Tuesday, December 9

“I ran the London Gay Men’s chorus for five years,” said Charlie Beale, artistic director of the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, tonight performing its Holiday Spectacular at Carnegie Hall. “Which is why it’s so interesting for me—we did the marriage equality debate in London when I was there; now it feels like old hat. It’s not an issue in the straight population at all, and so to come here and find I’m doing it all again is … interesting.” Mr. Beale went on to explain that his group is “always doing outreach work with organizations in New York City; for example, an organization called Village Cares, we do a lot of singing for. We sing in old people’s homes, for people with HIV/AIDS. Also, we’re doing a big project fighting homophobia in the outer boroughs. There’s not so much homophobia below 96^th Street. If we sing in Manhattan all the time, we’re preaching to the choir!” Amen!

[New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Avenue, 8 p.m., 212-247-7800]

mbryan@observer.com