Considering Matthew Shepard

Overview

“I wanted to create, within a musical framework, a space for reflection, consideration, and unity around his life and legacy,” says composer Craig Hella Johnson. The three-part "fusion oratorio" incorporates a variety of musical styles with texts by such poets as Hildegard of Bingen, Lesléa Newman, and Michael Dennis Browne, as well as passages from Matt’s personal journal, interviews with his parents, and newspaper reports. Audiences describe the work as “brilliant,” “powerful,” “innovative,” “dazzling,” and “gripping.”

"Unless you were there..."

What the critics say about

Considering Matthew Shepard

“’Considering Matthew Shepard’ ”Demonstrates music’s capacity to encompass, transform and transcend tragedy. Powerfully cathartic, it leads us from horror and grief to a higher understanding of the human condition, enabling us to endure.”

–The Washington Post

“It has the richness, depth and complexity to compel repeated hearing, and the power to get you the first time out.”

The Bay Area Reporter

“In performance, ‘Considering Matthew Shepard” emerged as a portrait of our times and a testament to the nature of hate. All of which easily could have led Johnson to pen a dark and despairing screed. Instead, he did quite the opposite, evoking the terror of this event early on but transcending it with page after page of hope, yearning

and thanks. This may seem incongruous – unless you were there."

–Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

Come experience the first performance of this compelling work in the Carolinas.