Voices Lifted

Lynda Walls Photo by Aniko Kiezel

GAY MEN’S CHORUS PROVIDES SAFE SPACE FOR MAKING MUSIC

By Jessica Laskey Meet Your Neighbor

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In 1984, a group of singers formed the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus to provide a safe place for gay men to meet and make music as the AIDS epidemic began to rage.

That same year, Lynda Walls was in Washington state managing and promoting bands at the start of the grunge movement, while “doing everything from stuffi ng envelopes to organizing marches” as an AIDSawareness activist.

Little did Walls know that decades later, she would become executive director of the chorus that provides a voice—in more ways than one—for more than 100 LGBTQ residents of the Sacramento area.

“I’ve always loved music,” says Walls, who describes her hometown in southwest Washington as a hotbed for new music in the early 1980s and 1990s. “I don’t have much musical talent myself, but I have appreciation.” Walls sang in the chorus from elementary through high school, which gave her a love and understanding of music—and a career trajectory.

There wasn’t much to do where Walls grew up, so many of her friends formed bands and tapped Walls’ organizational skills to manage the groups and fi nd gigs. When it was time for college, Walls decided to study performance arts management, marketing, and audio and video production at Evergreen State College in Olympia. This led to years of working as an independent band manager, promoter and producer for clubs and small studios in Olympia and Seattle.

When Walls’ best friend died of AIDS in 1997, she couldn’t bear the idea of staying in the area. She took a job with a college friend in Sacramento, photographing golf courses. She moved on to marketing and, in 2001, started the next phase of her career: nonprofi t management. In 2012, she earned a master’s degree in public administration.

Over the past 20 years, Walls served at various nonprofi ts and on several boards, including president of the Old City Cemetery Committee and Sacramento Area Museums. When a friend asked her to join the board of the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus, she jumped at the chance to unite her love of music and activism.

Less than a year later, the group’s executive director moved away and Walls was asked to apply for the job. She took the helm in November 2019— months before the pandemic hit.

“It’s been challenging for all of us,” Walls says. “Our main revenue stream is performances and we couldn’t do that. The main bonding activity for the singers is singing together and we couldn’t do that. The chorus is really like a family. I know people say that all the time, but we really are.

“The members rallied around the people who got COVID (from outside exposures), delivering meals to them during quarantine, running errands, driving them to doctor appointments. Some of our members even started a TO PAGE 51

INSIDE OUT

School of Rock

PHOTOS BY SUSAN MAXWELL SKINNER

The School of Rock recently opened a Sacramento campus in Carmichael. Franchise owners Jason Kline and Cecilia Yi-Kline, students and VIPs celebrated with live music, a ribbon-cutting and smashing of faux guitars. Located at 6350 Fair Oaks Blvd., the school coaches musicians ages 4 to 18. Learn more at schoolofrock. com.