June 4, 2022
7:30pm MST
Mercury Café
$15 General Admission, $10 Student/Senior — Tickets available at the
From the Harlem Renaissance and the US-Mexico border to the streets of Hong Kong, LGBTQ+ voices have demanded an end to oppression and the right to live freely and authentically. The Playground Ensembles third annual Pride concert features new works that celebrate the spirit of resilience and perseverance in queer communities around the world.
We are excited to finally present this concert which was originaly scheduled for June 2020.
THE PROGRAM
《不默而生》 or Than Live Silenced (2020) by Lance Mok (he/him/his, b. 1994)
Text by Joseph Lamb
Leah Podzimek, soprano
Sonya Yeager-Meeks, flute
Deborah Marshall, clarinet
Joshua Sawicki, piano
Richard vonFoerster, conductor
《不默而生》or Than Live Silenced is a piece about life under oppression, specifically that in Hong Kong. 2019 marks the beginning of, as of the time this piece is composed, ongoing protests against the escalating erosion, by governments both local and Chinese, of freedom and constitutionally granted rights. Footages of masked protesters amidst huge clouds of tear gas made international headlines. This piece follows a story of a gay couple who finds themselves dragged into the time of unrest as masked protesters and contemplates on the struggles of living a life—not by choice—outside an inscriptive sexual, cultural, and political norm. At the time of writing, LGBT+ rights are largely unprotected by the laws of Hong Kong and the cultural stigma on queer relationships is pronounced.
The piece, sung in Cantonese, paints a soundscape of Hong Kong with materials derived from two motifs: the opening phrase of the protest march《願榮光歸香港》(Glory to Hong Kong) and glissandi mimicking the siren of the local police. The former is presented first as fragments and dispersed chords, and gradually materialises towards the end of the piece. The latter sometimes transforms into birdsongs of the Asian koel, often heard at dawn in the area. Lush harmonies and chromaticism conjure the colourfully lit night scenes of Hong Kong. Dualities between night and day, dream and reality, and privacy and publicity form the structural backbone of the piece.
《不默而生》is completed on 30 June 2020, the day when the Beijing government circumvented the Hong Kong legislative body to impose overnight a series of measure international media described as ‘draconian’ to further crush local protests down in the name of national security laws.
The work is commissioned by the Playground Ensemble. Its premiere at the Mercury Café, Denver for their Pride Concert was moved from 2020 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
* The literal translation to 「煲底」is ‘under the pot’, which came into common usage to protesters in Hong Kong to refer to the public plaza under the Legislative Council Complex central to many demonstrations over the years. 「煲底之約」(the meeting under the pot), thus, has acquired the meaning of their future victory: the day when all who fought this battle will meet on the plaza, finally removing their masks, and meet their fellow fighters face-to-face for the very first time.
Quiet Kept (2020) by Liz Gre (she/her/hers, b. 1991)
Sonya Yeager-Meeks, flute
Deborah Marshall, clarinet
Greg Abrell, violin
David Short, cello
Lucille Bogan. Ma Rainey. Bessie Smith.
These blues women of the Harlem Renaissance (1910s-mid 1930s) rose to success with their raw, unfiltered music oft narrating an existence on the fringe. Their stylings were blunt, bold, and brash. Though same-sex activity was outlawed across the country and frowned upon in the culture, by this time, the idea of women loving women did not cause a stir among the blues circles. They were unashamed in telling their experiences with violent men, traumatic experiences, and their affinity for same-sex loving.
Liberation
When reading about Ma Rainey, I often read that she was ahead of her time in her tendency to openly express her attraction to women. Throughout her catalogue, there were few overt references to homosexuality and countless more tongue-in-cheek references. In 1928, Ma Rainey released “Prove it On Me,” writing one of her most famous lesbian lines:
“Where she went, I don’t know; I mean to follow everywhere she goes; Folks say I’m crooked; I didn’t know where she took it; I want the whole world to know.
Went out last night with a crowd of my friends; They must’ve been women, ‘cause I don’t like no men; It’s true I wear a collar and a tie… Talk to the gals just like any old man…; Don’t you say I do it, ain’t nobody caught me; You sure got to prove it on me.”
Tenderness
While the blues were rooted in the realities of a life post-slavery and the Great Depression, Bessie Smith provided an air of sweetness ot her stylings. Smith, protégé of Ma Rainey and later knows as the “Empress of the Blues” sometimes veiled her affinity for the love of a woman behind heteronormative lyrics. However, as the highest paid woman in the industry at her time, she began to take liberties with her performances. She sometimes sang “I want a deep sea diving woman that got a stroke that can’t go wrong. Yeah, touch that bottom, gal, hold it all night long.”
Reclamation
In 1935, a third blues singer, Lucille Bogan, wrote explicitly in B.D. Women about the fleeting necessity of men for B.D. women. B.D. is short for bulldagger, a Black slang term and insult for a masculine-presenting lesbian. This was a bold affront to the typical use of the term.
“Comin’ a time, B.D. women they ain’t going to need no men; Comin’ a time, B.D. women they ain’t going to need no men; ‘Cause the way they treat us is a lowdown and dirty sin. B.D. women, you sure can’t understand; B.D. women, you sure can’t understand; They got a head like a sweet angel and they walk just like a natural man.”
Quiet Kept is a prayer of gratitude to Lucille Bogan, Ma Rainey, and Bessie Smith.
Desazón from the string quartet Poesida by René Mayoral
M. Adrián Rice-García, narrator
Greg Abrell and Mariama Alcântara, violin
Allyson Stibbards, viola
David Short, cello
Richard vonFoerster, conductor
The poem on which this piece is based is an autobiographical summary by the poet Abigael Bohórquez. He wrote it at the end of his life. The way he portrays this journey is a mixture between an intense solitude and a never-ending faith, which only shows how far the solitude can grow. Poesida is the title of the book, and it is a ludic or perverse reference: Poetry (Poesía) and AIDS (SIDA). AIDS, as the poet sometimes declares, is the punishment that god gives to homosexuality. Lust is one of the only escapes the poet finds to cope with reality. His concept of beauty, the beauty of his true love, always provokes a society that cannot comprehend that to give up his love would be to give up the only redeemable part of the world.
This fight between the evidence of failure and the faith in oneself, inspired me to compose a music that in the surface struggles to speak, and to come together, but deep inside, it is always the same theme over and over, undefeated by the noise outside.
butterfly, posthumously (2020-2022) by Baldwin Giang (he/him/his, b. 1992)
I (To a lover)
II (To you)
III (To her son)
IV (To her husband)
Leah Podzimek, soprano
Deborah Marshall, clarinet
David Short, cello
Grayson Fiske, percussion
Joshua Sawicki, piano
Richard vonFoerster, conductor
butterfly, posthumously imagines a postlude to Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. In Act III of Puccini’s opera, Cio-cio-san, a Japanese geisha also known as Madame Butterfly learns that her American husband is abandoning her and taking their son back with him to America to be raised by him and his new American wife. Devastated, Cio-cio-san commits suicide violently with a dagger while her husband watches in the final scene. In my reimagination, before she kills herself, Cio-cio-san writes four letters. As a postlude, Cio-cio-san reads these letters from the afterlife, giving her the chance to make a final address.
The lyrics to my piece adapt text from the original libretto to Madama Butterfly by Illica and Giocosa, as well fragments of text by contemporary queer Asian poet Ocean Vuong and from Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes. The first letter is to an unnamed lover and illuminates the subversive and forceful potential behind her submissive positioning. The second letter is addressed to you, the observer of her tale.
The third letter is the most substantial of the cycle, and is addressed to her son, who was forced to leave his native Japan with his white father following Cio-cio-san’s suicide. She admits to committing suicide for his benefit, so that he could live in America and enjoy all the opportunities that come from his father and the liberal west, including the choice to love whomever he wants. However, she also warns her son of growing up biracial and separated from his ancestral homeland, with generational trauma defined by a history of orientalism. Lastly, the fourth letter is addressed to Pinkerton, her husband, to whom she issues a haunting rebuff.
butterfly, posthumously makes no musical allusions to Puccini’s score. Instead, as a queer Asian-American composer, I aim to reclaim Cio-cio-san as a tragic but also empowering and prophetic figure. The musical language of my piece eschews the hyperbole of the operatic stage in favor of intimacy. I concentrate on the extremely nuanced range of affects that can be evoked through formal rigor, subtle slights of hand (or rather ear), and the power of suggestion, not unlike the art of the geisha. Finding resonance especially with Vuong’s work, my Cio-cio-san presents a complex, fresh take on sexuality and the east, and has much to say to younger generations struggling with identity and diaspora in a postcolonial world.
La Caravana Arcoíris (2020) by Laura Reynolds (she/her/hers, b. 1977)
I. Me Llamo Mariana (My name is Mariana)
II. Vecinos Crueles (Cruel Neighbors)
III. El Terror (The Terror)
IV. A Estados Unidos (To the USA)
V. La Caravana Arcoíris (The Rainbow Caravan)
VI. "¡Que tiemblen los machistas!" (How the Macho Ones Tremble!)
Leah Podzimek, soprano
David Short, cello
Ryan Fiegl, electronics
“A couple of years ago, I heard about a group of LGBTQ migrants, mostly transgender women, traveling from Central America to the US, that had separated from a larger migrant caravan. From my recent research, I learned about their reasons for leaving in the first place (to escape the danger of being killed) and their struggles along their journey. Thankfully, this group of LGBTQ migrants were able to find each other and travel together as a separate group since they were facing discrimination from other migrants. They called themselves the “Rainbow Caravan.” “Mariana” is not a particular person but rather a culmination of many stories of these transgender and other LGBTQ migrants.
La Caravana Arcoíris is for soprano, cello, and electronic accompaniment. I created the accompaniment using a variety of analog, digital, and computer synthesizers with added effects, as well as recording my playing of a wooden tin whistle and singing bowl. The piece is divided up into six unique sections, but thematic material reoccurs throughout the piece in different contexts.”
Read the text and translations here.
Bibliography:
Baker, Vicky. “Rainbow Caravan: The long journey to LGBT freedom.” BBC News. August 9,
2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48404381.
Del Real, Jose A. “‘They Were Abusing Us the Whole Way’: A Tough Path for Gay and Trans
Migrants.” New York Times. July 11, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/us/lgbt-migrants-abuse.html.
Flores, Aldolfo. “A Transgender Woman Who Was Part of The Migrant Caravan Has Died in
ICE Custody.” BuzzFeed News. May 31, 2018. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/a-transgender-woman-who-was-part-of-the-migrant-caravan-has.
Fry, Wendy and Hennessy-Fiske, Molly. “Vulnerable LGBTQ migrants left to wait in Mexico.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune. November 3, 2019. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/story/2019-11-03/trump-administration-leaving-vulnerable-lgbt-migrants-to-wait-in-mexico.
Hennessy-Fiske, Molly. “For transgender migrants fleeing death threats, asylum in the U.S. is a
crapshoot.” Los Angeles Times. October 29, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-10-29/trump-administration-returns-vulnerable-lgbt-asylum-seekers-to-mexico.
Human Rights Campaign. 2019. “The Truth of LGBTQ Asylum Seekers at the Border.” January
25, 2019. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2eplAbGP7A
NowThis News. 2018. “Why LGBTQ+ Migrants on 'the Caravan' Face Unique Struggles |
NowThis.” Dec 30, 2018. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWu0Jys39os.
PBS NewsHour. 2019. “LGBTQ asylum seekers persecuted at home and in U.S. custody.” August 10, 2019. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKU70lAJbEU.
Saxon, Shani. “LGBTQ Group That Split From the Migrant Caravan Has Arrived at the U.S. Border.” Colorlines. November 14, 2018. https://www.colorlines.com/articles/lgbtq-group-split-migrant-caravan-has-arrived-us-border.
Taracena, Maria Inés. “Displaced LGBT People from Central America, Mexico Head North for Survival.” AZPM News. September 8, 2017. https://news.azpm.org/p/news-topical-border/2017/9/8/116373-displaced-lgbt-people-from-central-america-mexico-head-north-for-survival/.
Transgender Law Center. 2017. “Rainbow 17 Caravan: trans and gay migrants seek asylum.” October 4, 2017. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y4JS1eKWdg.
Laura Reynolds is a composer, arranger, music producer, guitarist, pianist, and synthesist. Ms. Reynolds creates music in a variety of styles, including contemporary classical for solo instruments and ensembles, computer/electronic, electro-acoustic, rock, and music for dance and film. In February 2020, she was awarded a commission to create a new work for Denver’s Playground Ensemble for their annual Playground Pride concert. Since 2018, Ms. Reynolds has won several competitions for music composition and production from Metapop, Perfect Circuit Audio, KV331 Audio, and OWC. In July 2017, she released Under the Wolf Moon, an album of 14 compositions that blend multiple genres. The album features performances by classical musicians and also includes Ms. Reynolds on guitar, bass, synthesizers, and programming. In April 2016, Ms. Reynolds released the hard rock album From Darkness I Have Come as Wicked Shadows with vocalist Laura Bond. Ms. Reynolds composed all 12 songs, performed on guitar, bass, and synthesizers, and completed all programming. In 2014 she created music for the sci-fi audio book Enoch the Traveler: Tempestas Viator. She produces, records, mixes, and masters her music in her home studio and is currently working on new material. Ms. Reynolds earned her Master of Music in Composition from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2015, under the instruction of Dr. Michael S. Rothkopf. Ms. Reynolds has formerly worked in academia for 17 years. She taught Music Appreciation and English as well as worked as an academic advisor at Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, among other community colleges in North Carolina and Washington. She resides in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with her wife and cats.