Critical Moments: Gay Male Choral Directors and the Taking Up of Gender Discourse

The problem of “missing males” in school choral programs is an issue that has plagued music teachers for nearly a century. To remedy this problem, some choral directors employ traditional notions of masculinity as a way to attract more male singers. Such strategies align perceptions of vocal music with stereotypically masculine activities, such as school athletics. As a consequence, researchers have examined and made problematic the nature of these so-called solutions. But too little remains known about how gender-norming narratives influence gay male choral teachers. This study explores how 2 self-identified gay male choral directors—closeted at school, but “out” to friends at home—take up, perform, construct, and enact gender within the choral classroom. Through acts of both normative masculine fidelity and subversive expressions of gendering, the participants embody extreme variations of conflict and conformity, all of which play out in the sociocultural and political context of the public school.