20230415_Chamber Choir

THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

Presents

Considering Matthew Shepard ”

THE UNIVERSITY CHAMBER CHOIR

Michael Hanawalt, Conductor

Marques Jerrell Ruff and Corey Sullivan, Assistant

Conductors

Judy Arthur, Piano

Saturday, April 15, 2023

Seven-thirty in the Evening

Ruby Diamond Concert Hall

Content Warning: This performance honors the life and legacy of Matthew Shepard, a gay man who was abducted, assaulted, and left for dead outside of Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. He was a student at the University of Wyoming, and he had a passion for equality and social justice. Matthew’s legacy continues to inspire people from all over the world in the endless fight for equality.

Trigger Warning : Anti-LGBTQ violence, language, assault, abduction, bullying. Counselors will be available in the lobby for support before, during, and after the performance.

PROGRAM

Considering Matthew Shepard Craig Hella Johnson (b. 1962)

Prologue

Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass

Ordinary Boy

Conner Fabrega, soloist

Conner Fabrega, Ashley Lewis, Everett Reed, Annika Stucky, soloists

We Tell Each Other Stories/I Am Open

Alissa D’Alton, soloist

Passion

The Fence (Before)

The Fence (That Night)

A Protestor

Thomas Thai, soloist

Marques Jerrell Ruff, soloist

Keep It Away From Me (The Wound of Love)

Sarita Olson-Gustely, soloist

Kíara King, Annika Stucky, Audra Weathers, trio

Fire of the Ancient Heart

Ethan Murphy, soloist

Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting while performers are playing. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Please turn off cell phones and all other electronic devices. Please refrain from putting feet on seats and seat backs. Children who become disruptive should be taken out of the performance hall so they do not disturb the musicians and other audience members.

We Are All Sons

I Am Like You/We Are All Sons

The Innocence

The Fence (one week later)

Stars

In Need of Breath

Deer Song

Steven Olson, soloist

Jennifer Lamont, soloist

Corey Sullivan, soloist

Aydyn O’Brien, Alexandra Rios, Savannah Schleich, soloists

The Fence (after) / The Wind

Pilgrimage

Tara Davy, Jennifer Lamont, Danté Webb, Timothy Yu, soloists

Epilogue

Meet Me Here

Thank You

All of Us

Audra Weathers, soloist

Sophia Gannaoui, Katie Kenkel, Kyle Keating, soloists

Kíara King, Annika Stucky, Audra Weathers, trio

Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass (Reprise)

Conner Fabrega, soloist

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM

“Introduction” from October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by

Lesléa Newman

On Tuesday, October 6, 1998, at approximately 11:45 p.m., twenty-one-year-old Matthew Shepard, a gay college student attending the University of Wyoming, was kidnapped from a bar by twenty-one-year old Aaron McKinney and twenty-one-year-old Russell Henderson. Pretending to be gay, the two men lured Matthew Shepard into their truck, drove him to the outskirts of Laramie, robbed him, beat him with a pistol, tied him to a buck-rail fence, and left him to die. The next day, at about 6:00 p.m. – eighteen hours after the attack – he was discovered and taken to a hospital. He never regained consciousness and died five days later, on Monday, October 12, with his family by his side.

One of the last things Matthew Shepard did that Tuesday night was attend a meeting of the University of Wyoming’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Association. The group was putting final touches on plans for Gay Awareness Week, scheduled to begin the following Sunday, October 11, coinciding with a National Coming Out Day. Planned campus activities included a film showing, an open poetry reading, and a keynote speaker.

That keynote speaker was me.

I never forgot what happened in Laramie, and around the tenth anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death, I found myself thinking more and more about him. And so I began writing a series of poems, striving to create a work of art that explores the events surrounding Matthew Shepard’s murder in order to gain a better understanding of their impact on myself and the world.

What really happened at the fence that night? Only three people know the answer to that question. Two of them are imprisoned, convicted murderers whose stories often contradict each other (for example, in separate interviews both McKinney and Henderson have claimed that he alone tied Matthew Shepard to the fence). The other person who knows what really happened that night is dead. We will never know his side of the story.

This book is my side of the story.

While the poems in this book are inspired by actual events, they do not in any way represent the statements, thoughts, feelings, opinions, or attitudes of any actual person. The statements, thoughts, feelings, opinions, and attitudes conveyed belong to me. All monologues contained within the poems are figments of my imagination; no actual person spoke any of the words contained within the body of any poem. Those words are mine and mine alone. When the words of an actual person are used as a short epigraph for a poem, the source of that quote is cited at the back of the book in a section entitled “Notes,” which contains citations and suggestions for further reading about the crime. The poems, which are meant to be read in sequential order as one whole work, are a work of poetic invention and imagination: a historical novel in verse. The poems are not an objective reporting of Matthew Shepard’s murder and its aftermath; rather they are my own personal interpretation of them.

There is a bench on the campus of the University of Wyoming dedicated to Matthew Shepard, inscribed with the words He continues to make a difference. My hope is that readers of October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard will be inspired to make a difference and honor his legacy by erasing hate and replacing it with compassion, understanding, and love.

October Mourning; A Song for Matthew Shepard. Copyright © 2012 by Lesléa Newman. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

Considering Matthew Shepard was developed with the support of Conspirare. Please visit conpsirare.org to learn more about this project and learn more about the many individuals and organizations who support this work.

Conspirare, The Matthew Shepard Foundation, and KLRU-TV, Austin PBS are partnering to ensure that Considering Matthew Shepard reaches as many people as possible on the stage and screen. The Matthew Shepard Foundation has provided ongoing support in outreach and project development.

Conspirare and KLRU-TV, Austin PBS are co-producing a Considering Matthew Shepard television special commemorating the 20th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s passing. KLRU profiled Craig Hella Johnson’s creative process in their documentary series Arts in Context (available at artsincontext.org). The film will be accompanied by outreach and engagement programs.

University Chamber Choir Personnel

Michael Hanawalt, conductor

Marques Jerrell Ruff and Corey Sullivan, assistant conductors

Soprano

Tara Davy

Angellina Fedullo

Kíara King

Katie Kenkel

Jennifer Lamont

Ashley Lewis

Aydyn O’Brien

Alexandra Rios

Savannah Schleich

Anielya Wells-Miller

Alto

Dawson Franzino

Sophia Gannaoui

Sarita Olson-Gustely

Maclain Hardin

Yuko Hori

Shem Loh

Sofia Notar-Francesco

Annika Stucky

Audra Weathers

Tenor Conner Fabrega

Bob Lovins

Duncan Matthew

Steven Olson

Jeremy Roldan

Corey Sullivan

Kris Watson

Danté Webb

Timothy Yu

Instrumental Personnel

Gabriela Fogo, violin; Ahdiayah Horton, viola

Bass

Ramon Cardenas

Dorian Carr

Patrick Chiu

Jordan Evans

Kyle Keating

Ethan Murphy

Everett Reed

Marques Jerrell Ruff

Sebastian Quintero

Thomas Thai

Angelese Pepper, cello; Gene Waldron, bass; Eduardo Elias, guitar

Trey Burke, clarinet; Jackson Kowalcyzk, percussion

Narrator

Ash Soto, Executive Director, FSU Pride Student Union

Video Projections

Elliott Forrest, Projection Designer

Considering Matthew Shepard

Text authors and publication credits.

All music composed by Craig Hella Johnson © 2016.

1. Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass Compilation with additional text © Craig Hella Johnson / Please Come to Wyoming by John D. Nesbitt © by John D. Nesbitt. Used by kind permission. / Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass by Sue Wallis © by Estate of Sue Wallis. Used by kind permission. Quoting Prelude in C Major Book 1, Well-Tempered Clavier by J. S. Bach

2. Ordinary Boy © Craig Hella Johnson / From The Meaning of Matthew, by Judy Shepard p. 206. / + I Love Poem by Matt Shepard © by Judy Shepard. Used by kind permission.

3. We Tell Each Other Stories We Tell Each Other Stories © Craig Hella Johnson

5. The Fence (before)* Lesléa Newman

7. The Fence (that night) Material reproduced from Hildegard of Bingen from Symphonia: A Critical Edition of the “Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum” (Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations), Second Edition, translated by Barbara Newman. © 1988, 1998 by Cornell University. Used by permission of the translator, Barbara Newman, and publisher, Cornell University Press. / The Fence (that night)* Lesléa Newman

8. A Protestor * Lesléa Newman / Additional italicized text by Craig Hella Johnson

10. Keep it Away From Me (The Wound of Love) by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson © 2015 by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson. Used by kind permission. / Gabriela Mistral

12. Fire of the Ancient Heart by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson © 2015 by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson. Used by kind permission. / ^Genesis 4:10 / #Rumi / ~William Blake. With thanks to Tom Burritt – percussion consultation and special arrangement

14. Stray Birds Stray Birds by Rabindranath Tagore

15. We Are All Sons (part 1) by Michael Dennis Browne © 2015 by Michael Dennis Browne. Used by kind permission.

16. I Am Like You/We Are All Sons (part 2) © Craig Hella Johnson

17. The Innocence by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson © 2015 by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson. Used by kind permission.

19. The Fence (one week later)* Lesléa Newman

21. Stars* Lesléa Newman / Dennis Shepard Statement to the Court

22. In Need of Breath Hafiz lyrics from “In Need of the Breath” from the Penguin (New York) publication The Gift: Poems by Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky. Copyright © 1999 Daniel Ladinsky and used with his permission.

23. Deer Song by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson © 2015 by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson. Used by kind permission.

24. The Fence (after)/The Wind* Lesléa Newman

25. Pilgrimage* Lesléa Newman

26. Meet Me Here © Craig Hella Johnson

27. Thank You “Thanks” from The Rain in the Trees by W. S. Merwin. Copyright © 1988 by W. S. Merwin, used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

28. All of Us by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson © 2015 by Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson. Used by kind permission. / + from Divine Comedy, from the Paradiso by Dante, adapted by Michael Dennis Browne

29. Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass (reprise) Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass by Sue Wallis © by Estate of Sue Wallis. Used by kind permission. / Please Come to Wyoming by John D. Nesbitt © by John D. Nesbitt. Used by kind permission.

Recitations I-X compiled from news reports and crafted by Craig Hella Johnson and Michael Dennis Browne.

*All works authored by Lesléa Newman are from October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard. Copyright © 2012 by Lesléa Newman. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA. Selections used by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Copyright © 2012. All Rights Reserved.

The Pride Student Union

The Florida State University Pride Student Union emerged in 1969 as the People’s Coalition for Gay Rights in response to the Stonewall Riots, known by many as the catalyst of the LGBTQ+ rights movement. The People’s Coalition for Gay Rights changed its name several times throughout the 1970s-2000s, finally becoming Pride Student Union in 2005. Their mission is to advocate for, empower, and provide community spaces for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people within both the FSU and Tallahassee communities.

As the largest and most prominent LGBTQ+, student-run organization, the Pride Student Union has fought fiercely for LGBTQ+ rights on campus and at the local, state, and national levels. They championed the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in FSU’s non-discrimination policies and won the fight for the creation of All Gender Restrooms on campus. Today, Pride continues working towards LGBTQ+ equality and provides programming for students to get involved with the LGBTQ+ community.

The University Chamber Choir would like to thank Todd

Queen,

FSU College of Music

FSU College of Music faculty, including Judy Arthur, Jonathan Holden, Bruce Holzman

John Parks, Pamela Ryan, Greg Sauer, George Speed, and Shannon Thomas

Ruby Diamond Concert Hall staff, including Russ March, Mike Shapiro, and Katie Redd

September 18, Bak & Chang, viola/piano

October 23, Dominic Cheli, piano

January 22, Sinta Quartet, saxophone

February 17, Jasper String Quartet, Valentine Fundraiser, 7 PM

St. Peter’s Anglican Cathedral

March 5, Coro Vocati, vocal ensemble

May 7, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, string quartet

2022-2023 Concert Season

– Celebrating 35 Years of Song! –

FALL

Sunday, November 20 4:00 PM

Coronation Mass in C major, W.A. Mozart

*Tickets: tcchorus.org or call 850-597-0603

UNITY 16

Sunday, January 29 4:00 PM

“Repair The Future”

Weather, Rollo Dilworth, Poem by Claudia Rankine

Joined by The Florida A&M University Concert Choir

SPRING

Sunday, April 30 4:00 PM

Carmina Burana, Carl Orff

All performances in Ruby Diamond Concert Hall, The Florida State University

Michael Hanawalt, Artistic Director

Florida State University COLLEGE OF MUSIC

thanks to Les and Ruth Akers

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The Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at 850-644-3424 at least five business days prior to a musical event if accommodation for disability or publication in alternative format is needed.