{"id":207511,"date":"2019-12-10T11:17:32","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T16:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/?p=207511"},"modified":"2022-03-02T15:07:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T20:07:53","slug":"cali-school-of-music-considers-the-legacy-of-matthew-shepard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/2019\/12\/10\/cali-school-of-music-considers-the-legacy-of-matthew-shepard\/","title":{"rendered":"Cali School of Music Considers the Legacy of Matthew Shepard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montclair State University presented Considering Matthew Shepard <\/em>in the regional premiere of the choral piece that explores the life, death and legacy of Matthew Shepard. The hate crime sparked outrage, and over the past two decades, has led to advocacy and action in the LGBTQ movement.<\/p>\n

It is an evocative score, and Professor Heather Buchanan, director of choral activities, conducted on Sunday, December 8 with sensitivity, tuned to the wide swings of emotions \u2013 fear and anger, tolerance and forgiveness \u2013 as the choir sang the genre-blending story of the gay college student beaten and left to die, tied to a prairie fence.<\/p>\n

In the three months 190 students have studied Considering 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

The passions were on full display inside Alexander Kasser Theater on Montclair State\u2019s campus, where the concert\u2019s theme \u2013 #EraseHate 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

Two performances were the semester finale to the John J. Cali School of Music \u201cSignature Series.\u201d The concerts were presented free to the community, supported by a generous grant from the Keating Crawford Foundation in memory of Beatrice Crawford, a Montclair musician who was the director of two choral groups, The Madrigals and The Choraliers.<\/u><\/p>\n

\"Cali
Sarah Peszka, senior Music Education major, performs at Considering Matthew Shepard<\/em> at Kasser Theater. \u201cWe tell each other stories so we will remember.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matthew Shepard\u2019s story is a lasting symbol of the gay rights movement and has been shared with LGBTQ groups as part of the concert preparations 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

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.<\/u><\/p>\n

\"Cali
Isaiah Bridges-Green, a senior Voice Performance major from Brooklyn, New York, performs in Considering Matthew Shepard. <\/em>He also participated in the talk back after the show.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\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

During rehearsal, Buchanan repeated a selection of text, \u201cI leave the fence surrounded by beauty.\u201d Then pausing, her words full of emotion, she shared 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. \u201cBut while it visits some dark places, it triumphantly balances this with movements about comfort and hope,\u201d Sardo says.<\/p>\n

Buchanan collaborated with director Karen Driscoll and pianist Steven W. Ryan, both adjunct faculty at the John J. Cali School of Music. Driscoll staged the entire production and both Driscoll and Ryan coached the solo vocals and spoken recitations. The concerts\u2019 multimedia visuals which were designed by Elliott Forrest for the original Conspirare performances with additions specific to the MSU performances.
\n<\/u><\/p>\n

\"Cali
Nick Scafuto, sophomore Music Education major, performs the role of Matthew Shepard as he is dying. \u201cThis movement dares to hope that he found some form of peace.\u201d The choreography was designed by Harrison Smith, a member of University Singers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fence played 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, Considering Matthew Shepard<\/em> asked listeners to reflect on \u2013 to consider \u2013 their own lives and beliefs.<\/p>\n

\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

\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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Student voices power evocative performance for Montclair State\u2019s \u2018Signature Series\u2019 \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","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":207512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207511","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\/207511","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=207511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211873,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207511\/revisions\/211873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}