The Turtle Creek Chorale donated its entire catalog of recorded music and videos to The Dallas Way at its weekly rehearsal last night (Tuesday, May 19).
The Chorale is the most recorded male chorus in history with 38 CDs and four DVDs including the Emmy-winning “After Goodbye: An AIDS Story.”
Members of The Dallas Way, the North Texas LGBT history project, and University of North Texas, the repository for items donated through The Dallas Way and other LGBT organizations and individuals, were on hand to receive the donation.
Chorale Executive Director Bruce Jaster, along with chorale President Kevin Hodges, passed a basket of the recordings to Mike Anglin. Anglin was a founder of both The Dallas Way and Turtle Creek Chorale and, as an attorney, incorporated both organizations.
Anglin told the story of another Chorale founder, John Thomas, asking him to incorporate the Chorale into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Anglin laughed and said, “Aren’t you just going to sing?” But the Chorale grew into a million-dollar organization that has traveled around the world performing and is an anchor organization in the Dallas Arts District.
Anglin passed the collection to Dreanna Belden, UNT Libraries assistant dean for external relations, who will add it to the LGBT collection and portal to Texas history.
Jaster also announced Chorale member Tri Truong would become the organization’s new marketing director.
After the presentation, the chorale began rehearsing for its next concert, Turtle-ly 80s at 7:30 p.m. on June 12 and 13 and 2:30 p.m. on June 14 at City Performance Hall, 2520 Flora St. Tickets are available here.