Howdy, Pardners! Saddle up your hobby horses and pull on your spurs, as the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band takes you on a raucous romp through the Wild West!

This year’s show mixes Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with that staple of Hollywood Americana, the Western picture show. When the audience takes to the dance floor, they’ll follow Clara and her Nutcracker into the dust-caked streets of Tombstone, through the swinging doors of the saloon hall and past the cactuses lining its canyon trails. This year, don’t be surprised if the musicians are costumed like cowboys, Mexican villagers or dancehall girls, or if that masked “man,” the Lone Ranger, is conducting Band!

Bring the kids to a daytime show or treat yourself to the Dance-Along’s Opening Night Gala, and you’ll enjoy one of San Francisco’s wackiest holiday traditions. Even wallflowers love it

Jadine Louie has returned to the San Francisco L/G Freedom Band as our Artistic Director.

Jadine Louie watched the Band’s first performance in the 1978 Pride parade perched in a tree near the main library. She was music director of two orchestras by the time she was twenty-one and majored in French horn, but earned an engineering degree and worked as a contractor for over a decade before joining the Band and pursuing a fulltime profession in music. Dubbed both the “perfect deadpan” and “spiritual center” of the Dance-Along Nutcracker by the San Francisco Chronicle, Ms. Louie has explored the terrain from campy shtick to contemporary wind ensemble music with SFL/GFB during her decade as Artistic director from 1996 to 2006. Ms. Louie brought to the Band’s Community Concerts a love of music written in our time and an ability to make complex musical ideas understandable to audiences at different levels of sophistication.  Ms. Louie guest conducted the 2008 Dance-Along Nutcracker®: A Nutcracker Carol.

Ms. Louie has been recognized for her work converting audiences to the cause of music as a vital component of community life as the Bay Guardian’s 2003 Best Justification for Music in the Public Schools and as 2002 Honorary Grand Marshall of the SF Pride Celebration. Louie currently plays French horn and teaches the next generation of musicians. She served as artistic director of the 2005 LGBA annual conference in Palm Springs in a program featuring the compositions of Frank Tichelli, who guest conducted, and served as a conductor for the LGBA massed band at Gay Games V in 2006 in Chicago. Other past conducting/coaching credits include All-City Honor Orchestra, SF Recreation Symphony, Symphonic Tornado, Swingfever Big Band, Bay Area Women’s Philharmonic, Golden Gate Opera, Oakland Civic Orchestra, Community Women’s Orchestra, and Prometheus Symphony.

This summer, the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band marched in the 35th Santa Cruz Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade;

Photo from mzing on flikr

San Francisco Pride Parade;

SFGATE reader submitted photo by clarencethomas

and the Corte Madera / Larkspur Fourth of July Parade.

photo from home.moremarin.com

photo from home.moremarin.com

The San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band performed for Project Eden’s Lambda Youth 15th Annual Gay Prom 2009 .  Every year this prom is targeted by hate groups who harass the youth attending.   The band plays music to create a positive, welcoming environment and defuse potential conflicts.  Check out blog “Go, Play, Boy, Play” for pictures and a description of the hate speech directed at LGBTQ youth as they arrive at their prom.

Connlain to conduct the upcoming Band Community Concert, Cows, Corn & Music (8pm Friday, June 19 at Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 678 Portola Dr, San Francisco) and share conducting duties at The Annual “Let’s Get Loud!” Pride Concert (8pm Thursday and Friday June 25 and 26 at First Unitarian Universalist Church).

As the artistic director and band leader of City Swing Big Band since 1996, Connlain is no stranger to the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band. A trumpet and flugelhorn player, he’s been a longtime member of the Band, joining in 1982 and last playing with the group in 1997. Active in the Band’s leadership, Connlain produced several of its concerts in the 1980s, including Playing It Straight (For One Night Only). Connlain served as guest conductor for the band in 2006 for the Dance Along Nutcracker.  Connlain was the 2007-08 recipient of the Band’s Jon Sims Award.

A founding member of City Swing, he served as that band’s first manager for many years, famously hiring Gail Wilson for its first New Year’s gig in 1985, after she debuted as a guest vocalist with City Swing that year at the very first Dance-Along Nutcracker at the Gift Center Pavilion. Connlain’s conducting credits include serving as music director for more than 15 community and college musical theater productions and director of several church choirs, as well as a Sweet Adeline Chapter. Other producing credits include the last Men Behind Bars production, several Hard Candy Christmas productions, the 1988 Gail Wilson in Concert, and the 2006 Gail Wilson Farewell Concert.

A native of New Jersey, Connlain has a degree in music education from Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA. Connlain also performs as lead trumpet with the Contra Costa Jazz Band as well as trumpet features with City Swing.

Calonico to conduct the upcoming BANDANCING Community Concert, 8pm Friday, March 13 at Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 678 Portola Dr ., San Francisco, CA.

Robert Calonico is the Director of Bands at the University of California, Berkeley, a position he has held since 1994. There his duties include directing and arranging for the Cal Marching Band and conducting the University Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band. Calonico programmed the Cal Band’s most recent recording, “University of California Band,” released in May of 2003. The University Wind Ensemble was invited to perform under his direction at the California Music Educator’s State Conference in March of 2000 and has shared the stage with their counterparts at CSU Fresno, UC Davis, Los Medanos College, Stanford University, University of the Pacific and the University of Tokyo.

Prior to his appointment at U.C. Berkeley, Mr. Calonico held faculty positions at Dominican College and Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, California. In 2007, Calonico was named the new Associate Conductor of the Danville Community Band, an 85-piece band performing in the East Bay since 2001

Mr. Calonico is a graduate of St Mary’s College High School in Berkeley and holds a B.A. in music from UC Berkeley. He earned his teaching credential and a M.A. in clarinet performance from California State University, Hayward. With thirty-five years of professional experience, he has performed with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Oakland Ballet, California Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, Berkeley Repertory Theater, many San Francisco based Broadway show productions including Phantom of the Opera and West Side Story, Natalie Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Maria Muldaur, James Brown, Tex Beneke and Harry James Orchestras among others. Mr. Calonico currently serves as Bay Section President for the California Music Educators Association.

On November 28, 2008, the Band helped the City of San Francisco and the world remember two great men, elected officials of San Francisco Harvey Milk and George Mosconne who were assassinated 30 years ago.  The Band performed at the Memorial Concert and proceeded to lead the march up Market St. to the former site of Harvey Milk’s camera shop on Castro St.  This event was covered by the press and recorded in video.

CBS 5:  Hundreds Remember Milk, Moscone At SF Vigil

SF Sentinel: Solemn Ceremony And Candlelight March Recalls Assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk

Sean Chapin (YouTube): Remembering George Mosconne and Harvey Milk

The Freedom Band is searching for a new Artistic Director and an Operations Manager.  These part-time, paid positions will be greatly rewarding as you help the Band in its mission of outreach and musical development.  The Freedom Band pursues leadership and innovation in our musical outreach through our public appearances in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Operations Manager provides volunteer leadership, production and logistics coordination, and storage space and asset management.

The Artistic Director is responsible for the fulfillment of the band’s artistic potential and its image in the community.  As the band’s artistic leader, they build and sustain the band’s visibility and involvement in the community.

The Freedom Band marched in the Thirteenth Annual “How Berkeley Can You Be!?” Parade on Sunday, September 28, 2008. We were well cheered by a crowd of over 15,000 people at this celebration of many kinds of diversity.  We enjoyed ourselves taking this fun march up University Avenue.