Texas: Singing Group United in Voices, Spirit

At the Turtle Creek Chorale's annual holiday concert in Dallas, Texas, 138 poinsettias decorated the stage. The plants honor each member the group has lost to HIV/AIDS since 1986, when the tradition began.

Founded in 1980, Turtle Creek Chorale has become one of the foremost male choral groups in the country. It has more than two dozen recordings and has toured throughout the United States and in Europe. In 1994, the chorale was featured in an Emmy-Award-winning documentary produced by KERA-TV, "After Goodbye: An AIDS Story."

Dr. Timothy Seelig, the chorale's artistic director, has also become a grief counselor and advocate. The group provides physical and financial assistance to HIV/AIDS patients, as well as emotional support. "HIV can be a very lonely disease. Persons suffering from HIV can experience discrimination, abandonment and loneliness," said Seelig.

"They are part of my family," said Keith Lasley, a 40-year-old Dallas chorale member who has had HIV since the mid-1980s.

The group helps some members set goals, they say. Don Dureau, 60, who has been HIV-positive for 11 years, says that in the early 1990s, the group discussed canceling tours because some members might be too ill to travel. "I remember getting up and telling people that having things to look forward to in the future gives you a reason for wanting to live," he said.

Seelig said some feared for the chorale's future during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Now that medical advances have slowed the number of deaths, issues around the disease have shifted. One 18-year-old member, he noted, is "unaware totally of the destruction AIDS has caused."

Such lack of knowledge may affect the growing number of young gay men not practicing safe sex. CDC studies in Atlanta have found increasing HIV infection rates for young gay and bisexual men.

Back to other CDC news for December 23, 2002

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