LEGATO Hall of Fame
Our association runs on volunteers. LEGATO wants to express our gratitude to the LGBTQ+ choral leaders whose horizons went beyond their own choirs, who imagined the possibility of a choral association like LEGATO spanning the continent of Europe, and who worked tirelessly and selflessly to make it happen.
To celebrate their outstanding achievement together, we have established the LEGATO Hall of Fame. The inaugural award has been presented during the Various Voices Festival 2026 in Brussels.
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Do you know an extraordinary individual who deserves to be recognized next? Nominations for future Hall of Fame inductees are now open. Help us honor the activists and leaders who keep our movement singing by submitting your suggestion below.
Hans van der Veen
Inaugural Inductee,
LEGATO Hall of Fame (2026)
Founding father of Zangzaad, co-creator of LEGATO, and a pioneer of the European LGBTQ+ choral movement who bridged connections across continents.​
LEGATO, the European LGBTQ+ choral association, recognises the contribution of Hans van der Veen of Groningen, Netherlands, to the European LGBTQ+ choral community with this entry into the LEGATO Hall of Fame.
Zangzaad
1989 - 2010
Hans is one of the founding fathers of Homomannenkoor Zangzaad in Groningen, founded in 1989. A gay men’s chorus in a provincial Dutch city was, at its inception, a novelty. A young, fresh-faced choir, Zangzaad became popular for their choreographed shows, which were very different from the prevailing choirs of the time which were often church-based. Hans helped put on performances at several Pink Saturday festivals in Haarlem, Utrecht, and other cities across the Netherlands, as well as regular events at a respite hospital in Wezep for people with AIDS.
Internationally, Hans co-ordinated choral exchanges between Zangzaad and other European choirs, including Christopher Street Day performances in Hamburg, Stuttgart, and the Ruhr region
Hans both sang and served on Zangzaad’s board several times, until he left the choir in 2010.
Various Voices Groningen
1995
In 1993, Hans successfully led Zangzaad’s bid to host the 1995 European lesbian and gay choral festival in Groningen.
This eighth festival was also the first to be called Various Voices and was the largest to date, featuring 36 choirs from 8 countries, and around 800 singers.
In addition to indoor concerts, the celebration included street performances and a massed sing in the central station square of the festival song, also called “Various Voices”. An innovative outreach programme to smaller villages outside Groningen proved a popular novelty for residents.
Founding and leading LEGATO
1995 - 2005
In the lead up to and following Various Voices 1995, Hans and other members recognised the need to formalise the choral network in order to strengthen it and safeguard future festival organization.
Hans developed the proposal to create LEGATO and worked on its initial constitution. LEGATO became a legal entity in 1997, featuring representatives from 5 German, 2 Swiss, 1 Austrian and 1 Dutch choir, with Hans as its lead. He remained at its helm until the 11th festival, Various Voices 2005, in Paris.
During his time as President of LEGATO, Hans helped convince many LGBTQ+ choirs of the purpose and merits of joining a pan-European network.
This included the promotion of choral singing, nurturing understanding between nations, particularly by staging events with participants from many European countries, and working for the emancipation of lesbians and gays in Europe and combating discrimination against these groups.
Global LGBTQ+ choral connections
GALA Choruses
As part of the organisation of Various Voices 1995, Hans made contact with GALA Choruses, the North American LGBTQ+ choral association.
An invitation to one of their board members to join the Groningen festival led to reciprocal invitations to visit the GALA festival on two occasions, in Tampa (1996) and San Jose (2000). The development of festival choral exchanges between the two networks has grown ever since.
Diverdoatsie
2024 ...
In 2024, Hans became a member of the first board of Diverdoatsie, an LGBTQ+ choir in Groningen. Tasked with concert organisation, Hans facilitated the choir’s European debut of the “Harvey Milk Cantata” in June that year. Diverdoatsie has also sung at a transgender memorial event in Groningen and shared the stage with Zangzaad and Het Gemengd Dameskoor in the theatre hall for Pink Saturday 2024 Groningen.
Personal
On a personal level, Hans remains active in the leather (and kink) movement. He has also been an HIV counsellor in the Netherlands and promoted pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to clients at a time when it was, and is still, not widely known.
