Our Leadership

Dr. Gerald Gurss (he/him)

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

A native Kansan, Dr. Gurss received his bachelor’s degree in voice at Emporia State University. He received his master’s degree in voice with a choral cognate from Miami University, where he studied with Ethan Sperry. Gurss received his DMA in choral conducting from the University of South Carolina, where he studied with Dr. Larry Wyatt and Dr. Alicia Walker. His research focus is the inclusion and pedagogy of transgender singers in the choral rehearsal. This research has granted him speaking engagements at Wingate University, University of South Carolina, and the MacPhail Center for the Arts.

Until his arrival in the Twin Cities, Gerald was the artistic director for the One Voice Chorus (Charlotte’s LGBTQ+ chorus) and the chamber ensemble, Sotto Voce. In 2015, he collaborated in the founding of Midlands Men’s Chorus: The Gay Men’s Chorus of Columbia, SC and served as its artistic director until 2018.

Gerald moved to St. Paul in 2018 with his husband, Ervin, and his dog, Blue. Since then, he has served as the artistic director for Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus as well as White Bear Lake United Methodist Church as the director of traditional music. Gerald has served as both the ACDA Southern District TTBB Repertoire Chair and the TTBB repertoire chair for Minnesota ACDA.

Gerald has been a finalist for the American Prize in Choral Composition numerous times and has been commissioned to write choral works for the following organizations: One Voice Charlotte, The Gay Men’s Chorus of Charlotte, Providence United Methodist Church (Charlotte, NC), The New Jersey Gay Men’s Chorus, The Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego, The Women’s Chorus of San Diego, The Richmond Men’s Chorus (VA), Turtle Creek Chorale (TX), Sine Nomine (Denver, CO), Portland State University choirs, and the University of South Carolina Women’s Chorus. Dr. Gurss is published in the Pride and No Prejudice series with Earthsongs Choral Music, ECS Works for a Modern Time, Women & Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture (vol. 23, 2019) and The Choral Journal (vol. 60, no. 9, 2020). In 2022, Twin Cities Public Television produced a concertized documentary of his work, Stigmata, which discusses HIV stigma. This work was nominated as a finalist for the American Pride in Choral Composition in 2023. Most recently, Gurss was awarded honorable mention for the National ACDA Composition Focus Prize.

Dennis Whipple (he/him)

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dennis Whipple, a native of Minnesota, is a creative arts executive with experience in strategy, financial management, fundraising, and marketing with a record of strategically growing institutions’ missions, objectives, and brand awareness. He returns to the Twin Cities from the East Coast where he served as the Managing Director of Page 73 Productions and the Director of Operations for the Paper Mill Playhouse before that.  Before that, he founded and led the GREAT (Great River Educational Arts Theatre) Theatre in St. Cloud, MN serving as its Executive Director. In 2021 Dennis was named a St. Cloud Times “5 Under 50” Emerging Leader, the first arts executive to receive this honor in central Minnesota, and from 2013 to 2016 he served as an elected official on the St. Cloud School District Board of Education. Dennis earned a Certificate in Arts and Culture Strategy from the University of Pennsylvania and National Arts Strategies and Certification in Financial Success from Cornell University. Dennis is a proud graduate of the Perpich Center for Arts Education, Minnesota’s Arts High School.

Dennis can be reached at dwhipple@tcgmc.org and 612-339-7664.

Our Board