NEC Chamber Singers + Erica J. Washburn: Considering Matthew Shepard (Online)

Craig Hella Johnson | Considering Matthew Shepard (2016)

PROLOGUE

Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass
          Cowboy: Edward Ferran

Ordinary Boy
          Narrator: Cassandra Pinataro
          Judy: Anna Poltronieri Tang
          Matt: Nicholas Ottersberg
          Matt: Jack Keller

We Tell Each Other Stories / I am Open
          Narrator: Ashley Chen
         
PASSION

RECITATION
          Madeleine Wiegers

The Fence (before)
          Fence: Nicholas Ottersberg

RECITATION
         Molly Flynn

The Fence (that night)
          Fence: Jádon Brooks

RECITATION
          Molly Knight

A Protestor

Keep It Away From Me
          Bystander: Anneke Stern
          Trio: Cassandra Pinataro, Madeleine Wiegers, Corinne Luebke-Brown

RECITATION
          David Helder

Fire of the Ancient Heart
          Cantor: Jádon Brooks

RECITATION
          Kathryn Fernholz

Stray Birds

We Are All Sons

I Am Like You
          Quartet: Madeleine Wiegers, Anna Poltronieri Tang,
          Lucas Hernandez, Nicholas Ottersberg

The Innocence
          A human: Colin Miller

RECITATION
          Weza Jamison-Neto

The Fence (one week later)
          Fence: Lauren Guthridge

RECITATION
          Weza Jamison-Neto

Stars
          Michael Meraw

RECITATION
          Colin Miller

In Need of Breath
          Matt: Edward Ferran

RECITATION
          Molly Knight

Deer Song
          Deer: Molly Flynn
          Matt: Nicholas Ottersberg
          Wyoming Winds: Chloe Thum, Ashley Chen, Yoomin Kang

RECITATION
          Molly Flynn

Pilgrimage
          in order of appearance:
          Yoomin Kang, Stellan Bettany, David Helder, Killian Grider
          Lucas Hernandez, Molly Flynn, Chloe Thum, Anneke Stern
          Corinne Luebke-Brown, Lauren Guthridge

EPILOGUE

Meet Me Here
          Narrator/Observer: Corinne Luebke-Brown

All of Us
          Trio: Chloe Thum, Corinne Luebke-Brown, Lauren Guthridge

Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass (reprise)
          Cowboy: Edward Ferran

The Ensembles

The NEC Chamber Singers is an auditioned ensemble, open to all majors at NEC, of 24-32 musicians who perform challenging works from all style periods, with a particular emphasis on 19th-21st century a cappella works. The choir rehearses three times a week and experiences choral music-making in an intimate ensemble setting, typically in the round. Each NEC Chamber Singer is a musician seeking to understand the principles and nuance of superior choral artistry so that they may be prepared for professional opportunities and expectations outside of the Conservatory. The choristers diligently prepare their music outside of scheduled rehearsals which makes the brief time spent together musically invaluable. The ensemble typically performs eight to ten times each academic year: on campus in the Conservatory’s Jordan Hall and at off campus venues in and around greater Boston.

Stellan Connelly Bettany
Jádon Brooks
Ashley Chen
Kathryn Fernholz
Edward Ferran
Molly Flynn
Jiawei Gong
Killian Grider
Lauren Guthridge
David Helder
Riccardo Lucas Hernandez
Weza Jamison-Neto
Yoomin Kang
Jack Keller
Molly Knight
Corinne Luebke-Brown
Colin Miller
Nicholas Ottersberg
Cassandra Pinataro
Anna Poltronieri Tang
Anneke Stern
Wanrou Tang
Chloe Thum
Madeleine Wiegers
Ian Yan

Emma Boyd, violin
Anna Mann, viola
Davis You, cello
Isabel Atkinson, bass
Cole Turkel, clarinet
Andrew Shield, guitar
Seulah Noh, piano
Taylor Lents, Doyeon Kim, Isabella Butler, Ross Hussong, Pei Hsien Lu, percussion

Text Authors and Publication Credits

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.
25. Pilgrimage* Lesléa Newman                                   
26. Meet Me Here  © Craig Hella Johnson                             
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.
 
“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.