Kathleen McGuire, DMA
Artistic Director & Conductor - San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus
Conductor - Community Women's Orchestra


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LINK TO ONLINE PORFOLIO:
www.mcguire-music.com


CONTENTS (BELOW)
  • Short Bio
  • Full Bio
  • Recordings
  • Publishing & Academic Achievements
  • Education
  • Awards & Honors
  • Affiliations & Appearances
  • Personal Life
  • PayPal & Contact Info

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Australian-born Dr. Kathleen McGuire has conducted choirs and orchestras since the 1980s. She began her tenure as the first woman artistic director of the 200-voice San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (SFGMC) in August, 2000, leading them on tour to Washington DC's Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall in New York City, and major venues in Montreal, Sydney, Boston, Miami, and Chicago. She has produced and created arrangements on many of SFGMC’s award-winning recordings. In addition to directing the Chorus’s annual subscription series concerts, she established its SingOut Program, which has raised more than $250,000 for health service organizations. She has also served as conductor of the Community Women's Orchestra since August, 2005.

McGuire earned a Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2000, a Master of Music degree from the University of Surrey, UK, in 1996, and studied composition, music education, and conducting at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, and the Victorian College of the Arts. A self-identified social justice activist, McGuire has participated as a bicyclist and as a roadie in the 585-mile AIDS LifeCycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and was selected as a Community Grand Marshal for the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade and Celebration in 2006. She serves on the steering committee of GLAM Youth Choir, and represents GALA Choruses on the international general assembly of the Federation of Gay Games. Her biography is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who of American Women, and she is included in the Kapralova Society's Classical Music database of women conductors.

With the SFGMC, McGuire has worked with numerous celebrities, including: Broadway legend Carol Channing; the Oscar winning actor Sir lan McKellen; Tony Award winners Alan Cumming, Kristen Chenoweth, and Joanna Gleason; comediennes Joan Rivers and Kate Clinton; actor B.D. Wong; and author Armistead Maupin, among others.

Emmy Award winner Megan Mullally conversing with Kathleen McGuire
Gay Games Opening Ceremony,
Soldier Field, Chicago, July 2006

Broadway legend Carol Channing, and Kathleen McGuire
Palace of Fine Arts Theater, February 25, 2004

FULL BIOGRAPHY

An experienced orchestral conductor, McGuire has appeared in major concert halls in England, Australia, and America, working with such orchestras as The Women’s Philharmonic, the Empyrean Ensemble, and the Boulder Philharmonic. She is a champion of contemporary composers and a specialist with large forces, and is renowned for her ability to charm audiences. Her extensive repertoire also includes operas by Britten, Puccini, Mozart, Rossini and Bizet; such oratorios as Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Requiem settings by Mozart, Fauré, and Lloyd Webber; and concert works by the foremost Romantic, Twentieth Century and contemporary composers. She has served as Artistic Director and Conductor of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus since August, 2000, and Conductor of the Community Women’s Orchestra since August, 2005. McGuire has made critically acclaimed conducting debuts in Washington D.C. at The Kennedy Center, in New York City at Carnegie Hall, in Sacramento in the Mondavi Center's premiere season, at the Sydney Opera House, Chicago’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion, San Francisco’s Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, Miami's Ziff Ballet Opera House, and Montreal’s Salle Winfrid Pelletier. In July 2006, she directed the SFGMC and others at the Opening Ceremony of Gay Games VII at Soldier Field, Chicago, before an audience of over 30,000. In July 2007, she assisted with leadership of the orchestra at the Metropolitan Community Churches General Convention in Scottsdale, Arizona.

San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus
San Francisco City Hall
November 27, 2003

An exceptionally versatile conductor of orchestral, choral, opera and ballet music, McGuire is committed to works of the classical era, grandiose masterpieces of the nineteenth century, and music of the present-day. She is a noted interpreter of music of the post-modern era, and a proponent of the world's leading contemporary composers. Her impressive repertoire includes many world and regional premieres of works by such composers as Stephen Schwartz, Libby Larsen, Marcia Marchesi, Sarah Michael, David Conte, Jerome Begin, Ilyas Iliya, L. Peter Deutsch, Eric Lane Barnes, Steve Schalchlin, Steven B. Eulberg, Jerry Bock, David Kirtley, Mark L. Daniel, Gareth Valentine, Joseph Brooks, among others. With the Community Women's Orchestra, she is currently commissioning works by Hilary Tann, Mary Watkins, and Martha Stoddard.

McGuire has worked with various professional orchestras including: The Women's Philharmonic (San Francisco); Boulder Philharmonic (Colorado); Empyrean Ensemble (California); and Guildford Philharmonic (England). She has been responsible for the preparation and performance of such major operatic productions as Rossini's La cenerentola, Mozart's Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro, Puccini's Madama Butterfly and La Boheme, Ponchielli's La gioconda, Britten's Albert Herring and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Bizet's Carmen, in addition to countless musical theatre productions. She has collaborated with and received mentoring from some of the world's foremost opera conductors, including Martin Isepp (Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera), Robert Spillman (Aspen Music Festival, Boulder Bach Festival) and Sir Andrew Davis (Glyndebourne Festival Opera). She served for three years as Assistant Conductor of Colorado’s Lyric Opera, and recently worked with Goat Hall Productions (San Francisco) and Opera By the Bay (Sausalito).


RECORDINGS

McGuire has recorded and produced multiple compact discs and a DVD, including:

I Dream of a Time, November, 2001 - a collaboration with the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, D.C. - recorded live at The Kennedy Center. It was subsequently a finalist for the Out Music Awards Outstanding New Choral Recording, and winner of the Washington Area Music Award.

SFGMC Does Queen: a Tribute to Freddie Mercury and the British rock band, Queen, released in June, 2002. Features McGuire’s conducting, arranging, and producing and it was also an Out Music Awards finalist.

Closer than ever: the 25th Anniversary Concert, recorded at Davies Symphony Hall, released April 2004. It received the Out Music Award for Outstanding New Choral Recording.

Oh, Happy Day! released July 2004 was produced in collaboration with the Transcendence Gospel Choir. It was a finalist for the Out Music Award.

Divas’ Revenge – Opera & Broadway Our Way was released in 2005 (Out Music Award finalist), includes McGuire conducting SFGMC and the Community Women's Orchestra (CWO).
Home for the Holidays – Live at the Castro Theatre was also released in 2005 (winner, Out Music Award)

In 2006, she produced Cowboys, Boas and Bears, Oh My!, featuring SFGMC’s ensembles.

In June, 2007, McGuire and the SFGMC were featured on the PBS documentary, Why We Sing, produced by Lawrence B. Dillon, which was aired in 162 cities in the United States. It has also been released on DVD.

U.S.S. Metaphor DVD, released June 2008 - an adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. McGuire co-created with SFGMC. The concert was performed and recorded at Davies Symphony Hall with the Community Women's Orchestra in April, 2007. The work was performed again in full in February, 2008 at Brava Theater Center in San Francisco, and then at the Hilton Hotel Symphony Ballroom in Miami, Florida.

In December 2008, McGuire produced the SFGMC's first double CD, Creating Harmony, featuring highlights from the chorus's 30th anniversary season, including several new commissions by composers David Conte, Ilyas Iliya, and Steve Schachlin. New World Waking, by Schachlin, is a 40-minute, multi-movement work, which McGuire arranged for orchestra and chorus.In February 2009, SFGMC will release a mega-single, produced by McGuire, featuring ensemble The Lollipop Guild.


PUBLISHING & ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

McGuire is an internationally recognized scholar, music arranger, and composer. In 2004, her article "Thematic Material and Tempo Problems in Arnold Schoenberg's Kammersymphonie No. 1, Op. 9" appeared in the Journal of the Conductors Guild, and her study of AIDS-related music was selected for a lecture presentation series at NYSU. Her music edition of and program notes for Gareth Valentine’s Requiem in memory of all those who have died of AIDS were used for the professional recording of the work, released on the international Jay/Ter label in 2001. Her choral arrangements are performed by choruses around the United States and abroad, and several are published by notable music houses. In July, 2004, her arrangement of “Harriet Tubman” was published by Shawnee Press as part of the Turtle Creek Chorale’s 25th Anniversary Collection, and her new revoicing for SATB available in fall, 2008, was selected by music publisher JW Pepper as "Editors Choice" 2008 -2009. Her re-voicing for men’s voices of John Rutter’s Gloria is being performed across the United States, and is included on SFGMC's award-winning CD, Home For The Holidays. McGuire has presented numerous workshops and lectures in the choral milieu, and has served as a board and committee member of GALA Choruses, Inc. She serves on the steering committee of GLAM Youth Choir, and represents GALA Choruses on the Cultural Committee of the Federation of Gay Games' General Assembly.


EDUCATION

McGuire earned a Doctor of Music Arts degree from the University of Colorado (studying with the renowned maestro Theodore Kuchar), a Master of Music degree with Distinction from the University of Surrey in England (studying with Nicholas Conran, Owen Rees and Sebastian Forbes), and was elected to the Music Society of Phi Kappa Lambda (USA). In Australia, she studied composition at the University of Melbourne (with Peter Tahourdin and Barry Conyngham), music education at Monash University, and conducting at the Victorian College of the Arts (with Robert Rosen and Nicholas Braithwaite).


AWARDS & HONORS

Among numerous awards and accolades are the Best Music Director Award from the Victorian Music Theatre Guild, the prestigious Rotary International Ambassadorial Fellowship, and she was elected to the National Music Society of Phi Kappa Lambda (USA). McGuire is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who of American Woman, and Who’s Who in the World. For her influencial work in the community, McGuire has received honors from California Assemblyman Mark Leno, Congresswoman Carole Migden, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and San Francisco City Supervisors. In 2006, she was selected as a Community Grand Marshal for the San Francisco Pride Parade, and named by the Bay Area Reporter as as Local Newsmaker of 2006. She is included in the Kapralova Society's Classical Music database of women conductors.

Kathleen McGuire as Community Grand Marshal
San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade
June, 2006


AFFILIATIONS & APPEARANCES

Professional affiliations include the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Conductors Guild, the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, Rotary International Alumni Association, and GALA Choruses. She is a co-founder of GLAM Youth Choir and serves on its steering committee. She appears regularly on OUT Spoken on Comcast TV, and has appeared on KRON4 TV, radio stations ALICE, KFOG, KALW, KFRC, and many other Bay Area television and radio stations. Publications in which she has appeared include TIME Magazine, Girlfriend, Curve Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco Bay Times, and Bay Area Business Woman.


PERSONAL LIFE

McGuire lives in the South Of Market neighborhood in San Francisco. In the little time she has away from music-making, she enjoys road biking, working out in the gym, cooking, Scrabble, Sudoku, and watching her favorite TV shows. Some of her fondest leisure-time memories include: skiing down the mer de glace in Chamonix, France; white water rafting for 8 days on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon; bicycling from San Francisco to Los Angeles; mountain biking the treacherous Slickrock Trail in the Utah desert (in the middle of summer); snorkeling in Fiji, the Great Barrier Reef, and Maui; surfing in Australia and California; visiting the former prison in Lincolnshire, England, where her convict ancestor was held for a year in the early 1800s; hiking to the Wilson's Promontory Lighthouse, located at the southernmost point of mainland Australia; and surviving a week-long backpacking trek along Tasmania's forbidding southern coast. Just for fun, she co-hosts a monthly bike ride for women (and their friends) with Dr. Betty L. Sullivan, via Betty's List.

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For more information, contact:
mcguireka@yahoo.com

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