Dr. Kathleen Alison McGuire (born in 1965 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

) is a choral and orchestral conductor, arranger, composer, music educator, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. Known also for her work with social justice and human rights organizations, from 2000 to 2010 she served as the first female artistic director and conductor of the

San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (SFGMC) is the world's first openly gay chorus, one of the world's largest male choruses and the group most often credited with creating the LGBT choral movement. The chorus was founded by gay music pioneer Jo ...

– the world's first openly gay choral organization – and in 2010 she established Singers of the Street: a choir of people affected by homelessness in San Francisco. She became a US citizen in 2011 and in 2013 returned to Australia to serve as director of music at

Queen's College (University of Melbourne) Queen's College is a residential college affiliated with the University of Melbourne providing accommodation to more than 300 students who attend the University of Melbourne, the Victorian College of the Arts, RMIT University and Monash Universit ...

and co-artistic director of the School of Hard Knocks. In 2006 she was a grand marshal in the San Francisco

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

Pride Parade. Her contributions have officially been recognized by the California Senate and State Assembly, and "Kathleen McGuire Day" was designated twice in her honor by San Francisco mayors

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California fr ...

(22 April 2010) and Edwin Lee (6 April 2013).

Biography

The eldest daughter of high school art teacher Jeanette Mary Tilson and civil engineer Frank Leonard McGuire, Kathleen Alison McGuire grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Seaford and attended Carrum Primary School along with her siblings: brother Lawrence and sister Ruth. She began to sing from the time she could speak, and learned to play the recorder and guitar at grade school. Excelling also in sports and academically, at age 11 she won a scholarship to attend Mentone Girls Grammar School. Here she learned to play the clarinet and trumpet and studied music theory while continuing with classical guitar. She also sang in the school's choir. McGuire participated in community music organizations, including the Melbourne Moomba Youth Band, Frankston City Band, and the Mordialloc City Band, adding soprano cornet and side-drum to her list of instruments. McGuire's interest in conducting came in her mid-teens when she had opportunity to conduct the school's concert band and also as assistant conductor of the choir at St Augustine's Church of England in Mentone, which she attended after the family moved to the Bayside suburb of Parkdale in 1980. She was also appointed as assistant conductor of the Melbourne Moomba Youth Band. In 1983 McGuire was accepted as a bachelor of music student on classical guitar at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne, studying guitar with

Peter Lynch Peter Lynch (born January 19, 1944) is an American investor, mutual fund manager, and philanthropist. As the manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments between 1977 and 1990, Lynch averaged a 29.2% annual return, consistently more than ...

. In the same year she was also appointed as music director of the Mordialloc Light Opera Company, where she honed her conducting skills directing such works as Gilbert and Sullivan's ''

Iolanthe ''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert ...

'' and Frank Loesser's ''

The Most Happy Fella ''The Most Happy Fella'' is a 1956 musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Frank Loesser. The story, about a romance between an older man and younger woman, is based on the 1924 play '' They Knew What They Wanted'' by Sidney Howard. The show i ...

''. In 1984, her university major changed to composition, studying with Peter Tahourdin. Although conducting was not offered to undergraduates, McGuire was allowed to conduct the university orchestra occasionally and she served as the assistant conductor of the Byrd-Cage Singers under the tutelage of Loris Synan. After graduating with a

bachelor of music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescr ...

degree in composition, McGuire taught music in secondary schools during the day while maintaining conducting appointments with multiple organizations, including the

Melbourne University Choral Society Melbourne University Choral Society (MUCS) is a 120-voice choir in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia.The choir is affiliated with the University of Melbourne, but is also open to non-students who are willing and able to perfo ...

, Malvern Symphony Orchestra, the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Victoria, and Melbourne Opera Company. Many of her concerts were broadcast by Melbourne radio station 3MBS. She studied conducting with Robert Rosen, at first privately and then as a graduate student at the

Victorian College of the Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus of the ...

(VCA). In 1990 she founded and led the Victorian Women's Orchestra. In 1991, conducting the Australian premiere of the rock opera ''Metropolis'', McGuire won the Victorian Musical Theatre Guild Award for Best Musical Director. Still teaching part-time during the day, after completing a graduate diploma of arts in music at the VCA, McGuire subsequently completed a graduate diploma in education at

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

. Conducting became her primary focus, however, and in 1994 McGuire was awarded a

Rotary International Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, prof ...

Ambassadorial Fellowship that enabled her to go to England. She completed a master of music degree with distinction in conducting at the

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institut ...

at Guildford, studying with Nicholas Conran and Owen Rees. While in the UK, McGuire travelled regularly to London to observe rehearsals of the

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...

(at that time conducted by

Sian Edwards Sian Edwards (born 27 August 1959) is an English conductor, best known as music director of English National Opera in the 1990s. Early life Sian Edwards was born in West Chiltington, West Sussex. She studied at the Royal Northern College of Mus ...

), and also met

Simone Young Simone Margaret Young AM (born 2 March 1961) is an Australian conductor. She is currently chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Biography and career Young was born in Sydney, of Irish ancestry on her father's side and Croatian ...

who was conducting at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

. Young encouraged McGuire to pursue a conducting career in the US. McGuire travelled to the US for the first time in 1995, visiting friends in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

. In 1996 she was accepted as a doctoral student in orchestral conducting at the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...

(CU), studying with orchestra conductor

Theodore Kuchar Theodore Kuchar (born May 31, 1963) is an American and Ukrainian conductor of classical music and a violist. Biography Kuchar was born in 1963 in New York City.Robert Spillman, and choral conductor Joan Catoni Conlon. While at CU, McGuire conducted the orchestra and opera company and sang with the University Singers. She also conducted the professional Boulder Philharmonic orchestra and several local community organizations. McGuire graduated with a doctor of musical arts in 2000 and was elected by faculty to

Pi Kappa Lambda Pi Kappa Lambda () is an American honor society for undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors of music. There are over 270 chapters nationally; a complete roster of current chapters is listed in the organization's official web si ...

, the National Music Honors Society. In the same year she was appointed by the

(SFGMC) as its first female artistic director and conductor, where she served until the end of 2010. With the SFGMC, the world's first openly gay choral organization, McGuire toured regularly and produced more than a dozen recordings, and she instituted an outreach program that raised more than $450,000 for health service organizations. She conducted the SFGMC at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

the Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

and

Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is the concert hall component of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, California. The 2,743-seat hall was completed in 1980 at a cost of US$28 million to give the San Francisco ...

, and worked with such guest artists as

Sir Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...

and

Carol Channing Carol Elaine Channing (January 31, 1921 – January 15, 2019) was an American actress, singer, dancer and comedian who starred in Broadway and film musicals. Her characters usually had a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice, ...

. For six weeks in 2004, under McGuire's leadership, SFGMC came into international focus singing on the steps of

San Francisco City Hall San Francisco City Hall is the seat of government for the City and County of San Francisco, California. Re-opened in 1915 in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, it is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomi ...

during the historic same-gender marriages temporarily permitted by Mayor Gavin Newsom. McGuire served as part of a global

choral movement, conducting international festival choirs at the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

for the

Gay Games The Gay Games is a worldwide sport and cultural event that promotes acceptance of sexual diversity, featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes, artists and other individuals. Founded as the Gay Olympics, it was starte ...

in 2002 at

Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) since 1 ...

for the Gay Games in Chicago in 2006. In 2006 McGuire co-founded GLAM (Gay, Lesbian & Allied Musicians) Youth Choir in San Francisco, and rode her bicycle more than 550 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the annual

AIDS LifeCycle AIDS/LifeCycle (ALC) is a seven-day cycling tour through California starting in San Francisco and ending in Los Angeles. Description AIDS/LifeCycle is a charity event to raise money for HIV/AIDS services and raise HIV/AIDS awareness. Participants ...

fund raiser. McGuire had become a recognized social justice advocate and in 2006 was selected as a

grand marshal Grand marshal is a ceremonial, military rank, military, or political office of very high rank. The term has its origins with the word "marshal" with the first usage of the term "grand marshal" as a ceremonial title for certain religious orders. ...

in the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade and Celebration. In 2005 McGuire was also appointed as the principal conductor of the Oakland-based Community Women's Orchestra (CWO), having previously guest conducted its parent organization:

The Women's Philharmonic The Women's Philharmonic (TWP) was a San Francisco-based, professional orchestra founded by Miriam Abrams, Elizabeth Seja Min and Nan Washburn in 1981 and disbanded in 2004. History Originally known as the Bay Area Women's Philharmonic, in 1998, ...

. McGuire led CWO for the next eight years, including commissioning new works and restoring neglected works by women composers. McGuire became a champion for female musicians. She established internships for assistant conductors, and co-founded Strings Attached: an entry-level ensemble for women musicians who were returning to playing or new to their instruments. Upon leaving the SFGMC in 2010, McGuire founded Singers of the Street (SOS), a choir of people affected by homelessness in San Francisco. The idea came to her from

Jonathon Welch Jonathon Charles Welch (born 5 October 1958) is an Australian choral conductor, opera singer and voice teacher. As a singer, Welch has been a tenor for the Victoria State Opera, Lyric Opera of Queensland and Opera Australia. During 2006 Welc ...

, whom she had met a decade earlier. Welch had established such groups in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. McGuire visited rehearsals of the

Choir of Hard Knocks In 2005 FremantleMedia Australia producer Jason Stephens brought the idea of a television series called the Choir of Hard Knocks to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In an interview on Australian Story by the Australian Broadcasting Corp ...

led by Welch in Australia, and was inspired to create something similar in San Francisco. Singers of the Street enabled McGuire to advocate for another part of society in need. Singers of the Street was selected in 2012 to represent the US at the London Olympics festival in a special concert at Convent Garden. Singers of the Street performed via a music video produced by McGuire. In 2013 SOS's music video was selected by the American Prize as a finalist in the choral performance category. McGuire also served for a time as minister of music at the Congregational Church of San Mateo, working alongside Rev Dr Penny Nixon. Nixon and the congregation were also committed to social justice advocacy. In 2013, McGuire returned to Melbourne, Australia, to assume positions as director of music at Queen's College – The University of Melbourne, music teacher at Brunswick Secondary College, and Co-Artistic Director of the School of Hard Knocks, working alongside

. In 2017 she was appointed as music director of two Melbourne choirs: The Tudor Choristers and the Star Chorale. In 2016 she commenced as a casual academic in the Faculty of Education and Arts at

Australian Catholic University Australian Catholic University (ACU) is a public university in Australia. It has seven Australian campuses and also maintains a campus in Rome. History Australian Catholic University was opened on 1 January 1991 following the amalgamatio ...

, where she was subsequently promoted to Lecturer in 2019.

Composing and arranging

In tandem with her conducting career, McGuire also established herself as a composer and arranger, with works published by Yelton Rhodes Music,

Shawnee Press Shawnee Press, Inc., was an independent print and recorded music publisher and for a time, the largest educational music publisher in the world. The Company published several music types including choral, vocal, instrumental, and classroom in a ...

, Tresona Music and Wirripang. She orchestrated many works for musical theater in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s, and in the US concentrated primarily on choral arrangements including more than one hundred pieces for the SFGMC. Her arrangement of the song "Harriet Tubman" (2008) was JW Pepper's "Editor's Choice" in 2008–2009. Her edition of

Gareth Valentine Gareth Valentine (born 22 November 1956) is a Welsh composer, arranger, conductor and musical director. He has worked extensively in London's West End on musical productions and also conducted orchestras worldwide including the BBC Concert Orches ...

's "AIDS Requiem" was used for the professional recording of the work on the JAY/TER label. In 2014 she composed, in collaboration with

and Andy Payne, the cantata ''Street Requiem'' for those who died on the streets, which was premiered at the Melbourne Recital Centre on June 7, 2014. The work received its United States premiere on January 25, 2015, including soloist mezzo soprano

Frederica von Stade Frederica von Stade OAL (born June 1, 1945) is a semi-retired American opera singer. Since her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1970, she has performed in operas, musicals, concerts and recitals in venues throughout the world, including La Scala, th ...

. In 2015 she collaborated with singer-songwriter Christina Green, composing ''No Excuses!'' - a song suite for women's choir inspired by the true stories of family violence survivors. The work drew national attention in Australia, featured on an ABC television special and supported by 2015 Australian of the Year

Rosie Batty Rosemary Anne "Rosie" Batty (born 1962) is an English-born Australian domestic violence campaigner. She became a campaigner in 2014, after her 11-year-old son Luke Batty was murdered by his father, Greg Anderson. She was made Australian of the Y ...

She has been a member of the

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

(ASCAP) since 1900 and in 2016 was accepted as a member of the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia (MAGA).

Rock music

In her teens, McGuire taught herself bass guitar and played in a garage band with Australian jazz musician

John Thorn John A. Thorn (born April 17, 1947) is a German-born sports historian, author, publisher, and cultural commentator. Since March 1, 2011, he has been the Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball. Personal profile Thorn was born in ...

. In the early 1990s she played professionally with the Marie Wilson Band, including appearances on national TV in Australia. From 2011 to 2013, McGuire played original and cover songs with rock band Critical Bliss in San Francisco, appearing frequently at Martuni's and other Bay Area venues.

Personal life

McGuire came out as a lesbian in her twenties. Several longterm relationships included one with Texan classical pianist and conductor Stephanie Lynne Smith. They shared a public domestic partnership ceremony at San Francisco City Hall in June 2003. They were divorced in 2007 and remain friends and colleagues. McGuire has been in a relationship with Audrie Sexton since May 1, 2014. They were married in 2019.

Awards and accolades

*1982:

Dux ''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, ''dux' ...

of the School (valedictorian), Mentone Girls' Grammar School, Victoria, Australia *1991: Best Musical Director Award, Victorian Music Theatre Guild (Australia) *1994: Rotary International Ambassadorial Fellowship *27 June 2003: Water Bond, awarded by San Francisco City Treasurer Susan Leal *June 2006: Community grand marshal, San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade and Celebration *2006: Influential Person of 2006, ''San Francisco Bay Times'' *16 August 2004: Certificate of Recognition, California Legislature *19 June 2006: Proclamation, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom *19 June 2006: Proclamation, San Francisco Board of Supervisors *2006, ''Who's Who in America'', Marquis *2006, ''Who's Who of American Women'', Marquis *2007, ''Who's Who in the World'', Marquis *2007: Bay Area Personality, ''Bay Area Reporter'' *21 May 2008: Certificate of Recognition, California State Assembly *2009, Cambridge ''Who's Who Registry'' *2010: The American Prize for Choral Conducting: Excellence in Music Education Citation *2010: KQED Local Hero Award *22 April 2010: Mayoral proclamation, "Kathleen McGuire Day", San Francisco, California *22 April 2010: California Senate proclamation *22 April 2010: Certificate of Recognition, California Senate *18 January 2011: Conductor laureate honorary title awarded by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus *10 January 2012: Profile of Excellence Award, ABC7 TV *31 March 2013: Conductor laureate honorary title awarded by the Community Women's Orchestra *6 April 2013: Proclamation from State of California awarded by Senator Mark Leno *6 April 2013: Certificate of Honor and "Kathleen McGuire Day" awarded by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (presented by Bevan Dufty) *2 September 2013: The American Prize, Special Judges' Citation for Extraordinary Commitment to the Community Through Music *2015: The American Prize in Composition—choral music (professional division) Special Judges' Citation for Street Requiem: "Dignifying the Homeless Through Song" *2016: Top of the Class award, School of Hard Knocks, Melbourne, Australia *2017: Alumni Achievement Award, The University of Surrey, Guildford, UK *2017, ''Who's Who in the World'', Marquis *2020: Teaching Development Award,

Discography

*1997: ''World AIDS Day Benefit Concert'' Colorado Quilt Chorus – CD *1997: ''St. Aidan's Prayer for Lindisfarne'', St. Aidan's Church Choir – CD *1998: ''Five Years For Freedom'', The Rainbow Chorus – CD *2001: ''I Dream of a Time'', SFGMC – CD *2002: ''SFGMC Does Queen'', SFGMC – enhanced CD *2004: ''Oh, Happy Day!'' SFGMC – CD *2004: ''Closer Than Ever, 25th Anniversary Concert'', SFGMC – CD *2005: ''Home for the Holidays – Live at the Castro Theatre'', SFGMC – CD *2005: ''Divas' Revenge: Opera & Broadway Our Way'', SFGMC, CWO – CD *2007: ''Why We Sing'', SFGMC – DVD *2008: ''U.S.S. Metaphor'', SFGMC, CWO – DVD *2008: ''Creating Harmony: 30th Season Highlights & New World Waking'', SFGMC, CWO *2010: ''Women's Work and Play'', Community Women's Orchestra – CD *2010: ''California Freedom Tour 2010'', San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus – CD *2012: ''Stand By Me'', Singers of the Street – music video *2014: ''Street Requiem'', School of Hard Knocks - CD *2020: ''Sing Nowell!'', The Tudor Choristers - CD

References

External links

*http://www.mcguire-music.com *http://www.kathleen-mcguire.com *https://web.archive.org/web/20180809183643/http://singersofthestreet.org/ {{DEFAULTSORT:McGuire, Kathleen 1965 births Living people Australian conductors (music) American lesbian musicians Australian lesbian musicians Australian LGBT rights activists American LGBT rights activists Lesbian composers Homelessness in the United States Australian women composers Arrangers of church music American rock musicians Australian music arrangers Australian women record producers University of Melbourne alumni Academic staff of the University of Melbourne Musicians from Melbourne Australian rock musicians Women conductors (music) Alumni of the University of Surrey Activists from California Classical musicians from California 21st-century American conductors (music) American women record producers 21st-century American women musicians American women academics 20th-century Australian LGBT people 21st-century Australian LGBT people People educated at Mentone Girls' Grammar School People from the City of Frankston