Bishop Gene Robinson,
2009 Daniel Pinkham Award Recipient

Coro Allegro, Boston’s acclaimed chorus for members and friends of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities, has named Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, as recipient of the 2009 Daniel Pinkham Award. The award will be given to Bishop Robinson on Friday, April 3 at 8:00 p.m., at United Parish, 210 Harvard Street, Brookline, at a special event featuring performances by Coro Allegro, baritone Sanford Sylvan (last year’s Pinkham Award recipient), and special guests Terry Everson, trumpet, and Shiela Kibbe, piano. Bishop Robinson will address the gathering, and a dessert reception will follow.

As the first openly gay prelate of a major Christian denomination, Gene Robinson has been a highly visible figure in the ongoing struggle for full LGBT equality. His election as bishop in 2003 intensified the worldwide debate over the moral status of homosexuality. In January 2009, Robinson was chosen to deliver the invocation at the opening celebration for the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. A lifelong music lover, Robinson was a singer, clarinetist and conductor in his youth, and in 2005 narrated Coro’s performance of Swanee Hunt’s “Witness Cantata.”

With his generosity of spirit, love of music, courage and integrity, Bishop Robinson is an eminently appropriate choice for an award named after a prominent figure in Boston’s cultural scene who was a proudly out gay man.