St. Petersburg is celebrated for its fabulous weather, beautiful vistas, world-class food scene, and thriving cultural atmosphere. But it’s the people who make St. Pete truly special, especially those we see every day — store clerks and servers, bus drivers and baristas, postal workers park staff, custodians and teachers. Each of them has a story. Here at Green Bench Monthly, each month we shine a light on one of the many people who make our city so special.
Falling for St Pete
This month we’re featuring Jon Arterton. Several years ago, Arterton and his husband, James Mack, visited St. Pete, looking to escape the icy cold of a Cape Cod winter. The city worked its magic, and they returned, this time to stay. It wasn’t just the weather that captured them. They hoped to combine Jon’s extensive background in music and choral conducting with their shared passion for social justice to create an interracial community chorus. They believed St. Pete was the perfect place to launch it.
Creating Community Togetherness
They began gathering volunteers in the spring of 2016. By fall, those volunteers were the One City Chorus, a community choir based on the philosophy that singing in a group “builds community and leads to new relationships and better understanding among people.” Auditions are not required. To join, participants need only the desire to spread a message based on ideas of social justice, civil rights, and equality. The singing comes from “heart and soul.” So far, the response has been positive. As Arterton puts it, the chorus is “great with enthusiasm,” and audiences respond in kind. Among other worthwhile events, they performed at (and co-sponsored with) the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum) Embracing the Dream: Honoring the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Keep Reinventing Yourself”
Arterton’s story takes its share of twists and turns. A friend once said of him, “You keep reinventing yourself.” He has a graduate degree in choral conducting as well as an MFA in acting. He taught music at a boarding school and understudied all five male roles for a play that opened and closed on Broadway in one night. (“Rightfully so,” he says.) Throughout the 1980s, he worked an AIDS hotline in New York City. In 1988, he co-founded the long-running, popular gay a cappella singing group The Flirtations. If you’ve seen the movie Philadelphia, then you’ve seen Jon and The Flirtations perform “Mr. Sandman” in the party scene. In 2002, he founded the successful Outer Cape Chorale in Massachusetts. And he and Mack sing together, even releasing a CD entitled “Legally Married … And the Sky Didn’t Fall.”
Embrace Diversity. Promote Harmony.
Arterton’s positivity is infectious. And even though I don’t sing, I think I have the potential to be “great with enthusiasm.” Plus, I’d love to help him spread his message about diversity and harmony. If you think you’d also like to sing along, One City Chorus is always looking for new voices. Singers rehearse at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum on most Monday evenings. For more information, contact Arterton at [email protected] or through the website at http://www.onecitychorus.org/
