CONSIDERING MATTHEW SHEPARD
OCT 21 & 22, 2023
CCC kicked off our Ninth Season with a moving performance of Craig Hella Johnson’s concert-length oratorio, Considering Matthew Shepard. We were joined by Lakewood Symphonic Mixed Choir under the direction of Rayna Brooks.
Twenty-five years ago, on Oct. 6, 1998, two men offered to give Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, a ride home from the Fireside Lounge in Laramie. Instead, they drove him to the middle of nowhere, pistol-whipped and tortured him, tied him to a fence, and left him for dead. After Shepard lay in a coma for eighteen hours, a passing cyclist–who at first thought Shepard was a scarecrow–called for aid. Six days later, Shepard died from the brain damage.
In this modern-day oratorio, Craig Hella Johnson seamlessly weaves together passages from Shepard’s personal journal, interviews with his parents, texts from Rumi, Hildegard von Bingen, and a panoply of musical styles to create a work that The Washington Post says “demonstrates music’s capacity to encompass, transform and transcend tragedy.”
A portion of donations received was shared with the Queer Youth (QYou) program at the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland.
Read the preview article and review from ClevelandClassical.com.
This concert was supported by The Cleveland Foundation, Local 4 Music Fund, Ohio Arts Council, and with in-kind support from Avon Lake United Church of Christ and Trinity Cathedral Cleveland.
