Life After Laramie: A Matthew Shepard Memorial Concert

Utah Queer Film Festival (formerly Damn These Heels) is proud to present on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 2:30 pm at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Downtown Salt Lake City – the world premieres of four new musical works that ask: “Where do queer people find Home?”

Written as a response to last year’s 25th anniversary of the October 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, we encourage you to join Utah composers and writers to reflect on how this terrible moment—and others like it in recent years—have shaped our lives, our loves, and our communities.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM & ARTISTS:

>> If You Use Your Senses, a new work by Garrett Medlock composed to their own text. The piece will feature Garrett and their husband, bassoonist Dylan Neff. Medlock and Neff met while undergraduate music students at the U. Garrett is a longtime vocalist with Utah Opera and The Cathedral of the Madeleine. Dylan is the principal bassoonist of the Reno Chamber Orchestra.

>> Saddle Stitch Venus, composed by Miranda Livengood and poet C.E. Janecek’s is a new folk-infused song cycle. As a trans woman who grew up in Salt Lake City, Miranda provides a unique perspective on how the impact of the Shepard murder has been mirrored in more recent events in the US. Livengood grew up in Salt Lake City and studied music at the U; her father, Lee Livengood, is a clarinetist with the Utah Symphony, and her mother, Melissa Livengood, is a respected classical pianist. C.E. Janecek is a poet with an MFA from Colorado State University.

>> Bleeding, by May Swenson is set to music by Jared Oaks and performed by bass Yvette Gilgen. Swenson and Oak’s piece examines the ongoing and increasing trauma created when victims are blamed for their own harm — a theme that extends beyond the queer experience to all walks of life.  Oaks is the conductor of the Ballet West Orchestra. Gilgen studied at Westminster University and performs with Utopia Early Music.

>> A Boy Like Me, concludes the evening, with a new work for tenor and chamber orchestra by composer Chris Myers and author Taylor Brorby (Boys and Oil, Coming Alive). Drawing on his own teenage experience, Brorby’s text evokes the memory of a closeted young man in rural North Dakota stunned by the news of Shepard’s murder. How is it possible to find happiness and love if this is how the world treats people like him? Myers works for the NOVA Chamber Music Series and Park City Chamber Music Society. Brorby was the Annie Clark Tanner Teaching & Research Fellow in Environmental Humanities at the U.

>> Cost: $15 or pay what you can
>> Registration: Get more information and reserve your spot at utahqueerfilmfestival.org https://utahqueerfilmfestival.org/film/life-after-laramie-a-matthew-shepard-memorial-concert/

This special performance is offered as part of the Utah Queer Film Festival happening October 25-27th at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. Learn more about festival films, workshops, activities, parties, and more at utahqff.org.