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Considering Matthew Shepard
Symphony Chorus:
Considering Matthew Shepard
Sunday
Oct 29, 2023
3:00 PM
Winston-Salem Symphony Chorus
Members of the Winston-Salem Symphony
Christopher Gilliam Conductor
Craig Hella Johnson
Considering Matthew Shepard
Please Note: This work contains direct quotations from Westboro Baptist Church members, who picketed Shepard’s funeral. Audience members are warned of strong language and the intense themes in the piece.
This concert is expected to last approximately one hour and 40 minutes with no intermission. Restrooms are located in the Brendle Recital Hall lobby.
In October of 1998, Matthew Shepard, a young, gay student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie was kidnapped, severely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in a lonely field under a blanket of stars. Five days later, when Matt passed away, the world was watching. Craig Hella Johnson has responded with his first concert-length work, Considering Matthew Shepard.
This three-part fusion oratorio speaks with a fresh and bold voice, incorporating a variety of musical styles seamlessly woven into a unified whole, setting texts by poets including Hildegard of Bingen, Lesléa Newman, Michael Dennis Browne, and Rumi alongside passages from Matthew’s personal journal, interviews with his parents, and newspaper reports.
Ryan Whittington
Kevin Jennings
Pre- and Post-Concert Discussions
Join us at 2:00pm in Room 201, just outside Brendle Recital Hall, for a discussion about music and context with musicologist Ryan Whittington. After the concert, you’re invited to remain in Brendle for a brief post-event panel with Symphony Chorus director Christopher Gilliam, choristers, and Kevin Jennings, an educator, author, and founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).
Books available for sale
Lauded American writer Lesléa Newman, whose work is heard among the settings for this oratorio, is the author of 85 books for readers of all ages, including A Letter to Harvey Milk; I Carry My Mother; The Boy Who Cried Fabulous; Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed; and Heather Has Two Mommies, and has written extensively about the tragedy of Matthew Shepard.
Bookmarks representatives will be on-hand in the lobby before and after the concert with copies of October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard and Always Matt: A Tribute to Matthew Shepard.
The Matthew Shepard Foundation inspires individuals, organizations and communities to embrace the dignity and equality of all people. Learn more at matthewshepard.org
Single tickets to this event go on sale August 1, but you can save your seat with a subscription!
Symphony Chorus:
Considering Matthew Shepard
Sunday
Oct 29
3:00 PM
Venue
Brendle Recital Hall
Scales Fine Arts Center, Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC
Rideshare and Dining
About the Performers
Christopher Gilliam
Symphony Chorus Director
A conductor praised for his “precision and clarity,” and performances hailed as “enlightened,” Christopher Gilliam is the Director of the Winston-Salem Symphony Chorus, Director of Choral Activities at Wake Forest University, and Director of Music at Highland Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem.
Winston-Salem Symphony Chorus
The Winston-Salem Symphony Chorus traces its beginnings to the 1940’s when there were three separate choral ensembles in Winston-Salem. The three ensembles merged in 1960 to the Singers’ Guild. In the years following their union, the Singers’ Guild collaborated frequently with the Symphony, and in the fall of 1971 merged with the Symphony to become known as the Winston-Salem Symphony Chorale. In 2018 the organization became known as the Winston-Salem Symphony Chorus.
On Video
Why Matthew Shepard’s story is relevant today
How performance and participation help a work evolve
How we can move forward during dark times
Program Note
American composer, choral conductor, and arranger, Craig Hella (né Morris) Johnson was born on June 15, 1962 in Crow Wing County, MN. He and his sister adopted the middle name, Hella, after his ancestral village in Norway. He attended St. Olaf College, where he studied piano and sang in the famous St. Olaf Choir. He continued his musical studies at Juilliard, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and Yale University, from which he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree. Johnson has directed several choral ensembles, including Texas State University, the Houston Masterworks Chorus, and the University of Texas Chorus. He founded the choral ensemble, Conspirare, at the University of Texas in 1991. In May 2013, Johnson was named Music Director and Conductor of Vocal Arts Ensemble in Cincinnati, Ohio. Considering Matthew Shepard is a “fusion oratorio” inspired by the brutal murder of the young gay man of the same name in Wyoming in 1998 and was commissioned by Conspirare in 2016. Johnson’s libretto was co-authored by Michael Dennis Browne. First performed in 2016, Considering Matthew Shepard is scored for chorus, solo voices, cello, piano, violin, clarinet, double Bass, viola, guitar, and percussion.
The savage beating and murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming in October 1998 was an unspeakably shocking event that shook the conscience of the nation. His loss has become an emblem how mindless, as well as intentional hate has confronted, and continues to confront the LGBTQ+ community. His mutilated body hanging on a fence, discovered the next day by a fellow student at the University of Wyoming, has also become a symbol. This, of course, is a reminder of the figure of Jesus on the Cross. How, one might ask, can anyone bring art as a means of addressing truth, grief, loss, anger, hate, hope and redemption be woven into a fabric of music and words that can begin to do justice to the event that sparked its creation?
Craig Hella Johnson, himself a sensitive gay man, felt compelled to try to find a way. By weaving together a wide range of poetic and soulful texts by poets including Hildegard of Bingen, Lesléa Newman, Michael Dennis Browne, and Rumi, Johnson created a work that has touched, and continues to touch, the souls—as well as pricking the conscience—of all who experience Considering Matthew Shepard. It is part elegy, part Passion play, part drama, that at times gently, and at times forcefully, fashions a memorial that keeps the flame of Matthew Shepard’s life and death alive. Using passages from Matt’s personal journal, interviews and writings from his parents Judy and Dennis Shepard, newspaper reports, as well as additional texts Johnson has created a musical tapestry that cannot fail but to touch our souls.
Program Note by David B. Levy, © 2023
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