Dr. Kathleen Alison McGuire (born in 1965 in Melbourne) is a choral and orchestral conductor, arranger, composer, music educator, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist.
In the same year she was also appointed as music director of the Mordialloc Light Opera Company, where she honed her conducting skills directing such works as Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe and Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella.
She completed a master of music degree with distinction in conducting at the University of Surrey at Guildford, studying with Nicholas Conran and Owen Rees.
In the same year she was appointed by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (SFGMC) as its first female artistic director and conductor, where she served until the end of 2010.
For six weeks in 2004, under McGuire's leadership, SFGMC came into international focus singing on the steps of San Francisco City Hall during the historic same-gender marriages temporarily permitted by Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Our goal was to entertain while sharing a message, whether it was celebrating the life of a gay icon, adopting spirituals and sacred music in a queer context, or protesting inequality.
Visiting Park Day Elementary School in 2002 for the grand finale of an LGBT-themed week; the sixth graders sang to us: "It's Okay to be Gay" (a song they wrote themselves).
Touring to towns and cities in central and northern CA, raising awareness and hundreds of thousands of dollars for their health service organizations.
And within our own community, helping gay men – physically and emotionally scarred from the ravages of HIV and homophobia – to find a new and courageous voice alongside their stouthearted brothers in the chorus.
A pinnacle was the same-gender marriages of 2004: a palpable turning point as spirits were raised and joy abounded in our city for the first time since the horrors of the AIDS pandemic.
Senator (then Assemblyman) Mark Leno presided over my own marriage under the dome, amid hundreds of reporters from near and far who clamored for stories in a giddy frenzy.
McGuire had become a recognized social justice advocate and in 2006 was selected as a grand marshal in the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade and Celebration.
She established internships for assistant conductors, and co-founded Strings Attached: an entry-level ensemble for women musicians who were returning to playing or new to their instruments.
McGuire visited rehearsals of the Choir of Hard Knocks led by Welch in Australia, and was inspired to create something similar in San Francisco.
McGuire also served for a time as minister of music at the Congregational Church of San Mateo, working alongside Rev Dr Penny Nixon.
[20] She orchestrated many works for musical theater in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s, and in the US concentrated primarily on choral arrangements including more than one hundred pieces for the SFGMC.
From 2011 to 2013, McGuire played original and cover songs with rock band Critical Bliss in San Francisco, appearing frequently at Martuni's and other Bay Area venues.