{"id":207507,"date":"2019-12-02T14:39:07","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T19:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/?p=207507"},"modified":"2019-12-09T15:01:50","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T20:01:50","slug":"considering-matthew-shepard-strikes-responsive-chord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/2019\/12\/02\/considering-matthew-shepard-strikes-responsive-chord\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Considering Matthew Shepard\u2019 Strikes Responsive Chord"},"content":{"rendered":"

In rehearsal for\u00a0Considering Matthew Shepard<\/em>, tears well inside a Montclair State choral rehearsal room as singers explore the life, death and legacy of Matthew Shepard.<\/p>\n

It is an evocative score, and Professor Heather Buchanan, director of choral activities, conducts with sensitivity, tuned to the wide swings of emotions \u2013 fear and anger, tolerance and forgiveness \u2013 as the choir sings the genre-blending story of the gay college student beaten and left to die, tied to a prairie fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cTears are fine,\u201d she tells the nearly 180 featured performers from the Montclair State Chorale and Singers ensembles. \u201cDon\u2019t try to stop them, breathe and sing through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the six months the students have studied\u00a0Considering Matthew Shepard<\/em>, they have channeled the emotions the music elicits \u2013 both inside and outside this rehearsal space. \u201cThere\u2019s a convergence of energy here,\u201d says Sarah Peszka, a senior Music Education major from Philadelphia. \u201cIt\u2019s turned everything upside down.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sarah Peszka, senior Music Education major: \u201cWe tell each other stories so we will remember.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Sunday, December 8, their passions will be displayed in the regional premiere of\u00a0Considering Matthew Shepard<\/em>. It\u2019s being presented in a completely full Alexander Kasser Theater (the afternoon concert at 3 p.m. will be\u00a0available live online<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The three-part oratorio incorporates poems, passages from Shepard\u2019s journal, interviews with his parents and newspaper reports. \u201cIt is a memorial, a reflection on society, a celebration of diversity, and a fight against hate,\u201d explains Demetria Sardo, a graduate student in Music Therapy from River Edge, New Jersey. \u201cWe may be capable of hate, but we are more importantly also capable of patience, understanding, love and growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"female
The theme #EraseHate\u201d has inspired a community-wide movement.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This message has spilled out across campus, where the concert\u2019s theme \u2013 #EraseHate \u2013 has become an extraordinary community-wide movement, addressing, Buchanan says, \u201cthe permissible climate of hate that is disturbingly evident in the world today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fences are covered in notes of kindness, constructed by the student chapter of the American Choral Directors Association as reminders of the buck-rail fence in Laramie, Wyoming, where in 1998, Shepard was left to die. Shepard\u2019s story is a lasting symbol of the gay rights movement and is being shared with LGBTQ groups at local high schools. Also being shared is curriculum on ways to introduce hate crime prevention. At Montclair State, a new campus organization, Musicians for Social Justice, hosted \u201cfriends-giving potluck\u201d with students and faculty breaking bread to create a more inclusive, accepting world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s real discussions on important issues that still exist in our world and encouragement to come together and fix those issues,\u201d says Nick Scafuto, a sophomore Music Education major from Martinsville, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Tackling the musical composition has been difficult, students say, because of the conflicting emotions and points of view expressed. \u201cFor every piece, Dr. Buchanan prompts us to think about the message we are sharing,\u201d says Isaiah Bridges-Green, a senior Voice Performance major from Brooklyn, New York.<\/p>\n

Conducting an especially poignant selection, Buchanan repeats a selection of text, \u201cI leave the fence surrounded by beauty.\u201d Then pausing, her words full of emotion, she shares what to her the composition reveals. \u201cYou want to forgive? You want people to forgive you? Forgive yourself. You want people to respect you? Respect yourself. That\u2019s the whole point here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Composed by Craig Hella Johnson, chants, choral pieces, folk songs and solo pieces come together to tell Shepard\u2019s story, says Sardo. \u201cBut while it visits some dark places, it triumphantly balances this with movements about comfort and hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buchanan has collaborated with director Karen Driscoll and pianist Steven W. Ryan, both adjunct faculty at the John J. Cali School of Music. Driscoll coaches the solo vocals and spoken recitation and has overseen the concerts\u2019 multimedia visuals. The fence plays a prominent role. In the semi-staged performance, \u201cit becomes an icon, a scene of the crime, a shrine for Matthew\u2019s memory, and ultimately nothing at all as it is taken down,\u201d says Justin McBurney, a senior Music Education major from Bridgewater, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

With forgiveness and compassion for one another, regardless of race, gender, orientation or religion, central to the narrative,\u00a0Considering Matthew Shepard<\/em>\u00a0asks listeners to reflect on \u2013 to consider \u2013 their own lives and beliefs. \u201cA piece like this brings love and hope to many who may feel hopeless or helpless,\u201d says Rebekah Kusher, a senior Vocal Performance major from Clifton, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\"featured
Rebekah Kusher, senior Vocal Performance major, says this piece \u201cbrings love and hope to many who may feel hopeless or helpless.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe all become confused, make mistakes and hurt others,\u201d says Sardo. \u201cThere are parts of all of our hearts that we might not want to accept, things that we don\u2019t want to see when we look at our reflections, and decisions that we regret making.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly through love and unity can we instead erase hate,\u201d Kusher says. \u201cOnly through love can we send the message that we are still here, we are still fighting and we will not be erased.\u201d<\/p>\n

That message, adds Buchanan, \u201cwill live long beyond these concerts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering Matthew Shepard<\/em>\u00a0is the semester finale to the John J. Cali School of Music \u201cSignature Series.\u201d The concert is a free public performance supported by a generous grant from the Keating Crawford Foundation. It is presented at Montclair State University in memory of Beatrice Crawford, a Montclair musician who was the director of two choral groups, The Madrigals and The Choraliers.<\/p>\n

A film introduction has been created at the School of Communication and Media by Steve McCarthy, news producer, and Professor David Sanders. Cathy Renna, a longtime LGBTQ activist who works with the Matthew Shepard Foundation, will lead talkbacks after the performances.<\/p>\n

\"close<\/figure>\n

Story by\u00a0Marilyn Joyce Lehren<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In rehearsal for\u00a0Considering Matthew Shepard, tears well inside a Montclair State choral rehearsal room as singers explore the life, death and legacy of Matthew Shepard. It is an evocative score, and Professor Heather Buchanan, director of choral activities, conducts with sensitivity, tuned to the wide swings of emotions \u2013 fear and anger, tolerance and forgiveness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":207508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207509,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207507\/revisions\/207509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}