Featured photo: SFGMC at the Cascade Theatre in Redding, January 30, 2010. Photo: Lacy Atkins/The Chronicle, via SFGATE.
From 2010 through 2012, SFGMC took its California Freedom Tour to communities beyond the Bay Area. The series followed the passage of Proposition 8 and used live performance to create opportunities for connection.
The first year included Redding, Chico, Bakersfield, Fresno and Vallejo. Contemporary reporting from the Redding and Chico trip described the chorus traveling together by bus and meeting audiences through music.
Chorus America later documented three consecutive annual tours. Together, they form an important chapter between the chorus’s early national travels and later outreach tours.
Reporting on the opening weekend, C.W. Nevius described sold-out performances in Redding on January 30 and Chico on January 31, 2010. The concerts connected music with the campaign for marriage equality after Proposition 8.
Listen to the tour album
Listen to California Freedom Tour 2010 on Spotify.
Read the contemporary report from Redding and Chico and Chorus America’s account of the touring series.
Explore more journeys beyond San Francisco.
Watch: The Tour Arrives in Bakersfield
This 2010 television spot invited Bakersfield audiences to the California Freedom Tour, led by then-Artistic Director Dr. Kathleen McGuire.
