'Voices' hit high note in providing song and solace for Atlanta community
In 2011, as a transplant to Atlanta from Los Angeles, entertainment and producing veteran David Aurilio immediately began searching for events and spots that he could relate with.
“Like any gay person who person who comes into a community, you start looking for opportunities to meet people and get connected,” said Aurilio. “Anything involving entertainment connects to me naturally.”
His search ended once he heard about a performance by the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus. Pleased by the performance, he quickly found himself as an active concertgoer and donor within the organization.
“I went in and I was hooked, I absolutely loved it,” he said.
Years later, Aurilio now serves as the interim executive director Voices of Note, a nonprofit organization that combines the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus and the Atlanta Women’s Chorus for a series of performances, events and outreach work throughout the metro area.
Made up of a multitude of ethnicities, ages and sexual orientations, the organization, which will hold its newest concert performances on Mar. 18 and Mar. 25, stands as the largest community music organization in the Southeast. The Atlanta Gay’s Men Chorus is also one of the world’s longest-running gay men’s choruses, attracting guest talent from Maya Angelou to the recently deceased Leslie Jordan.
“We are here for everybody…for us to evolve as a society, you have to involve.”
While the history of the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus dates back to 1981, Voices of Note was created in 2012 as a way to launch the inclusion of the Atlanta Women’s Chorus into ongoing events and to increase the nonprofit’s mission for diversity, Aurilio says.
Coming into a successful year after a string of record-breaking holiday performances in 2022, the former Universal Studios executive is excited that audiences are ready to be back in public venues and be entertained.
However, musical performance is not the only initiative that Aurilio has in plan for showcasing Voices.
“There is certain a civic component to us, we’re giving back to the community,” said Aurilio, who says that Voices gave benefit performances for the nonprofits Families First and AID Atlanta. “And it’s not just giving back to the LGBTQ community, but also the community in which we are a part of. We are here for everybody…for us to evolve as a society, you have to involve.”
A special performance that stands out to him was a recent trip that the Atlanta Women’s Chorus took to Whitworth Women’s Facility in Hartwell earlier last year, and the surprising aftermath that followed.
“Months later, after our holiday show in December, a woman came up and asked to speak with them,” Aurilio said. “She had been in the facility and said, ‘I had to find my way to you to thank you.’ She felt the connection…that there were some people who believed in her and told her she had value…and she wanted to find her way back.”
Aurillio also credits the musical aspects of the organization for helping to open the doors of communication and connection to residents who may be critical of the chorus’ LGBTQ+ roots. He believes that although metropolitan cities such as Atlanta do offer higher acceptance and understanding regarding battles minority groups face, there is still a long way to go in being fully heard.
“We are all just people; love is love.”
“The music heart opens people…it lets their guard down,” he said. “And when that happens, they are open to hearing and learning and seeing things from a different perspective. I think any organization with voices that are not normally heard often, we are all in a struggle or quest to make sure that we are able to keep educating, getting rid of the misinformation about and changing stereotypes…changing the narrative so that we can really start building the awareness of who and what we are.”
Incidents such as the deadly shooting at a Colorado LGBTQ club in November raise the urgency for peace and equality for members of the city’s queer community.
“We are all just people; love is love,” the executive director said. “When you see the shootings and things happen, you have to go right back to the basics again…you think that people are getting it, but then with [hate crimes], you think ‘ I guess not.'”
While Aurilio and his colleagues anticipate what new opportunities 2023 will bring to the longstanding organization, they hope that the feeling of acceptance and love for all who walk through their doors will remain eternal.
“I showed up to my first in-person rehearsal full of trepidation, unsure of what I’d encounter. To my surprise, no one was upset or confused to see me there,” said Gellin Hughes, a first-year Atlanta’s Gay Mens Chorus member. “At break, I met a bass named Tim who gently ribbed me in a way that said, ‘Don’t worry, you belong here.’… and asked what I thought of the group. I said, ‘I have never been accepted anywhere as a man before tonight — I wasn’t even sure if I was one until I met you guys. Now I know who I am — a queer man. Thank you for being part of that.’ That was the moment I knew that [Voices of Note] was my chosen family.”
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