KC Gates

I say a Little prayer for Christopher McMullen-Laird.  You shall travel well and calm, like in your mother’s arm, I will keep you in my heart, my friend, its not an end, take the love to the other side where music plays and you will surely be – eternally happy. For Zeke from Gabriella

Christopher was a shining example of Brene Brown’s “wholehearted living.”  He was love!  He was an influential person in my life who opened the doors of understanding to the world around me.  Thank you for teaching me about feminism, social activism, and the opera.  He has inspirationally packed so much life into his tragically short…

Chris and I met at his audition for RCM in 2017, we were both auditioning for the conductors course. Fast forward to August 2019 and Chris walks in smiling to the Darlington Conductor’s course which we both happened to be on too! Neither of us knew the other would be there. In typical Chris fashion,…

I met Christopher on November 26 last year.  It was my mother’s 79th birthday and she was visiting from Florida.  She saw that Melinda O’Neal, Professor Emerita of Music at Dartmouth College would be presenting a lecture/concert about Berlioz at Cadogan Hall.  Professor O’Neal gave a shout out to her former student Christopher Quentin.  During…

Though I haven’t seen Christopher in many years, I have a memory of how he could light up a room and make you feel so special when he greeted you. Clearly an angelic force on earth recalled to the heavenly realms so abruptly to continue his work. ❤️

I’m in total shock after the terrible news that Chris has left us. We’ve worked together at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. Chris’s smile, positivity, kindness were always so heart warming. We hadn’t been in touch in years, when he randomly wrote me about a month ago to congratulate me on a performance he had…