
point thirty doors. We'll open aroundthree o'clock and there's very limited seating.
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It is at the Arco Cincinnati Building, which is three three one Price Avenue
in Cincinnati. It's actually an oldMasonic lodge and they've converted it into several
performing and event spaces, so it'spretty cool place to check out. It's
a great space to have a concertlike this, And as I said,
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seating is very very limited, soif you want tickets, people need to
go get them right now. Andwhat are some of the selections? So
this is called Sons of Song withthe Saint Xavier Chorus doing their part,
Cincinnati Men's Chorus doing theirs, andthen Cincinnati bur Choir and you're all going
to sing together. So what canwe expect is there is there a theme
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of kind of suns or being asun? That would be a great thought,
but I think it's it's not somuch a theme that we're all choosing
together. We're all just kind ofshowing off what we're working on right now.
For us, we're going to singa couple pieces that we're working up
for our May concert, which I'msure we'll talk about in a little bit.
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And then for the other groups,I actually don't know what they're doing
yet. I'm sure they do,I hope, but so they have their
own music that they're choosing. Andthen the group number is out of the
Justice Choir song Book, so we'regoing to sing a piece from that's if
people don't know. It's a freesongbook that you can use for any occasion,
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any group, And it's a resourcethat people can use for times of
protest or times of healing. It'sreally versatile, and I think it is
a great resource that people should checkout. Absolutely, And so may excuse
me March sixteenth, looking forward tothat concert, and you can, of
course, it's very easy to followwhat the next opportunity is to see because
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the graphics are really cool and thelogo and everything all that. Cincinnati Men's
Chorus dot org. How long isthe chorus? And I want to remind
folks because institutional memory, how longis this chorus been around? So we
are on season thirty three. That'sincredible thirty three years and it's always been
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called Cincinnati Men's Chorus. I'm justcurious. Is it ever had a different
name. It's always been the CincinnatiMen's Chorus. Okay, cool? So
what is there? There is anopportunity in April, I believe I was
looking at Cincinnati Art Museum's Art inBloom Festival. Yes, we'll be singing
at the Art and Bloom Festival onApril twenty eighth. Our performance is at
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two PM, and so the festivalas I understand it, because this is
my first time learning about it tooas a local. The Art and Bloom
Festival is one of Cincinnati Art Museum'scommunity wide events, and in the past
it's been a lot of professional floristsmaking art out of their craft and presenting
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that, but they're really trying toopen it up and get more facets of
the community involved and make it morethan just a show for professionals. So
as part of that, they've askedus to come out and sing as the
chorus to get the event going,and actually we're not getting it going,
we're ending it. We're the lastthing going on. So we're really pleased
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to be a part of that andshow up to the community and new and
exciting ways. And that's on thetwenty eighth of April. If you're a
look at a plan ahead at twopm. Always important to get those tickets
in advance. If you can grabtickets for those at Cincinnati Men's Course dot
org, I assume, or youcan get in touch with the Cincinnati Art
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Museum for information about that event.I'm sure yeah for that one. You
definitely want to check out Cincinnati Artmuseum's materials and their website. We're not
ticketing for that, and I don'tknow if they are either, but I
suspect not if they won't able tocome. Yeah, yes, yes,
let's have a full crowd there andwe'll come. See April twenty eighth,
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two pm. It's a community performanceat Cincinnati Art Museums are in bloom And
give that a Google because I haven'tyet, but I'm looking forward to it
because you've kind of enticed me tolook up that event. That looks very
very interesting. Spencer, thank you. This is out Cincinnati Radio for the
LGBTQ plus community here in the city. You can follow us at hout Cincinnati
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on all social media networks, evenon TikTok even though I'm do you know
TikTok yet, Spencer, Oh,I'm too old for TikTok. Oh,
come on, you've already dismissed it, honey. Okay, My sister send
me TikTok's all the time, andI refuse to download the app. I'll
watch them in the browser. Yesit okay, See, I don't this
is just me screaming old. Ijust don't love it that it starts playing
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right away. And I can't stopit. I don't like that it's only
ten seconds and I have to watchit three times to get what's going on.
Oh, I have friends that doI think, do TikTok's on purpose
just to be confusing. Yeah,just random stuff. And it's usually my
sister or my best friend. Soyeah, I was I'm looking forward to
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the day when the men's course willbe on TikTok to see who's gonna who's
going to take that over then,because Spencer's is scared of TikTok and I'm
just saying, hey, maybe youcan volunteer to do it during it stirring
it up. Ooh, I likethat. Stirring it up a little bit.
One of my favorite times of theyear. And it's really it's really
I'm so sick of the cold,even though it hasn't been that bad.
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It's time to think about Pride andwhat do you what is the concert?
What do you do? I knowit's a very busy month for everybody,
sure, so Pride month is alwaysreally busy for everybody. Like you said,
we actually tried to get off ofJune a little bit just because everybody
is all over the place, rightso in May well be doing our pre
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Pride concert and this year we're callingit Glitter and Be Gay. Our season
has been all about sparkle. Westarted with silver and gold for our Winter
concert. We had diamonds and pearlsfor our Valentine's de Cabaret we just had
and now glitter and Be Gay.And the message of this concert it's all
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Broadway and the message is pretty much, whoever you are, whatever you look
like, whoever you love, andso on and so forth. You know,
shine and be yourself. That's what'smost important. Glitter and Be Gay.
And I love the title, thelogo if you go to Cincinnati Man's
Courus dot org logos are great.The color, it's just it's so enticing.
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Where is that going to be andwhen? And you say that's in
May, right May? Yeah,So that's May eighteenth and nineteenth. That
will be our main stage concert.So it's at Memorial Hall, which is
in Otr. It is two o'clockboth days on the eighteenth and nineteenth,
and you can get tickets at Cincinnatiman'sCourse dot org. They're already live and
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they're pretty cheap too, So it'snice to be able to offer that for
this spons sorry, now go aheadplease, for this concert, we're also
pairing with our guest artist, VictoriaEllington, who is a lovely, lovely
soprano, and she's going to besinging the eponymous tune of our concert,
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glitterin b Gay by the great LeonardBernstein. And then also our season partner
is Big Brothers, Big Sister ofGreater sorry, Big Brothers, Big Sisters
of Greater Cincinnati. And when yousay season partner, so that's like the
sponsor for the your main sponsor forthe season. Not a sponsor. They're
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not giving us money, They're acommunity partner. We're basically just trying to
help highlight facets of the community thatare not talked about as much, at
least in our community. I thinkthat for a lot of LGBT groups,
pairing with a group that would supportchildren seems very odd or would not seem
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to be exactly what we're working on. Maybe we would be partnering with Pride
or with an AIDS advocacy organization.But I actually think and argue that supporting
children is one of the greatest thingsthat we can do right now, because
I think they need to see rolemodels of healthy adult LGBTQ people. But
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more than that, there are goingto be in any group kids that are
LGBTQ and are figuring it out,that out for themselves and that are struggling,
and by being able to be thereand shine a light for them,
I think that that's really important andthat's what I wish that I had more
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of when I was a kid,and especially important while we're dealing with a
lot of the legislation and a lotof the hate and the book bans and
everything else that we're facing right now. Oh, it's it's I know you're
not a lawyer or a politician oranything, but it is. It is
quite a mess, and we coverthat on the show, and it's just
it just always seems to be avicious circle. So it's great to partner
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with the It's the Boys and GirlsClub, you said, correct, It's
Big Brothers, Big Sisters of GreaterCincinnati, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater
Cincinnati, which is a great organization. So many organizations in Cincinnati helped the
LGBTQ plus community. And you're aFlorence native, right, I'm a Florence
native Florence, y'all. Well,I used to say, Florence small and
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they got bench out of shape andall that kind of thing. So,
so, what's the best thing aboutyour hometown, Spencer? And Spencer is
the artistic director of the Cincinnati Vin'sChorus, kind of getting into it.
Where do you reside now? SoI am in Florence, and I think
the best part of my hometown isgetting out of it and going to Cincinnati.
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I figured I thought that might bein there. Is there a little
hole in the wall you love?You know, is there some kind of
hometown probably except for the water tower. Oh gosh, well, I mean
it's great to have family around.Yeah, there's I love it's if you
love chain restaurants, this is definitelythe place for you. I would say
my favorite part of it is theairport. I don't know if you're noticing
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a theme of escaping, but that'swhere I'm at, Spencer. You can
go anywhere anytime. They're always adding, They're always adding, uh, you
know, routes to CVG and Iflew Frontier before, And if you're not
willing to just have barely a seat, then you know, one of those
one of those is great for youas well as we're talking about Northern Kentucky,
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Cincinnati and everything else here out Cincinnatiwith Spencer Zembrot the Cincinnati Men's Chorus.
So what is your And I'm surea lot of chorus members wonder what
is your day today? I thinkI had a grasp on Steve Malloy's day
today. What is your day today? As far as artistic director goes,
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it changes every day. I alsoteach piano lessons four days a week,
so that's you know, it takesup a lot of my time. My
day to day with the job justdepends on the season. There are some
seasons where I'm working really hard atchoosing the music. I'm kind of just
getting finished with the part of theseason where it's all arranged and available to
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the chorus and published. And nowi move into the phase where I'm hiring
the musicians for our May concert andI'm making we have voice files so that
the chorus can learn their parts andsing along with those when they're not in
rehearsal, and already you know,picking out themes for next season. I'll
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probably start picking out repertoire for theholiday concert pretty soon here. So it
just goes back and forth, andthen of course we're gonna hit May and
my world's gonna be on fire whileI try to put on a concert.
Well, how do you I'm sureyou have lots of volunteers, and I'm
wondering because you know, I'll puton a record and sing with it,
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and I don't know if you can. I know you have a conducting background,
but I don't know. I can'tsing. Mamma, just cut him,
gone against his head, grown muchriggan, Mamma, life it justill
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away if I'm not as if nothingreally matters. So can you join the
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chorus if you can't sing? Andif you can sing, how do you
join the chorus? Sure? Sowe've actually changed the title from Auditions to
vocal Placements because we want to makeit a little bit more accessible. We
want people to feel welcome and comfortable, good cool, So if you want
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to join, we have vocal placementdates twice a year, so right before
the start of each of our concertseasons or not seasons but cycles. So
we'll have them in roughly August orSeptember, and then we'll have them around
January, right after the turn ofthe new year. So that gives people
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a chance to saying a whole season. If they want, they can sing
half a season. Maybe they're newto town and they just want to jump
on board. We're talking about joiningthe Cincinnati Men's Chorus and the fact that
I think I've set it up interestingly, I can't hold a note in a
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bucket, So I know there's awhole faction of volunteers right that stand out
front and tear tickets and so raffletickets and all that kind of thing.
Right, So, we had avolunteer program in the past. Ever since
COVID, we have not really hadthat. We have a few brave volunteers
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that are pretty loyal and stick out. But that's actually one of the things
that I see as a big futurefor the chorus is developing more of a
apprehensive and inclusive volunteer program. Ireally see it as the future is getting
people involved, because, like yousaid, not everybody can sing or wants
to sing. Well, I thinkeverybody can sing, but not everybody feels
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comfortable putting their particular talents on display. And you know, some people have
talents that lie elsewhere. Maybe theylike people, maybe they just like listening,
Maybe they want the communion of beingaround the chorus and being a part
of that action. I really thinkthat there's a place for everybody. And
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you know, it doesn't even takebeing a man to do that, you
know, or I shouldn't say beinga man identifying as male. That's how
we put it, right, Butyou know you don't have to you know,
there's no limitations for getting involved exactly. And I mean there's there's so
many ways to get in touch.And so somebody, who excuse me,
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get involved with the Cincinnati Men's Chorus. Whether you can sing, and like
Spencer says, everybody can sing,it's just about finding your place, right
right of course? Oh okay,well, so there's so there's still hope.
I was reading your your your yourprofessional website and folks can google you
at Spencer zimbro dot com. Correct. Yes, and you worked with Joshua
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Bell. You can disagree with me, you're not aside from being gorgeous,
what's it like working with Joshua Bell? So I like that you chose him.
I didn't actually get to spend alot of time with him. When
I was the assistant at a festivalin Pennsylvania. I was able to,
you know, kind of commune andget to know some of music's classical music's
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greatest names. Joshua bell I gotto take balance for him out in the
hall, but he was a quickin and out. He got there for
the concert, did the rehearsal andthe performance, and he was on the
plane after a couple donor pictures.Whereas you know, a couple of the
others like Stephen Huff and Jean EveTibaudet who comes to Cincinnati all the time,
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and the singers from the met Imean, all these different folks,
I've gotten to, you know,have lunch with them. I got to
play Cards against Humanity with one ofthem. That was really fun. So
it's really interesting getting to work withpeople of such high caliber. You've got
to have that stuff sitting around becauseyou never know when Joshua or somebody next
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comes to town, when they're gonnawant to sit and play board game,
or when they're gonna want to beinvited to go to have a local chili
or something like that. You know, well, when you're in the middle
of Pennsylvania and it's all rural,and you know you're stuck at the hotel
on a weekday night in the middleof the summer. What else do you
have to do? Sit around thefire, have a cocktail, you know,
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cards with humanity. So I wantto ask you, Spencer, and
we'll just spend a couple more minutes. What do you how do you identify?
And what do is your advice forthe community? If you can kind
of get into what was it likebeing you know, if I can say
it's a queer kid in northern Kentucky. Sure, I mean, so I
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do identify as gay? What's itlike being in northern Kentucky? I always
throw the location in there. Wedon't have to throw another Kentucky under the
bus. But you know, whatis your what has been your journey?
Sure? I mean I think I'vebeen surprised in a lot of ways.
You know, when I came out, it was still you know, DOMA
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was still in effect, and don'tAsk, don't Tell was still in effect.
We had, you know, stilla long way to go, or
at least we thought we did right. And I did not come out until
after I graduated high school because Ithought it would be too hostile and because
I had a lot of internalized homophobiato still confront. But I was able
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to find some people to share itwith and that were able to help me
on my journey. And actually thatperson is the person that invited me to
join the chorus, so you know, that's a really nice tie in there.
But you know, being in northernKentucky, you know, I wasn't
really sure what it would be liketo come out. But for the most
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part, it's okay. I've neverreally experienced any severe harassment or any harassment
at all. I don't think,and you know, being very close to
Cincinnati, I think that there's enoughpeople, especially now that have opened minds
and have opened their hearts that said, you know, it still votes very
conservatively, and there are certain partsof the community that I don't think want
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me here. So I hope thatthey just keep as quiet about it as
I did when I was in highschool and you know, a baby gay.
Yeah. No, I appreciate yousharing. I always I always try
to try to get there with folks, and I know we've never spoken before,
so kind of asking about your comingout is. I really do appreciate
that. And if you want toknow mine, I mean my one of
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my family members snooped in my emailand I don't know what the hell they
saw to this day, but theysaw something and Heaton came to talk to
me and then the cat was outof the bag. So that's that's kind
of kind of that one you're listeningto out Cincinnati. It's a radio for
the LGBT co plus community, andwe are speaking to Spencer Zembro, the
(30:33):
artistic director for the Cincinnati Men's Chorus. If you're unfamiliar with the Cincinnati Men's
Chorus, there is a whole otherseason that you can subscribe to, just
like the symphony or the opera.Cincinnati Men's Chorus dot org. What are
your what are your goals for thechorus? How do you hope to grow
that group? And from it's beenaround for a minute, but how do
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you hope to grow that group andbeyond four? You know, that's a
really great question and one that Ihave, you know, been working to
try to answer for myself, butthat I've also tried to challenge the organization
to confront as a whole. Youknow, the the LGBT Chorus movement,
the gay chorus movement kind of aroseout of a time when AIDS was very
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prevalent and everybody's friends were dying andyou know, there was a lot of
singing at funerals. There was alot of need for activism, and singing
was one of the most healing waysI think that people found to do it.
But times have changed a little bit. Sure, we're still facing lots
and lots of struggles, particularly withlegislation, and you know with you know,
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HIV is still a problem, right, that's not gone away. Yeah,
a lot of this stuff was,and I find it a lot of
these groups are born out of necessity. You know, I'm going to be
featuring us, you know, speakingto a lawyer later this month on the
show where it's like a lot ofthe stuff he did, he had to
do in the eighties because his clients, you know, were dying and needed
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ton't have representation and this and thatand the other things. So yeah,
and you know, I think partof that is times are different now,
right, And so if we tryto keep the same model and the same
idea and the same audience, Idon't know that that's necessarily going to keep
us around for another thirty three years. You know. Change is a great
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thing, and I think for me, one of the biggest things is trying
to find something that honors that pastand allows us to still be that activist
group to some extent and to beyou know, finding ways to build bridges
in our community. But that alsospeaks to the people of today and the
challenges that we face now. Ithink those are in the biggest sense,
(33:00):
the things that I'm challenging the choruswith. But you know, coming out
of COVID, there's been a lotof difficulty for arts organizations to grow.
And there have been some gay coursesacross the country that their membership just shot
up. They went from having thirtyor forty people to having one hundred people,
and it seems very miraculous. Butfor us, over the last you
(33:23):
know, season and a half thatI've been here, it's been really slow,
steady growth. We started my firstconcert with twenty eight on stage.
It looks like we're going to startthis concert with about forty or maybe a
little bit over, so growing,you know, increasing always the musical competency.
You know, we are a communitychorus and we do have very mixed
(33:45):
abilities. We have people all theway from folks that don't read music at
all to folks that have degrees andvocal performance wow. And it's always been
that way. So finding a happymedium where everybody can exist and get the
support and the experience that they need. I think that that's always a challenge
(34:06):
that's never going to go away aslong as we exist as we are,
and I think that's a really beautifulthing. And one of the things I
love, and I'll compliment the experienceis is of the Cincinnati Man's Chorus,
Cincinnati Ben's Chorus, dot Org,Oh your Dream, tactically, see your
(35:37):
team art and sing on the road, Sea and your Aunt M three my
(36:24):
FA three three sat as john Sshows sat go see them. Because it's
(38:22):
not a highbrow experience. It canbe as highbrow as you want it to
be, you know, because you'regonna hear all kinds of different stuff,
but you can sing. This isthe kind of chorus where you're going to
have a sing along session normally,right. Yeah, I've tried to do
a sing along in every concert tosome extent, and you know, like
(38:43):
you said, it's not very highbrow. I would like to think that we
take ourselves seriously and have a greatperformance, but that having a great performance
doesn't mean that we're just gonna standstill and you know, sing our Gregorian
Chance. You know, oh it'sa black it's a blast. And with
Molly Mormon being the usually being theMC's it's a blast to absolutely see the
(39:06):
chorus in person. So you shouldgo do that. Yeah, for this
one, I'm BMC. Unfortunately,Molly Molly just did our cabaret a couple
of days ago and she did awonderful job and that was great. But
we do have, like I said, a very special guest artist in Victoria
Ellington coming to sing with us.And you know, beyond the things that
(39:29):
we've talked about, I think wehave a couple other special things in the
works. It sounds awesome. Imean, you got I wanted to ask
you because everything was glitter. You'regonna have to get me a list of
the best places to buy glitter becauseI'm sure there's been some purchases March May
April. There's all kinds of opportunitiesto see the Cincinnati Men's Chorus at Cincinnati
(39:51):
Men's Course, dot org and allover social media. Spencer Zimbrot is the
artistic director. If you were strandedon it as an islander, we'll bring
three items. What would they be? I have to ask that question because
that's just God questions. So andthen also I wanted to ask if there
was any community organizations you wanted tospotlight during this interview as we wrap up.
(40:14):
Sure, Uh, three items i'dhave to bring with me. Well,
I'm very addicted to my phone,but I don't know that i'd get
service. Imagine imagine you imagine there, because you know, like in the
house, it's hard to get servicedsometimes. I don't know, it's just
just some you have in the middleof Cincinnati. I don't know what the
problem is. But so imagine youhave service, you have the phone,
(40:37):
and what else gosh, because that'sa lot right there you can have.
You can have a calling for help. Then you could have this, I
know, you have the phone anda blanket to put over your head so
you can see the phone, andthen I charge. Yeah, So then
I guess the next two things wouldbe a bottle of water, right,
and a fire starter. How's thata fire starter? Yeah? Very butcher
(41:00):
of that's that's that's I don't knowwhat I would want something to drink subday
subday entertained. So the iPad,the food, and the drink would be
the things. And that's that's justthe that's just the answer. That's you're
right, that's the macho answer tothe question. There was no letter.
You're not taking the litter to theDesert Island. Thank you so much,
(41:21):
Spencer. You are the artistic director. You do an amazing job for the
Cincinnati Ben's Chorus. If you wantto get in touch with them Cincinnati Men's
Chorus dot org. Were there anyorgs that you're involved with that you wanted
to spotlight and well, I wouldlike to highlight some of our past partners.
Last year we partnered with Treehouse Cincinnati. It's an umbrella group that has
(41:44):
a lot of great LGBT and andcommunity resources available like p Flag. There's
also we partnered with Cincinnati Black Pride. May have been organization we don't all
know quite so much about it andshould all learn a little bit more about
And then also, oh, whatwas the other one? Lighthouse Youth and
(42:09):
Family Services, beautiful groups, Ohmy gosh. Yeah. So we're,
like I said, we're really tryingto get out there and make a difference
in the community and highlight these groupsand meaningful ways that will braw us closer
together because I think, especially comingout of COVID, you know, and
(42:29):
in a time where technology everything isjust right there at your fingertips, having
a community and finding people is becomingmore challenging, and I think that's what
we all need a little bit moreof. You said it. Thank you
so much, Spencer. I reallyappreciate it. And if you want to
look up a treehouse, especially tome, that's the LGBTQ Center in Cincinnati.
(42:53):
So if you need like any kindof resources, you can just give.
And I think it's a spark Coal. Who's Sparkle. I haven't said
Sparkle's name out loud in a while, but I think it's Sparkle that leads
it over there and everything. Soit's a great group. Check them out.
And thank you so much Spencer forcoming on the show. Thank you, Chris Any
You're listening to Out Cincinnati on ninetyone point seven UVXU h D two Radio
artifact from any time Nichol Listen atout Cincinnati dot com. My name is
Chris, Welcome to another episode herein the month of March. Thank you
so much for coming along. Thisis radio for the LGBTQ community and beyond
(00:27):
here in the city of Cincinnati.You can get in touch anytime. Our
social media is real easy to findat out Cincinnati or out Cincinnati at GPI
dot com. My name is Chris, and I was so honored this week
to get into the musical frame ofmind and speak to one of our favorite
(00:48):
organizations, Cincinnati Men's Chorus. Yes, they've been around for over thirty years.
We'll get into it. We'll talkabout the history and what they've got
coming up with Spencer Zimbald. Heis the artistic director. Very interesting guy.
We'll speak to him coming up onOut Cincinnati. Out Cincinnati would like
(01:11):
to thank our sponsors Scott E.Knox Attorneys at Law with over thirty five
years of experience in working with theLGBTQ plus community. Scottnox dot com for
more information. Mad La mccaffee locatedin Madisonville at five thousand and one Kenwood
Road. It is the best Cincinnaticoffee shop and bakery. Nak after an
(01:34):
angry mammal. You're listening to outCincinnati. It's radio for the LGBTQ plus
community here in the Queen City.But I'm with Spencer Zembrot. He is
the artistic director for the Cincinnati Menschorus. Thanks for coming on out Cincinnati.
(01:57):
Hi, Chris, thanks for havingme. So what is this? I've
heard of the Cincinnati Men's Chorus.I've been to a few concerts. I
follow them because I do the showand I'm queer and I love the guys.
You guys are great. So whatare you up to now? What
is the Cincinnati Men's Chorus or folkswho might not be aware it's been around
(02:20):
for a minute. So the Men'sChorus, we're in our thirty third season
and it's a chorus of gay,by trans and straight allied men for them
to come and sing and find communityand for us to make a little bit
of difference in our community and morebroadly the world. So it's a standard,
(02:43):
it's a standard chorus. How manymembers? And do you have to
what's the question identify is you canidentify as mail enjoying, correct, right,
right? So right now we haveabout forty members. We've had back
in our heyday, you know,when more people were out singing, I
(03:04):
guess you could say there were onehundred people, and we've been as low
as about thirty. So right now, being at forty, it feels like
we're growing. Things seem fresh comingout of the pandemic, and we're really
excited for what's coming up. Sodid you revamp everything for the pandemic?
Well, I mean, what wasthat this might be before You're involvement with
(03:24):
the Cincinnati Men's Chorus and we're speakingto Spencer zembrots On out Cincinnati, the
artistic director for the chorus, andso what did you and I know you
can find more about that on theYouTube page, But what did you all
do for COVID And is there stillkind of like a reluctancy to join.
(03:45):
So I've been involved off and onfor the better part of a decade.
Actually, when I got out ofmy undergrad I joined at the behest of
a friend and sang for a partof a season and then I you know,
ended up going back to school andgot my master's, But when I
would come home for Christmas or youknow, around the summer break when they
(04:09):
were doing their June concert, Iwould come back and I would play second
keyboard in their band for the concerts. And then the year before I took
over as artistic director, I wasactually their accompanist. So I know that
during the pandemic, I kind ofhave a good idea of what they were
doing. Everything pivoted to online andwe were, you know, making videos
(04:31):
and everybody was singing from home.We were doing zoom rehearsals, lots of
practice tracks for people to work with, so it was a lot of tech
and a lot of the same thingthat I think everybody else was experiencing all
at once, a lot of Ithink I remember Steve Molloy telling me learning
(04:53):
how to be an audio video producer, you know, it was like producing
music videos. Yes, Eve andI are good friends, and that was
I think a really big challenge ofthe job when he was the artistic director.
And it's certainly something that I've gottena little taste of too, having
to learn lots of music, editing, softwares and such while I've been in
(05:15):
the job. It's really a learningcurve that I didn't expect. That's been
really fun to learn. And sowhat does the artistic director do? Are
you the one playing the piano becausefolks might not have never seen what might
have never seen one of the shows. So are you playing the piano or
are you directing? Are you malthingthe words to the singers? Yeah,
it's a little bit of all ofthat, I think. So as the
(05:39):
artistic director, my main responsibilities areI'm conducting the rehearsals. I'm helping to
set the schedules for you know,when we're doing events, and finding those
events and connecting with those people inthe community that want us to sing.
Picking the repertoires a really big responsibilitythat I have, and making sure that
(06:00):
everybody's prepared. It's a lot ofcommunication with a lot of different moving parts,
but overall it's super fun. Ilove doing it. It's it's really
a blast. I want to getinto how do you pick the music?
And it's always it's something I've alwaysasked on out Cincinnati when I speak to
the chorus, there's got to besome drama. There's got to be it's
(06:24):
got to be tough to please everybody, right well, and that's the thing.
You're never going to please everybody.But I think my philosophy is hoping
to find a little bit of somethingthat everybody can like. You know.
It's it's a really big task,and I actually spend hours and hours listening
to music and doing as many randomGoogle searches in the most oblique ways that
(06:46):
you can think of to find themusic. It's a lot of asking friends,
asking the chorus members what they want, using my networks to you know,
see what other people have done andwhat other people are doing, what's
what's hot now, and then youkind of I keep big long lists of
it and you just kind of choosefrom that, and you have to fit
(07:10):
together something that isn't just fitting thetheme. But for me, it has
to create a story. It hasto tell, you know, some kind
of tale of who we are orwhat we are or where we want to
go. Or it can even youknow, just be simpler than that,
can it just it can be justhaving fun. And we're speaking with Spencer
(07:32):
Zimbro, the artistic director of theCincinnati Men's Chorus. You can find them
onto Facebook Cincinnati Men's Chorus, Cincimen'sChorus on Instagram, Cincinnati Men's Chorus on
Twitter, and a very nice YouTubepresence if you want to check out Steve
Malloy's editing editing prowess Cincinnati Men's Choruson YouTube. Thank you so much for
(07:55):
joining us, Spencer. What isyour what is your next like? What
is your next concert offering? Iknow it involves a couple of different groups.
Sure, so we have several thingscoming up. The next event that
I think you're talking about is ourMarch sixteenth concert. We're doing a community
engagement concert with the Cincinnati Boy Choirand Saint Xavier High School. It's kind
(08:20):
of a bunch of groups that youwouldn't necessarily think would come together and sing,
but we're really excited for it.We're calling it the Sons of Song,
and it's really just about this intergenerationalcommuning and making music together and finding
ways for us to support younger peopleand to be a positive influence and to
(08:45):
you know, just get out thereand make a difference. That's what it
always comes back to for me.So Saint x So is it the is
it the different choirs from these differentwell, obviously the Cincinnati Boy Choir,
but the choir from Saint X andthat Cincinnati bill a choire singing with the
entire chorus all together at once.Obviously, good question. So we are
(09:09):
all singing our own separate sets,and then that the end we're going to
sing together. It's going to bea really special surprise. I guess it's
not a surprise anymore, that isit? Well, no, it's not
a So what are the details andwhere is that going to be? And
how can folks? I know,you have cincinnatimens Chorus dot org for everything,
and it's a great website. Youcould even chat with somebody on there,
(09:31):
which I was kind of got lostin the other night. No,
I'm just kidding that you can goto Cincinnatimentschorus dot org and grab tickets for
that. But what are the detailson that event? Sure? So of
course details are at cincinnatimenschoruse dot org. The concert is March sixteenth at three
point thirty doors. We'll open aroundthree o'clock and there's very limited seating.
(09:54):
It is at the Arco Cincinnati Building, which is three three one Price Avenue
in Cincinnati. It's actually an oldMasonic lodge and they've converted it into several
performing and event spaces, so it'spretty cool place to check out. It's
a great space to have a concertlike this, And as I said,
(10:16):
seating is very very limited, soif you want tickets, people need to
go get them right now. Andwhat are some of the selections? So
this is called Sons of Song withthe Saint Xavier Chorus doing their part,
Cincinnati Men's Chorus doing theirs, andthen Cincinnati bur Choir and you're all going
to sing together. So what canwe expect is there is there a theme
(10:37):
of kind of suns or being asun? That would be a great thought,
but I think it's it's not somuch a theme that we're all choosing
together. We're all just kind ofshowing off what we're working on right now.
For us, we're going to singa couple pieces that we're working up
for our May concert, which I'msure we'll talk about in a little bit.
(10:58):
And then for the other groups,I actually don't know what they're doing
yet. I'm sure they do,I hope, but so they have their
own music that they're choosing. Andthen the group number is out of the
Justice Choir song Book, so we'regoing to sing a piece from that's if
people don't know. It's a freesongbook that you can use for any occasion,
(11:24):
any group, And it's a resourcethat people can use for times of
protest or times of healing. It'sreally versatile, and I think it is
a great resource that people should checkout. Absolutely, And so may excuse
me March sixteenth, looking forward tothat concert, and you can, of
course, it's very easy to followwhat the next opportunity is to see because
(11:48):
the graphics are really cool and thelogo and everything all that. Cincinnati Men's
Chorus dot org. How long isthe chorus? And I want to remind
folks because institutional memory, how longis this chorus been around? So we
are on season thirty three. That'sincredible thirty three years and it's always been
(12:09):
called Cincinnati Men's Chorus. I'm justcurious. Is it ever had a different
name. It's always been the CincinnatiMen's Chorus. Okay, cool? So
what is there? There is anopportunity in April, I believe I was
looking at Cincinnati Art Museum's Art inBloom Festival. Yes, we'll be singing
at the Art and Bloom Festival onApril twenty eighth. Our performance is at
(12:33):
two PM, and so the festivalas I understand it, because this is
my first time learning about it tooas a local. The Art and Bloom
Festival is one of Cincinnati Art Museum'scommunity wide events, and in the past
it's been a lot of professional floristsmaking art out of their craft and presenting
(12:58):
that, but they're really trying toopen it up and get more facets of
the community involved and make it morethan just a show for professionals. So
as part of that, they've askedus to come out and sing as the
chorus to get the event going,and actually we're not getting it going,
we're ending it. We're the lastthing going on. So we're really pleased
(13:22):
to be a part of that andshow up to the community and new and
exciting ways. And that's on thetwenty eighth of April. If you're a
look at a plan ahead at twopm. Always important to get those tickets
in advance. If you can grabtickets for those at Cincinnati Men's Course dot
org, I assume, or youcan get in touch with the Cincinnati Art
(13:43):
Museum for information about that event.I'm sure yeah for that one. You
definitely want to check out Cincinnati Artmuseum's materials and their website. We're not
ticketing for that, and I don'tknow if they are either, but I
suspect not if they won't able tocome. Yeah, yes, yes,
let's have a full crowd there andwe'll come. See April twenty eighth,
(14:05):
two pm. It's a community performanceat Cincinnati Art Museums are in bloom And
give that a Google because I haven'tyet, but I'm looking forward to it
because you've kind of enticed me tolook up that event. That looks very
very interesting. Spencer, thank you. This is out Cincinnati Radio for the
LGBTQ plus community here in the city. You can follow us at hout Cincinnati
(14:30):
on all social media networks, evenon TikTok even though I'm do you know
TikTok yet, Spencer, Oh,I'm too old for TikTok. Oh,
come on, you've already dismissed it, honey. Okay, My sister send
me TikTok's all the time, andI refuse to download the app. I'll
watch them in the browser. Yesit okay, See, I don't this
is just me screaming old. Ijust don't love it that it starts playing
(14:54):
right away. And I can't stopit. I don't like that it's only
ten seconds and I have to watchit three times to get what's going on.
Oh, I have friends that doI think, do TikTok's on purpose
just to be confusing. Yeah,just random stuff. And it's usually my
sister or my best friend. Soyeah, I was I'm looking forward to
(15:16):
the day when the men's course willbe on TikTok to see who's gonna who's
going to take that over then,because Spencer's is scared of TikTok and I'm
just saying, hey, maybe youcan volunteer to do it during it stirring
it up. Ooh, I likethat. Stirring it up a little bit.
One of my favorite times of theyear. And it's really it's really
I'm so sick of the cold,even though it hasn't been that bad.
(15:37):
It's time to think about Pride andwhat do you what is the concert?
What do you do? I knowit's a very busy month for everybody,
sure, so Pride month is alwaysreally busy for everybody. Like you said,
we actually tried to get off ofJune a little bit just because everybody
is all over the place, rightso in May well be doing our pre
(16:00):
Pride concert and this year we're callingit Glitter and Be Gay. Our season
has been all about sparkle. Westarted with silver and gold for our Winter
concert. We had diamonds and pearlsfor our Valentine's de Cabaret we just had
and now glitter and Be Gay.And the message of this concert it's all
(16:22):
Broadway and the message is pretty much, whoever you are, whatever you look
like, whoever you love, andso on and so forth. You know,
shine and be yourself. That's what'smost important. Glitter and Be Gay.
And I love the title, thelogo if you go to Cincinnati Man's
Courus dot org logos are great.The color, it's just it's so enticing.
(16:45):
Where is that going to be andwhen? And you say that's in
May, right May? Yeah,So that's May eighteenth and nineteenth. That
will be our main stage concert.So it's at Memorial Hall, which is
in Otr. It is two o'clockboth days on the eighteenth and nineteenth,
and you can get tickets at Cincinnatiman'sCourse dot org. They're already live and
(17:10):
they're pretty cheap too, So it'snice to be able to offer that for
this spons sorry, now go aheadplease, for this concert, we're also
pairing with our guest artist, VictoriaEllington, who is a lovely, lovely
soprano, and she's going to besinging the eponymous tune of our concert,
(17:30):
glitterin b Gay by the great LeonardBernstein. And then also our season partner
is Big Brothers, Big Sister ofGreater sorry, Big Brothers, Big Sisters
of Greater Cincinnati. And when yousay season partner, so that's like the
sponsor for the your main sponsor forthe season. Not a sponsor. They're
(17:51):
not giving us money, They're acommunity partner. We're basically just trying to
help highlight facets of the community thatare not talked about as much, at
least in our community. I thinkthat for a lot of LGBT groups,
pairing with a group that would supportchildren seems very odd or would not seem
(18:14):
to be exactly what we're working on. Maybe we would be partnering with Pride
or with an AIDS advocacy organization.But I actually think and argue that supporting
children is one of the greatest thingsthat we can do right now, because
I think they need to see rolemodels of healthy adult LGBTQ people. But
(18:34):
more than that, there are goingto be in any group kids that are
LGBTQ and are figuring it out,that out for themselves and that are struggling,
and by being able to be thereand shine a light for them,
I think that that's really important andthat's what I wish that I had more
(18:55):
of when I was a kid,and especially important while we're dealing with a
lot of the legislation and a lotof the hate and the book bans and
everything else that we're facing right now. Oh, it's it's I know you're
not a lawyer or a politician oranything, but it is. It is
quite a mess, and we coverthat on the show, and it's just
it just always seems to be avicious circle. So it's great to partner
(19:18):
with the It's the Boys and GirlsClub, you said, correct, It's
Big Brothers, Big Sisters of GreaterCincinnati, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater
Cincinnati, which is a great organization. So many organizations in Cincinnati helped the
LGBTQ plus community. And you're aFlorence native, right, I'm a Florence
native Florence, y'all. Well,I used to say, Florence small and
(19:41):
they got bench out of shape andall that kind of thing. So,
so, what's the best thing aboutyour hometown, Spencer? And Spencer is
the artistic director of the Cincinnati Vin'sChorus, kind of getting into it.
Where do you reside now? SoI am in Florence, and I think
the best part of my hometown isgetting out of it and going to Cincinnati.
(20:07):
I figured I thought that might bein there. Is there a little
hole in the wall you love?You know, is there some kind of
hometown probably except for the water tower. Oh gosh, well, I mean
it's great to have family around.Yeah, there's I love it's if you
love chain restaurants, this is definitelythe place for you. I would say
my favorite part of it is theairport. I don't know if you're noticing
(20:30):
a theme of escaping, but that'swhere I'm at, Spencer. You can
go anywhere anytime. They're always adding, They're always adding, uh, you
know, routes to CVG and Iflew Frontier before, And if you're not
willing to just have barely a seat, then you know, one of those
one of those is great for youas well as we're talking about Northern Kentucky,
(20:52):
Cincinnati and everything else here out Cincinnatiwith Spencer Zembrot the Cincinnati Men's Chorus.
So what is your And I'm surea lot of chorus members wonder what
is your day today? I thinkI had a grasp on Steve Malloy's day
today. What is your day today? As far as artistic director goes,
(21:15):
it changes every day. I alsoteach piano lessons four days a week,
so that's you know, it takesup a lot of my time. My
day to day with the job justdepends on the season. There are some
seasons where I'm working really hard atchoosing the music. I'm kind of just
getting finished with the part of theseason where it's all arranged and available to
(21:37):
the chorus and published. And nowi move into the phase where I'm hiring
the musicians for our May concert andI'm making we have voice files so that
the chorus can learn their parts andsing along with those when they're not in
rehearsal, and already you know,picking out themes for next season. I'll
(22:00):
probably start picking out repertoire for theholiday concert pretty soon here. So it
just goes back and forth, andthen of course we're gonna hit May and
my world's gonna be on fire whileI try to put on a concert.
Well, how do you I'm sureyou have lots of volunteers, and I'm
wondering because you know, I'll puton a record and sing with it,
(22:22):
and I don't know if you can. I know you have a conducting background,
but I don't know. I can'tsing. Mamma, just cut him,
gone against his head, grown muchriggan, Mamma, life it justill
(22:57):
away if I'm not as if nothingreally matters. So can you join the
(23:27):
chorus if you can't sing? Andif you can sing, how do you
join the chorus? Sure? Sowe've actually changed the title from Auditions to
vocal Placements because we want to makeit a little bit more accessible. We
want people to feel welcome and comfortable, good cool, So if you want
(23:47):
to join, we have vocal placementdates twice a year, so right before
the start of each of our concertseasons or not seasons but cycles. So
we'll have them in roughly August orSeptember, and then we'll have them around
January, right after the turn ofthe new year. So that gives people
(24:08):
a chance to saying a whole season. If they want, they can sing
half a season. Maybe they're newto town and they just want to jump
on board. We're talking about joiningthe Cincinnati Men's Chorus and the fact that
I think I've set it up interestingly, I can't hold a note in a
(24:29):
bucket, So I know there's awhole faction of volunteers right that stand out
front and tear tickets and so raffletickets and all that kind of thing.
Right, So, we had avolunteer program in the past. Ever since
COVID, we have not really hadthat. We have a few brave volunteers
(24:49):
that are pretty loyal and stick out. But that's actually one of the things
that I see as a big futurefor the chorus is developing more of a
apprehensive and inclusive volunteer program. Ireally see it as the future is getting
people involved, because, like yousaid, not everybody can sing or wants
to sing. Well, I thinkeverybody can sing, but not everybody feels
(25:12):
comfortable putting their particular talents on display. And you know, some people have
talents that lie elsewhere. Maybe theylike people, maybe they just like listening,
Maybe they want the communion of beingaround the chorus and being a part
of that action. I really thinkthat there's a place for everybody. And
(25:33):
you know, it doesn't even takebeing a man to do that, you
know, or I shouldn't say beinga man identifying as male. That's how
we put it, right, Butyou know you don't have to you know,
there's no limitations for getting involved exactly. And I mean there's there's so
many ways to get in touch.And so somebody, who excuse me,
(25:56):
get involved with the Cincinnati Men's Chorus. Whether you can sing, and like
Spencer says, everybody can sing,it's just about finding your place, right
right of course? Oh okay,well, so there's so there's still hope.
I was reading your your your yourprofessional website and folks can google you
at Spencer zimbro dot com. Correct. Yes, and you worked with Joshua
(26:22):
Bell. You can disagree with me, you're not aside from being gorgeous,
what's it like working with Joshua Bell? So I like that you chose him.
I didn't actually get to spend alot of time with him. When
I was the assistant at a festivalin Pennsylvania. I was able to,
you know, kind of commune andget to know some of music's classical music's
(26:45):
greatest names. Joshua bell I gotto take balance for him out in the
hall, but he was a quickin and out. He got there for
the concert, did the rehearsal andthe performance, and he was on the
plane after a couple donor pictures.Whereas you know, a couple of the
others like Stephen Huff and Jean EveTibaudet who comes to Cincinnati all the time,
(27:08):
and the singers from the met Imean, all these different folks,
I've gotten to, you know,have lunch with them. I got to
play Cards against Humanity with one ofthem. That was really fun. So
it's really interesting getting to work withpeople of such high caliber. You've got
to have that stuff sitting around becauseyou never know when Joshua or somebody next
(27:32):
comes to town, when they're gonnawant to sit and play board game,
or when they're gonna want to beinvited to go to have a local chili
or something like that. You know, well, when you're in the middle
of Pennsylvania and it's all rural,and you know you're stuck at the hotel
on a weekday night in the middleof the summer. What else do you
have to do? Sit around thefire, have a cocktail, you know,
(27:53):
cards with humanity. So I wantto ask you, Spencer, and
we'll just spend a couple more minutes. What do you how do you identify?
And what do is your advice forthe community? If you can kind
of get into what was it likebeing you know, if I can say
it's a queer kid in northern Kentucky. Sure, I mean, so I
(28:14):
do identify as gay? What's itlike being in northern Kentucky? I always
throw the location in there. Wedon't have to throw another Kentucky under the
bus. But you know, whatis your what has been your journey?
Sure? I mean I think I'vebeen surprised in a lot of ways.
You know, when I came out, it was still you know, DOMA
(28:37):
was still in effect, and don'tAsk, don't Tell was still in effect.
We had, you know, stilla long way to go, or
at least we thought we did right. And I did not come out until
after I graduated high school because Ithought it would be too hostile and because
I had a lot of internalized homophobiato still confront. But I was able
(29:00):
to find some people to share itwith and that were able to help me
on my journey. And actually thatperson is the person that invited me to
join the chorus, so you know, that's a really nice tie in there.
But you know, being in northernKentucky, you know, I wasn't
really sure what it would be liketo come out. But for the most
(29:21):
part, it's okay. I've neverreally experienced any severe harassment or any harassment
at all. I don't think,and you know, being very close to
Cincinnati, I think that there's enoughpeople, especially now that have opened minds
and have opened their hearts that said, you know, it still votes very
conservatively, and there are certain partsof the community that I don't think want
(29:48):
me here. So I hope thatthey just keep as quiet about it as
I did when I was in highschool and you know, a baby gay.
Yeah. No, I appreciate yousharing. I always I always try
to try to get there with folks, and I know we've never spoken before,
so kind of asking about your comingout is. I really do appreciate
that. And if you want toknow mine, I mean my one of
(30:11):
my family members snooped in my emailand I don't know what the hell they
saw to this day, but theysaw something and Heaton came to talk to
me and then the cat was outof the bag. So that's that's kind
of kind of that one you're listeningto out Cincinnati. It's a radio for
the LGBT co plus community, andwe are speaking to Spencer Zembro, the
(30:33):
artistic director for the Cincinnati Men's Chorus. If you're unfamiliar with the Cincinnati Men's
Chorus, there is a whole otherseason that you can subscribe to, just
like the symphony or the opera.Cincinnati Men's Chorus dot org. What are
your what are your goals for thechorus? How do you hope to grow
that group? And from it's beenaround for a minute, but how do
(30:56):
you hope to grow that group andbeyond four? You know, that's a
really great question and one that Ihave, you know, been working to
try to answer for myself, butthat I've also tried to challenge the organization
to confront as a whole. Youknow, the the LGBT Chorus movement,
the gay chorus movement kind of aroseout of a time when AIDS was very
(31:21):
prevalent and everybody's friends were dying andyou know, there was a lot of
singing at funerals. There was alot of need for activism, and singing
was one of the most healing waysI think that people found to do it.
But times have changed a little bit. Sure, we're still facing lots
and lots of struggles, particularly withlegislation, and you know with you know,
(31:49):
HIV is still a problem, right, that's not gone away. Yeah,
a lot of this stuff was,and I find it a lot of
these groups are born out of necessity. You know, I'm going to be
featuring us, you know, speakingto a lawyer later this month on the
show where it's like a lot ofthe stuff he did, he had to
do in the eighties because his clients, you know, were dying and needed
(32:12):
ton't have representation and this and thatand the other things. So yeah,
and you know, I think partof that is times are different now,
right, And so if we tryto keep the same model and the same
idea and the same audience, Idon't know that that's necessarily going to keep
us around for another thirty three years. You know. Change is a great
(32:35):
thing, and I think for me, one of the biggest things is trying
to find something that honors that pastand allows us to still be that activist
group to some extent and to beyou know, finding ways to build bridges
in our community. But that alsospeaks to the people of today and the
challenges that we face now. Ithink those are in the biggest sense,
(33:00):
the things that I'm challenging the choruswith. But you know, coming out
of COVID, there's been a lotof difficulty for arts organizations to grow.
And there have been some gay coursesacross the country that their membership just shot
up. They went from having thirtyor forty people to having one hundred people,
and it seems very miraculous. Butfor us, over the last you
(33:23):
know, season and a half thatI've been here, it's been really slow,
steady growth. We started my firstconcert with twenty eight on stage.
It looks like we're going to startthis concert with about forty or maybe a
little bit over, so growing,you know, increasing always the musical competency.
You know, we are a communitychorus and we do have very mixed
(33:45):
abilities. We have people all theway from folks that don't read music at
all to folks that have degrees andvocal performance wow. And it's always been
that way. So finding a happymedium where everybody can exist and get the
support and the experience that they need. I think that that's always a challenge
(34:06):
that's never going to go away aslong as we exist as we are,
and I think that's a really beautifulthing. And one of the things I
love, and I'll compliment the experienceis is of the Cincinnati Man's Chorus,
Cincinnati Ben's Chorus, dot Org,Oh your Dream, tactically, see your
(35:37):
team art and sing on the road, Sea and your Aunt M three my
(36:24):
FA three three sat as john Sshows sat go see them. Because it's
(38:22):
not a highbrow experience. It canbe as highbrow as you want it to
be, you know, because you'regonna hear all kinds of different stuff,
but you can sing. This isthe kind of chorus where you're going to
have a sing along session normally,right. Yeah, I've tried to do
a sing along in every concert tosome extent, and you know, like
(38:43):
you said, it's not very highbrow. I would like to think that we
take ourselves seriously and have a greatperformance, but that having a great performance
doesn't mean that we're just gonna standstill and you know, sing our Gregorian
Chance. You know, oh it'sa black it's a blast. And with
Molly Mormon being the usually being theMC's it's a blast to absolutely see the
(39:06):
chorus in person. So you shouldgo do that. Yeah, for this
one, I'm BMC. Unfortunately,Molly Molly just did our cabaret a couple
of days ago and she did awonderful job and that was great. But
we do have, like I said, a very special guest artist in Victoria
Ellington coming to sing with us.And you know, beyond the things that
(39:29):
we've talked about, I think wehave a couple other special things in the
works. It sounds awesome. Imean, you got I wanted to ask
you because everything was glitter. You'regonna have to get me a list of
the best places to buy glitter becauseI'm sure there's been some purchases March May
April. There's all kinds of opportunitiesto see the Cincinnati Men's Chorus at Cincinnati
(39:51):
Men's Course, dot org and allover social media. Spencer Zimbrot is the
artistic director. If you were strandedon it as an islander, we'll bring
three items. What would they be? I have to ask that question because
that's just God questions. So andthen also I wanted to ask if there
was any community organizations you wanted tospotlight during this interview as we wrap up.
(40:14):
Sure, Uh, three items i'dhave to bring with me. Well,
I'm very addicted to my phone,but I don't know that i'd get
service. Imagine imagine you imagine there, because you know, like in the
house, it's hard to get servicedsometimes. I don't know, it's just
just some you have in the middleof Cincinnati. I don't know what the
problem is. But so imagine youhave service, you have the phone,
(40:37):
and what else gosh, because that'sa lot right there you can have.
You can have a calling for help. Then you could have this, I
know, you have the phone anda blanket to put over your head so
you can see the phone, andthen I charge. Yeah, So then
I guess the next two things wouldbe a bottle of water, right,
and a fire starter. How's thata fire starter? Yeah? Very butcher
(41:00):
of that's that's that's I don't knowwhat I would want something to drink subday
subday entertained. So the iPad,the food, and the drink would be
the things. And that's that's justthe that's just the answer. That's you're
right, that's the macho answer tothe question. There was no letter.
You're not taking the litter to theDesert Island. Thank you so much,
(41:21):
Spencer. You are the artistic director. You do an amazing job for the
Cincinnati Ben's Chorus. If you wantto get in touch with them Cincinnati Men's
Chorus dot org. Were there anyorgs that you're involved with that you wanted
to spotlight and well, I wouldlike to highlight some of our past partners.
Last year we partnered with Treehouse Cincinnati. It's an umbrella group that has
(41:44):
a lot of great LGBT and andcommunity resources available like p Flag. There's
also we partnered with Cincinnati Black Pride. May have been organization we don't all
know quite so much about it andshould all learn a little bit more about
And then also, oh, whatwas the other one? Lighthouse Youth and
(42:09):
Family Services, beautiful groups, Ohmy gosh. Yeah. So we're,
like I said, we're really tryingto get out there and make a difference
in the community and highlight these groupsand meaningful ways that will braw us closer
together because I think, especially comingout of COVID, you know, and
(42:29):
in a time where technology everything isjust right there at your fingertips, having
a community and finding people is becomingmore challenging, and I think that's what
we all need a little bit moreof. You said it. Thank you
so much, Spencer. I reallyappreciate it. And if you want to
look up a treehouse, especially tome, that's the LGBTQ Center in Cincinnati.
(42:53):
So if you need like any kindof resources, you can just give.
And I think it's a spark Coal. Who's Sparkle. I haven't said
Sparkle's name out loud in a while, but I think it's Sparkle that leads
it over there and everything. Soit's a great group. Check them out.
And thank you so much Spencer forcoming on the show. Thank you, Chris Any
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