Pride Month may look different once again this year – with marches, parades, concerts, and vigils taking place online – but that hasn’t stifled the momentum of Pride as a movement. At
Sounds Like GGS! we wanted to highlight some of the 2SLGBTQIA+ voices in our community by having them share their thoughts and reflections on Pride.
Adrianne Pieczonka she/her (Vocal Chair and Head of the Vocal Department)
Adrianne likely needs no introduction to many. Her career as an internationally acclaimed soprano has taken her to many of the world’s largest opera houses. She now calls Toronto home where she lives with her wife of 17 years, Laura.
Vasil Garvanliev he/him (PDP ‘08, baritone)
Vasil’s career as a singer started in his home of North Macedonia as a 10-year-old pop prodigy. Shortly thereafter, he and his family moved to the United States as refugees before starting his studies in voice at The Glenn Gould School in 2004. After completing his studies at GGS, Vasil went on to sing with Calgary Opera and Opera Atelier before moving back to North Macedonia to develop his career in pop music. Vasil was set to represent North Macedonia at the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he returned to represent North Macedonia the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam with the song “Here I Stand”.
Justin Wisner he/him (ADP ‘21, clarinet)
Originally from Michigan, Justin has long had an interest in queer history and culture. He came out in early high school at the same time as his identical twin brother, Austin. This fall he will begin his Masters of Music at the Cleveland Institute of Music in clarinet performance.
Sounds Like GGS!: What does Pride mean to you?
AP: I heard a speaker from an LGBT group who said I'm not proud only of being gay - I mean it's just who I am - but I'm proud of the vibrant community and how we have shown strength and solidarity. That we are fighting for human rights, gay rights, trans rights - that's what I'm proud of. Gay Pride means proud of the movement.
I came out in the eighties which was, of course, right when AIDS pandemic was happening. And prior to me coming out, it was the sixties with the stonewall riots and later the riots here in Toronto. So, I am proud of the people that went before us that paved the way that we can live and we can get married and have the rights that we have.
VG: The ability to be yourself without fearing for your life. That might be something people [in Canada] do not understand. [In Macedonia] being gay is not accepted at all. It’s getting there, Pride started in Skopje, North Macedonia three years ago, but it’s not easy or safe – I’ve had to readjust because I love walking around the city but everyone has told me do not walk around anymore, do not go out alone at night because it’s not safe. I took that for granted when I lived in Canada.
Vasil Garvanliev opening Skopje Pride, June 26, 2021
JW: I feel like Pride is a celebration but also an awareness or reflection on what we still have to do. Things are so much more positive now – I can't say that they're perfect, obviously, but they're so much more positive. I grew up in a really conservative, suburban life and I remember talking to my dad (who would always have the Rush Limbaugh talk show on the radio) about gay people and how awful it was and how it was a sin in probably 2007. And then a few years later Obama becomes president, and we get this whole flip in the Supreme Court in 2015 with the legalization of gay marriage. So Pride to me is not just a celebration but a reflection and a commemoration of what came before us and what we still need to do.
Justin Wisner working for Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012
Sounds Like GGS!: What role did ‘coming-out’ play for you? Is it something you continue to think about?
AP: My first coming out was to my immediate family and most of my close friends. Then, as a singer, I found myself living in Vienna, which was extremely and still is very conservative. I did eventually come out there, but it was a very slow process. I lived there for six years and then eventually moved to London, England, which was a step towards more tolerance. But still, I felt even in London that it didn’t have the tolerance of Canada. When my wife and I embarked on being parents we decided that we should move back to Canada, where we could raise a kid as two moms in a more accepting, cosmopolitan, diverse city.
I think I was nervous about how it might impact my career. I often say this to young singers that might be gay themselves - to my knowledge, I do not believe I missed out on any job because of my sexuality. I'll never know for certain, but I never experienced any sort of blatant homophobia. But again, it could have been behind the scenes.
Adrianne Pieczonka with her wife, Laura Tucker, in Banff, Alberta
VG: It's interesting because, in the classical world, I dare say I felt like it was easier for me, especially in opera. The moment I entered the “popular” world, I was under a looking glass and they’re looking for gossip. I’ve been back in Macedonia for three years and wanted to come out publicly, but everyone wanted to do it from a gossip perspective – and that’s not the point. I wanted to come out to be an ambassador not as a column in a tabloid, so in January I made the decision to do an interview with Attitude Magazine in advance of the Eurovision competition. Has the reaction been positive? Negative? Both. But I wanted to take this risk. I’m not afraid, so I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.
JW: Coming out was interesting because I have a twin brother. I came out before my brother to all of our friends but when we came out to my dad, he said, I have to go first because if you go first I'll never say it. Then I told my mom so it felt like a lot of like telling people at specific times – so coming out was strange in that way.
It still affects me in my professional life. Even in telling my professor, I brought up my boyfriend in a nonchalant way. Just getting to that point took me two years and I knew [my professor] wouldn’t care at all. But I had this idea where I felt like they’re not going to respond in the way I think that they should so I have to massage the messaging. So the way I come out, the way I bring it up still affects my personal and private life.
Sounds Like GGS!: Do you feel as though there are obstacles you’ve had to overcome as member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community?
AP: To be honest, I think it's my own homophobia, which might be kind of a terrible admission. I love the gay community, and yet I do think I have issues and still work on my own acceptance of myself. It's a bit shameful to admit that, but I think it helps. I've been a lesbian all my life and I'm still getting up to speed with being one hundred percent comfortable about it.
VG: Not giving into the darkness. Yes, it’s a very vague way of putting it but people will try to bring you down. I've had a few moments that come into my life where people have said, you will not make it. You will never do this. And for me, those are the moments that inspire me.
The biggest obstacle of that is, as a performer, to not put up walls. I put up walls to survive but I never want to put walls around my performances or my instrument. That was something that took a very long to overcome but I feel that in the last two years, I have been able to break down those walls to share my truth.
As artists we have the responsibility to be the voice for the voiceless, especially for artists around the world who do not have freedom to express themselves. That's why I think it’s easy for us to take a lot of things for granted but try and put yourself in my shoes or the shoes of a little kid in a village here. It is not easy.
So that's what keeps me going - even if I touch one person, I've done my job.
Vasil Garvanliev performs “Here I Stand” in the semi-finals of the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest
JW: It's tricky for me because I feel like, especially in recent years, I don't necessarily feel like I have obstacles because I had so many privileges or things afforded to me. But the obstacles I continue to think about are just the way I’m presenting myself – the way I sound, the way I look.
I remember vividly many members of my family saying “Don’t sound like a girl. Why do you always hang out with girls?” and all those sentiments still affect me today, even though I know it's like, who cares? Who cares if I dress up in women's clothes? Who cares if I wear these sandals that are a little more feminine looking? Who cares if I wear nail polish or dye my hair? I feel like that might be the mainstream LGBT obstacle nowadays is just having to explain yourself about everything.
Sounds Like GGS!: Do you consider yourself an activist?
AP: You know, this is something that is a regret. Maybe it's actually been the rising of the #metoo movement and Black Lives Matter that I’ve been thinking more and more about certain issues in this city, in the musical community and of course the greater world. I'm like, “You know what, Adrianne? You should be more involved.” And it's making look at ways where I can be more of an activist. Whether it’s human rights or the BIPOC initiative at our school, we need to diversify and have a wide breadth of students, of faculty, of repertoire that we're focusing on. I think the pandemic has really shone a light on a lot of the stuff that we've just been sweeping under the carpet.
VG: I don’t like to label what I do. What I do is labelled enough and I think the least interesting thing about me is that I’m gay. I just wanted to share my truth on my love. I mean, it's cheesy, but how I express myself is through my music, in my story.
JW: It’s interesting, I've always been in this position of feeling like I have to be or think activism is a certain thing. I think a lot about this idea of activism being a purity test – that it’s pass or fail, all or nothing – like activism nowadays doesn't have a middle. Most of the pieces that I performed for my recital were minority composers, but it wasn't completely minority composers, so I felt like I was failing this test, that I wasn’t doing it justice.
I feel like activism is a mental state in some ways, and your activism is what you can bring to the table in the moment and how you can educate yourself to be a better person. And if that's as far as your activism might go, then you’re still an activist.
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Sounds Like GGS!: It’s important to note that we approached 2SLGBTQIA+ students and recent alumni who did not feel comfortable sharing their stories publicly for the purpose of this article. As a result, this article only represents a fraction of the experiences and opinions of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community at GGS. At Sounds Like GGS! we take this as a sign that there is still work to be done as a school to create a more open and accepting environment for our community. That being said, we are committed to creating a more inclusive environment for members of the GGS community of all sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions.