This project grew from a desire to give back to my community by partnering with LGBTQ+ identified orchestras to shape and bring All of Us to life. I am deeply grateful to these ensembles for embracing this vision, and to the extraordinary richness, resilience, and diversity of the queer community that continues to inspire it.

When I first joined ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), ASCAP Director and my mentor, Frances Richard, shared a piece of advice that has stayed with me: “The personal is professional.” It took me years to fully understand what she meant. As an artist, the music I create is inseparable from who I am and what I believe. My work reflects my values, my experiences, and the world I hope to help create.

At a time when anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation continue to affect so many lives, I feel a profound responsibility to use my music to affirm a simple but essential truth: LGBTQ+ people are part of every community, enriching our neighborhoods, our cultures, and our shared humanity. We have always contributed to society with creativity, compassion, courage, and leadership, and we continue to do so today. I believe that art has the power to foster empathy, build connection, and remind us of our common humanity. As the saying goes, none of us is truly free until all of us are free.

That conviction led me to ask a simple question: How can I express this through music? To bring this project to life, the work required ensembles that stood proudly in their LGBTQ+ identity, and leveraging the massive scale of an orchestra would maximize the impact of that message. My search began with my friend Liane Curtis who is active with the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, and she introduced me to Mary Ellen Kitchens, the conductor of the Munich Rainbow Sound Orchestra. Mary Ellen generously shared contacts for LGBTQ+ orchestras throughout Europe and the United States, opening the door to what would become an extraordinary collaboration.

When I first reached out, I had no idea whether anyone would respond. I was searching not simply for commissioning partners, but for artistic collaborators who believed in the same vision. It took patience and persistence, but I was fortunate to find five orchestras that enthusiastically embraced the project. Together, they agreed to co-commission All of Us and present its premieres during their 2026–2027 concert seasons.

All of Us is a five-movement suite, with each movement dedicated to one of the participating orchestras and honoring an LGBTQ+ visionary leader chosen by that ensemble. In this way, each orchestra presents the work as a premiere within its own community, celebrating both its local history and its place within a larger, interconnected story. My hope is that All of Us serves as a celebration of belonging, visibility, and as a witness to the enduring contributions of LGBTQ+ people across generations.

• Beth Denisch, June 2026

The Participating Orchestras & Their Visionary Leaders 

1. The Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra (Minneapolis, USA)

• The Premiere: November 21, 2026
• The Orchestra: The USA’s first LGBTQIA+ orchestra.
• The Hero: Jean-Nickolaus Tretter (1946–2022), a grassroots activist who fought to preserve and promote LGBTQ+ rights throughout his life. He created the largest archival repository of LGBTQ+ history in the Midwest (USA), now housed at the University of Minnesota’s Special Collections. Tretter believed that gay people should be able to live safe and positive, out-of-the-closet lives whether they are in a big city or a rural area, and he worked throughout his life to make this a reality.

2. Rainbow Symphony Cologne (Cologne, Germany)

• The Premiere: July 12, 2026 | Conducted by Georg Razumovskij
• The Hero: Steve Nobles, (b. 1947) a pianist, composer, and super-networker whose influence spans decades and continents. He has been a driving force in the European LGBTQ+ choral movement since its inception. Nobles served as artistic director of the Various Voices festival in Dublin in 2014, and was a founding member of Rainbow Symphony Cologne when it was created as a European adjunct to Gay Games VIII in 2010.

3. Rainbow Symphony Orchestra Paris (Paris, France)

• The Premiere: February 6-7, 2026 | Conducted by John Dawkins 
• The Hero: Monique Wittig (1935–2003), a brilliant scholar, novelist, and essayist. Her debut novel, L’Opoponax (1964), won the prestigious French literary award, the Prix Médicis. Wittig’s groundbreaking book, Les Guérillères (1969), stands as a landmark, revolutionary text in lesbian feminism. Her writings are a clarion call for gender equity, and her fierce voice as both scholar and novelist remains profoundly inspiring. Paris officially dedicated The Jardin Monique-Wittig, a public green space located at 3 Boulevard Brune in the 14th arrondissement, to her memory.

4. Rainbow Sound Orchestra Munich (Munich, Germany)

• The Premiere: October 24, 2026 | Conducted by Mary Ellen Kitchens
• The Hero: Micky Wenngatz (b. 1960). With unwavering dedication as a grassroots activist and a leader of the SPD women’s movement, she advocates fiercely for immigrants, women, children, and LGBTQ+ rights. Wenngatz’s organizing strength was spectacularly demonstrated by the “München ist bunt” event in February 2024, in which she collaborated with 200 organizations for a demonstration that was a tremendous success and attended by over 300,000 people.

5. Birmingham Gay Symphony Orchestra (Birmingham, U.K.)

• The Premiere: April 3, 2027 | Conducted by Neavan Lobban
• The Hero: Alan Turing (1912–1954), a brilliant polymath—mathematician, computer scientist, logician, and cryptanalyst—whose work cracking the German Enigma code during World War II was instrumental in preventing a Nazi victory. As the cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter noted, “It is fair to say we owe much to Alan Turing for the fact that we are not under Nazi rule today.” Despite his world-changing contributions, Turing was tragically persecuted for his homosexuality, which was illegal during his lifetime, and the resulting prosecution ultimately led to his suicide.

All of Us creates a living dialogue between music and activism by honoring these five LGBTQ+ heroes who have contributed, and continue to contribute, toward a better world for us all. From grassroots organizers to international legends, these visionary leaders represent the courage and resilience of our community. Through this music, we celebrate their legacy and the universal work toward the freedom and equality we all seek.