Christmas Eve with SF Gay Men’s Chorus

Photograph of the final bows at last year’s performance in Davies

Late yesterday afternoon, my wife and I attended the first of the two performances by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus held in Davies Symphony Hall. Aside from a signed performance of “Silent Night” in an arrangement by Danny Sullivan and an arrangement by ASH of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” the entire repertoire was new to me. As in the past, the entire vocal ensemble filled the Davies stage to the brim, with only a little space at the front for the musicians. Danny Sullivan led from the piano, joined by Kenji Harada on synthesizer, drummer Juan Carreon, and acoustic and electric performances by Matt Wrobel on guitar and Aaron Shaul on bass.

Led by Artistic Director Jake Stensberg, the performance was as satisfying as ever. The visual hi-jinx left no bad-jokes stone unturned, but the choral delivery was as polished as ever. The full title of the program was Holiday Spectacular: Home for the Holidays, and the spectacle sustained over the course of about 90 minutes. I suppose what counted most was the impressive diversity of dispositions unfolding over the course of the program. “Spectacle” may have been the order of the day; but this was an engaging journey through diversity with all of the finer qualities of the poetic “well wrought urn.”