Renaissance City Choir finds strength in community
Renaissance City Choir is more than a group of vocalists. It's a community.
The only LGBTQIA+ and allies choral group in Western Pennsylvania, Renaissance City Choir is open to anyone, and they don't require prior singing experience, something Board President Douglas McIntyre is especially proud of.
“I consider the Renaissance City Choir to be sort of a community more than a chorus, and so we’re really for not necessarily people who are super experienced and very talented singers but people who enjoy singing, and we’re very mission-focused,” McIntyre says. “We do our best to make sure that every person who is there has the opportunity to make as much of a community as they want from it.”
McIntyre says he joined the choir in 2008 after an a capella experience in college ended and he wanted to continue performing.
“I did a little bit of high school chorus, I did a couple of musicals,” he says. “So it was like here’s a really fun opportunity now that I’ve graduated college, and I don’t have that sort of casual singing opportunity anymore. It’s just a great opportunity to continue to make connections in the queer community and also to sing.”
Each of the choir’s performances incorporates their mission and message, which includes aiming to "seek to build bridges both within the LGBTQIA+ community and with the community at large," according to their website.
“We want to have our message resonate in all of the songs and performances that we do in one way or another basically if we’re doing something it’s for a reason,” McIntyre says.
For more information on their upcoming concerts and events, including the opportunity to book private gigs with the choir, visit rccpittsburgh.com.