San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus
Holiday Spectacular 2025
Saturday, December 22, 2025, 2pm and 8pm
Zellerbach Hall
The performance will last approximately two hours, including a 20-minute intermission.
Cal Performances is committed to fostering a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment for all one that honors our venues as places of respite, openness, and respect. Please see the Community Agreements section on our Policies page for more information.
LETTER TO FRIENDS, SUPPORTERS, AND COMMUNITY
Hello, and Happy Holidays! Thank you for making the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus part of your holiday tradition. As the days grow shorter, we gather this December to make our own light. Whether it be through laughter, harmony, or a sense of community, we persist in discovering our own way to shine! And if this is your first time with us or your forty-seventh, welcome home.
The year’s Holiday Spectacular is a celebration of love, joy, and togetherness. In a world that feels dim, we lift our voices in song to remind us that music can capture and heal our pain, that laughter and joy are a form of resistance, and that belonging is a light that already shines within each of us.
I must commend the unstoppable efforts of our singers, staff, and volunteers. They have poured so much heart into the moments you’ll experience here. We hope this music fills you with warmth: for your friends, your family, and most importantly, for yourself.
However you celebrate, may this season remind you of your own light—and may you share it widely.
With love and light,
—Jacob Stensberg,
Artistic Director
San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus
Mission:
To lead by creating extraordinary music and experiences that build community, inspire activism, and foster compassion at home and around the world.
Vision:
We envision a world inspired and unified by the music we create.
Values:
We believe in the transformative power of music to heal, to enlighten, and to foster unity. We embrace the life affirming changes we create within and beyond our chorus community. We evolve society’s views toward LGBTQ people through our commitment to excellence. We honor all who came before us and whose sacrifices made it possible for us to raise our voices.
Happy Holidays! I’m so pleased that you’ve chosen to spend part of the season here with us at Cal Performances, especially during these weeks when schedules so quickly fill up with other special events and activities that bring together a host of family, friends, and colleagues. We enjoy seeing you in our halls at any time of the year, but particularly during the busy days of December.
This month’s programming places a spotlight on choral music, with three brilliant vocal ensembles offering programs perfectly attuned to this special season. On Saturday afternoon, December 13, esteemed choral director Marika Kuzma, a first-generation Ukrainian American and professor emerita of music at UC Berkeley, returns to campus with her acclaimed Ensemble Cherubim, joined by a selection of renowned Bay Area artists who share an admiration of Ukrainian culture. Their stirring program of songs, hymns, carols, and spoken word captures the intimacy of music traditionally sung in Ukrainian homes, churches, and town squares during the holiday season.
Next up, on Sunday afternoon, December 14, the multi-Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir returns to UC Berkeley, singing songs of love and peace, from gospel classics and spirituals to feel-good pop songs, all delivered with these singers’ superhuman vocal blend and dazzling showmanship.
And rounding out our December programing, on Saturday, December 20, the much-adored San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus returns for its annual—and wildly popular—Holiday Spectacular program at Zellerbach Hall. The hilarious and heartwarming concert features the chorus in clever sendups of pop culture and national personalities, with chart-topping music hits mixed in with classic holiday carols. Due to overwhelming demand, a second performance has been added this season.
Coming up in the new year, our 2025–26 season will continue with a wide range of talent including conductor Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (a Maria Manetti Shrem Great Artist Performance); vocalists Joyce DiDonato and Renée Fleming; the Takács String Quartet; early-music superstars The English Concert, Jordi Savall, and The Tallis Scholars; jazz greats Cécile McLorin Salvant and Somi; and appearances by Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens and Broadway diva Kelli O’Hara.
And our acclaimed dance series continues, distinguished by genre-defining artists and major new productions including the Martha Graham Dance Company marking the occasion of its centennial; The Joffrey Ballet in an otherworldly celebration of the traditional Scandinavian summer solstice festival; the long-awaited Cal Performances debut of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham; and, of course, return engagements with the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
As you explore the calendar, I recommend you pay particular attention to our Illuminations theme of “Exile & Sanctuary,” focusing this season on how issues of displacement can inform bold new explorations of identity and community; and how artistic expression can offer safe harbor during times of unrest or upheaval.
The opportunity to engage with diverse artistic perspectives and share the transformative power of the live performing arts is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and I look forward to encountering these profound and entertaining experiences with you in the months ahead.
Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances