The Cincinnati Men's Chorus (CMC) is a voluntary, not-for-profit community chorus organized to provide the opportunity for gay men and gay-supportive men to sing together. 

Our Mission:
Through our music, we strive for excellence; support and nurture our members; entertain our audiences; and work for justice, inclusion and harmony between the gay community and the community at large.

The chorus seeks to provide social and fellowship experiences that reach beyond the realm of musical purpose to deepen and enrich our lives. Further, we provide opportunities to present a positive image of the gay community to the general public by being identified as an organization of individuals who are making a contribution to the entire community.

From its inception in the summer of 1991, the Cincinnati Men's Chorus has continued to grow in size and musical stature. October 1st marked the first rehearsal, bringing together 60 men from all walks of life; friends and strangers, young and old, gay and gay supportive. CMC's first concert, Tidings of Pride and Joy was held at First Unitarian Church in Avondale, which was the rehearsal home of CMC for many years. Thanks to Dr. David Jackson for helping us make it home. We currently rehearse at St. John Unitarian Universalist Church in Clifton.

In addition to our scheduled concerts, CMC continues to be a yearly favorite at events ranging from the Fine Arts Sampler Weekend to the Walk to Stop AIDS.

Some of the highlights for the chorus:

1992/1993 - The combined talents of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Columbus Gay Men's Chorus and the CMC unite for the area's premeire of When We No Longer Touch.

1993/1994 - The CMC Chamber Singers (now VocalPoint) participates in the premiere of MUSE's New Spirituals Project.

1994/1995 - Participated in Artists for Awareness '95 in the AVOC (AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati) event at historic Music Hall. Later that year we were joined by Pamela Myers to celebrate the music of Stephen Sondheim.

1995/1996- The Chorus performs at GALA V in Tampa Florida.

1996/1997 - Special guest artists include Bill McKinley and our favorite diva Ann Hampton Calloway.

1997/1998 - We perform with grammy-award winning gospel artist Andrae Crouch. We also joined forces with the Detroit Together Men's Chorus to present the soul-stirring song-cycle, Naked Man.

1998/1999 - Our first CD is released. Local boy Lee Roy Reams is our guest artist for the holiday Concert.

1999/2000 - We traveled to San Jose California and participated in GALA Festival 2000. The chorus performed "Hearing Voices", a work we commissioned. "Hearing Voices" chronicled the lives of gay men during the 20th century.

2000/2001 We celebrated our 10th Anniversary with 3 concerts focusing on the best for our first 10 years plus new arrangements with pointed toward the future. For the first time we appeared with the Cincinnati Pops at Riverbend in a program titled "Now Appearing on Broadway".

2001/2002 - Named "Best Songfest" by CityBeat Magazine, recognizing our "seasonal concerts, paying tribute to American songbook favorites such as George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong".

2002/2003 - The Cincinnati Men's Chorus performed with Erich Kunzel and the Cinicnnati Pops Orchestra for their Annual Holiday concert. This concert featured the "Freedom Rings" Bell choir which is composed of members from the Men's Chorus. We were joined by guest artist Suede for the "Isn't It Ironic" concert and by the Queen City Rainbow Band for the Pride concert.

2003/2004 - The "Men in Lights" season put a spotlight on various local guest artists, including Ballet Tech Ohio, UC's College-Conservatory of Music Musical Theater students, Pamela Myers and Kathy Wade, among others.  We capped the season with a trip up north to Montreal for the GALA Choruses 7th International Festival, giving a crowd-pleasing performance which included a hilarious social commentary on "choralography," commissioned by CMC this year.

2004/2005 - A pair of sold-out shows kicked off our 14th season with "A Winter Wonderland" - just the first of this record-setting year.  "It's My Party" presented a salute to the music of the '50s and '60s in one of our most entertaining pair of concerts ever.

2005/2006 - Go All Out - our gala 15th anniversary season - began with a reprise of "It's My Party" in the Contemporary Arts Center as part of the Enjoy The Arts 20/20 Festival.   We began plans to restructure our subscription season into October/December/Spring with a Pride concert benefiting the LGBT community in June.  Our first effort in this was a rousing success, raising more than $1,000 for Equality Cincinnati's Safe Schools project.

2006/2007 - Out and About - This year we moved out of our performance home at the Aronoff Center's Jarson-Kaplan theater and out in the Cincinnati community.  Performing each concert pair at a different venue, we found new audiences and discovered terrific acoustic spaces all over the city.  Our Pride concert, benefiting AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati, marked our first appearance at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. 

2007/2008 - We continued exploring venues this season in search of a new performance home, and moved to St. Paul United Methodist Church in Madeira as our rehearsal home. We created an outreach ensemble program that all singing members could participate in called singOUT. CMC and MUSE joined forces to perform "Hand in Hand," uniting to celebrate the strength of community and the power of family. We recorded our fifth CD, "Safe and Warm," (released in Fall 2008) and traveled to Miami, FL in July 2008 to represent Cincinnati at the quadrennial GALA festival.

2008/2009 - Settled in our new performance home at the Freedom Center, and a new rehearsal home at St. John Unitarian Church in Clifton, our fun and exciting programs -- "Naughty & Nice," "Like Totally 80s" and "Queen City/Music City" -- proved popular with our core audience.