Vocal Accomplishment
By Marty Adler

Many of our members have musical talent. But how many of our members have performed at Carnegie Hall? In February, one of our Fellows did just that!

CAS President-Elect Thomas Myers sang at Carnegie Hall as a member of the New Jersey Gay Men's Chorus, of which he is assistant conductor. The group performed Sing for the Cure, a 10-movement work based on the stories of breast cancer survivors and the families and friends of those who did not survive. The Women's Chorus of Dallas and the Turtle Creek Chorale, who also performed, had commissioned the work on behalf of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Sing for the Cure premiered in June 2000.

Back row, sixth from the right—CAS President-Elect Thomas Myers sings for a good cause at Carnegie Hall

There was a total of about 200 singers from ten choruses in the Carnegie Hall performance. The choruses sang together throughout the performance except for two movements, one which used only tenors and basses, and one which used only sopranos and altos. The New England Symphonic Ensemble accompanied the singers.

Myers has now performed five times at Carnegie Hall and twice at Avery Fisher Hall. With Monmouth Civic Chorus, he had the opportunity to sing a mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican (unfortunately, the Pope was not in attendance). Myers has followed a long family tradition, going back to his great-great-great-great-grandfather, who was a church choir director in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Myers represents the sixth generation in his family to have pursued an active church music career, the last five consecutively. His grandmother was a church organist and choir director for over 40 years. His grandmother's father and grandfather were also church organists and choir directors for shorter periods. His aunt was a church choir director for about 15 years.

With this background, it is not surprising that he began taking piano lessons from his grandmother at age seven and continued to study with her until he was 14. At that time his family moved from the Philadelphia area to upstate New York. He continued to play actively through high school, serving as an accompanist for his high school choir. The organist at his church also gave him a brief lesson and he substituted for her a few times.

Myers's singing career also started young. He sang in school choirs from elementary school through high school. Several years while in high school he qualified for regional choirs. During his junior year he sang in the New York All-State Choir. He was one of about 250 high school singers from the entire state who qualified.

While majoring in actuarial science at Lebanon Valley College, Myers completed about two-thirds of the requirements to earn a major in music. This included courses in music theory, harmony, music history, choral conducting, diction, and sacred music. Additionally, he took three more years of formal piano lessons, two years of formal organ lessons, and four years of formal voice lessons. He also sang in the Concert Choir (the premiere auditioned choir which went on a tour each spring) and the Chapel Choir. Myers also took part in eight musical theater productions, including one that he directed. He took on the role of Hines, a role he formerly played in high school, the comic secondary lead in the musical The Pajama Game. He also played the title role in Finian's Rainbow. Myers says that he always seemed to get cast in the older roles, using up several cans of silver hair coloring spray! Only once in high school was he cast as the romantic lead. He did not mind, since he enjoyed playing character roles.

Two years after graduating from college and one year before becoming an FCAS, Myers accepted a part-time position as a church organist and choir director. It was a great opportunity to apply some of his college training and he had long wanted to follow in his grandmother's footsteps. Although he loved doing this, after eight years he had to resign, as the travel requirements of his job made it difficult to fulfill weekly church commitments. For the past ten years, he has been an active substitute organist, playing about 20 Sundays per year at various local churches.

For the past 23 years Myers has been a member of the Monmouth Civic Chorus (MCC) in Red Bank, Monmouth County, New Jersey. He served on the Board of MCC for six years, including four years as treasurer. With MCC, he went on five choral tours of Europe (to Germany/Austria, Great Britain, Switzerland/Italy/Austria, Austria/Hungary/Slovakia/Czech Republic, and Scandinavia). In 1997, he was invited to join the New Amsterdam Singers in New York City for a tour of Turkey. He has since joined them for tours to Sweden, Italy/Croatia, Spain, and to St. Petersburg/Latvia/Estonia, in addition to singing Mozart's Requiem with them last summer at Avery Fisher Hall in NYC.

Myers joined the New Jersey Gay Men's Chorus eight years ago. Four years ago he was appointed assistant conductor of the chorus, after serving for two months as interim conductor. In the summer of 2004, the group sang in Montreal as part of a weeklong choral festival that included about 150 gay and lesbian choruses from around the world.

In his day job, Myers is vice president, product Management, of High Point Safety and Insurance Management company.