Spring 2024 Faculty Recital
Christine Hoerning
Christine Hoerning is a clarinetist and bass clarinetist based in Montreal, Quebec. She is currently the Visiting Assistant Professor of Clarinet at the Crane School of Music. She is an accomplished performer and creator across a multitude of genres. Her personal artistic practice emphasizes multi-media performance art combined with story-telling.
PROGRAM
Introduction: The Rejected (1961) KQED Broadcast
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The Homosexuals (1967) CBS Broadcast
Das Lila Lied (1920) Kurt Swabach (1898-1966)
arr. Hoerning
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Make The Hear You (1996) Stephen Flaherty/Lynn Ahrens
from Ragtime arr. Hoerning
Wilkommen: Cabaret Medley Inspired by John Kander
arr. Hoerning
A Little More Drag from Wigloose: The Rusical arr. Hoerning
It's Giving Fashion Luxx Noir London
Sitting Pretty from Cabaret John Kander
arr. Hoerning
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1950 King Princess
arr. Hoerning
Two Ladies from Cabaret John Kander
arr. Hoerning
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Pulse (2016) Carlos Velez
a celebration of life for those who lost their lives at Pulse Night Club in 2016
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Built on Drag from Wigloose: The Rusical arr. Hoerning
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A letter to the audience:
Wilkommen Bienvenue Welcome
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The program you are about to see tonight is one that had been developing for over a year. You might be wondering- why are we doing this?
We are doing this for a few reason:
Firstly, in the last few years states have advanced a record number of bills that attack LGBTQ+ rights, especially transgender youth. The ACLU is tracking these bills.
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Secondly, visibility matters. Visibility has a profound impact on peoples lives and is a small but significant way to make a tangible difference. I recently completed a research project cataloging over 800 pieces of solo clarinet music written by living composers with the aim of amplifying marginalized voices. As I was collecting information, the question “Do you identify as a member of the LGBTQ community?” was the only question people refused to answer. 32% of people didn’t want to disclose that information and of the people who did identify as LGBTQ 80% wanted that information to remain private. We understand the importance of visibility for our community but so many people still struggle with this, and it is no wonder when there can be real life repercussions.
Thirdly, I created this program because I was profoundly inspired by the book/podcast entitled Making Gay History by Eric Marcus. It is an incredible archive of queer history interviews with some of the gay liberation movement's most incredible activists. Some of these activists are widely known, like Marsha P. Johnson. Some of these activists are less known, like Edythe Eyde. But each of their stories adds to the incredible tapestry of our LGBTQ history and rights in North America.
Lastly, I wanted to do this because I didn’t learn about gay history until I deliberately sought it out. I think this is the case for many of us. When we learn about the civil rights in the 1960’s we don’t learn about the gay liberation movement. The LGBTQ community is still seen as something inappropriate or taboo, especially in the school system. Instead of learning about this history we pass along folklore surrounding the Stonewall Riots. Many believe there was no gay liberation movement before Stonewall, but LGBTQ activists have been fighting for our rights long before Stonewall and these names, these stories, deserve to be taught and shared.
I cannot in a single evening share all of the information I have learned. I cannot share all of the stories that I have found so moving, that have made me want to laugh, or cry, or both. But I wanted to use this opportunity, this platform, to do something personal, meaningful, and significant for our campus community.
I hope you enjoy the show.
Christine Hoerning, clarinet
Introduction:
The Rejected (1961)
was a documentary about homosexuality produced for KQED in San Francisco. It was the first documentary program on homosexuality broadcast on American television.
Host John Reavis wrote that his goals for this program were:
"The object of the program will be to present as objective analysis of the subject as possible, without being overly clinical. The questions will be basic ones: who are the gay ones, how did they become gay, how do they live in a heterosexual society, what treatment is there by medicine or psychotherapy, how are they treated by society, and how would they like to be treated?"
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Reavis approached the topic from the standpoint that homosexuality was a social problem similar to alcoholism or prostitution.
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Conservative members of the gay community were pleased with how the Mattachine members presented themselves as ordinary people, an image that differed from the perception held by many outside the community. Some more radical activists, including Frank Kameny and Randy Wicker, found the program wanting for the apologetic tone it took toward homosexuality.
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In 2002, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation presented KQED with the first Pioneer Award, in recognition of its production of The Rejected as the beginning of a long history of LGBT-related programming.
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The Homosexuals (1967):
Das Lila Lied
by Mischa Spoliansky and Kurt Schwabach
German for "The Lavender Song" was written in 1920 and is considered one of the first gay anthems.
The song is a product of Germany's Weimar Republic, during which time lesbians and gay men enjoyed a period of improved quality of life when the government established basic democratic rights that protected the LGBT community.
The song was written in dedication of Magnus Hischfeld, founder of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science).
The Homosexuals was part of a 1967 documentary series called The Reports. It was an hour long broadcast that featured topics pertaining to homosexuality and homosexuals. Although this was the first network documentary dealing with the topic of homosexuality, it was not the first televised in the United States. That was The Rejected, produced and aired in 1961 on KQED, a public television station in San Francisco.
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More recent critical attention to "The Homosexuals" has also been mixed, trending to the negative. In one corner, anchor Mike Wallace is praised for debunking negative stereotypes about gay men. In the other, Wallace's commentary is condemned as "a string of gross generalizations and negative stereotypes" LGBT activist Wayne Besen labels the broadcast "the single most destructive hour of antigay propaganda in our nation's history."He says that the episode "not only had a devastating effect on public opinion but also was a nuclear bomb dropped on the psyches of gay and lesbian Americans, who, prior to this show, had never been represented as a group on national television."
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Make Them Hear You (1996)
from Ragtime
Ragtime is a novel turned into a musical that tells the story of American Americans, immigrants, and wealthy Americans. It touches upon subjects like racism, class distinction, political corruption, and police brutality. One of its most iconic songs “Make them hear you" is about telling the stories of the oppression and battles that the African American community faced.
The songs message of injustice, being counted, and speaking out resonated deeply within the LGBTQ community and performances of this piece can be heard by gay choirs across the country.
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This piece features archival film footage of prominent LGBT activists Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Audre Lorde. Their powerful words can be heard above the music. The film concludes with the first gay liberation march after the Stonewall riots.
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Cabaret Medley
Cabaret is a musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and a book by Joe Masteroff. It is based on the 1951 play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten, which in turn was based on the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood.
Set in 1929–1930 Berlin during the twilight of the Jazz Age as the Nazis rise to power, the musical focuses on the hedonistic nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub, and the club itself serves as a metaphor for ominous political developments in late Weimar Germany.
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This musical is filled with queer coded characters, and depicts the liberal jazz/cabaret scene of the era.
Emcee says to the crowd, “Leave your troubles outside! So life is disappointing? Forget it! In here, life is beautiful, the girls are beautiful, even the orchestra is beautiful!” Indeed, inside the cabaret, everyone is beautiful.
CITATION
It is for these themes and the strong yet ominous message in Cabaret that these works were chosen and featured within the recital.
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A Little More Drag
from Wigloose: The Rusical
According to an article written by The Guardian:
At the beginning of 2023, drag came under attack.
Tennessee, Texas and Montana all passed laws which would specifically ban drag artists from performing in certain public spaces – the latest part of a conservative culture war that has seen books banned from schools and libraries around the US and rights stripped from the LGBTQ+ community.
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Drag is a significant part of queer culture whether you are a performer, participant, or spectator. Drag pushes back against societal expectations, it bucks gender stereotypes, pushes the boundaries of performance art. Drag is critical of society with a touch of humor, it is political, it is subversive, and it builds community. For this reason, we all could use "a little more drag".
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It's Giving Fashion
It's Giving Fashion was a song produced by Luxx Noir London, one of the contestants on RuPaul's Drag Race Season 15. This lip-sync performance is paying homage to the lip-sync as a queer art. ​
Joe E. Jeffreys, a drag historian, thinks that the practice of young gays performing the songs of beloved divas and ingénues began at home, in the privacy of a bedroom or basement. It was only natural that these queens would continue camping it up at parties and gatherings once they found community. As a result, Lip-sync emerged as a form of queer folk art.
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Sitting Pretty
from Cabaret
Sitting Pretty is another tribute to the John Kander musical Cabaret. This film preceding this features brief profiles of activists throughout LGBTQ history. Each vignette gives an incredibly brief summary of the achievements and contributions of these individuals.
The fight for LGBTQ civil rights is not often taught in schools. The topic of queerness is often seen as inappropriate for children, but being LGBTQ is no different than being heterosexual. There is significant history that is not being taught, significant figures that go unknown and I wanted to take a few minutes to shed light on a few who's stories I admire.
If you would like to know more about these incredible gay heroes and to hear interviews with many of these figures check out the incredible podcast by Eric Marcus called
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1950
by King Princess
“1950” is a tender song that explores the experience of unrequited love through the lens of queerness.
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In her own words, the singer describes how the track is also about paying tribute to those before her who faced barriers in expressing their queerness, saying: “Queer love was only able to exist privately for a long time, expressed in society through coded art forms. I wrote this song as a story of unrequited love in my own life, doing my best to acknowledge and pay homage to that part of history.”
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The film designed to accompany this work features photographs of queer women together. Though gay men are featured and accepted more now in the mainstream media, queer women are still sidelined. When they are acknowledged it is often through the male gaze and fetishization.
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Many of the photographs in this collection are of the women at the Los Angeles Gay Community Service Center's (GCSC) "Lesbian House," as well as friends and allies, between 1972 and 1973. These photographs were taken by Bee Ottinger for her thesis project at the California Institute of the Arts.
Two Ladies
from Cabaret
Two Ladies is a comedic number about a relationship with three people-or in modern speak- a thruple.
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Like most things in Cabaret this number is full of humour and camp. It pokes fun at traditional relationships and societal expectations of gender and sexuality. Filled with witty double-entendres this piece is a classic of queer-coded musical fun.
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Pulse
for clarinet and piano
by Carlos Velez
Composed as a three-movement sonata in attacca style, PULSE is a musical depiction of a
night at three clubs in Orlando - Firestone, Southern Nights, and of course, Pulse. Each of these has been an important part of the club scene in Central Florida for many years, and have been safe places for gay individuals to express themselves publicly.
On June 11th 2016, 49 people were killed at Pulse in one of the deadliest mass shootings
in U.S. history.
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This piece is not an in memoriam for these tragic deaths, rather it is a celebration of the lives of
these individuals, and an expression of their courage for simply being themselves at a time when this is often treated with hate and violence.
PULSE was commissioned by Dr. Shawn Copeland, Assistant Professor of Clarinet at
the University of Idaho, in Moscow, ID.
Built on Drag
from Wigloose: the rusical
Lyrics:
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Drag is a fight
Drag is a protest
Drag only reveals who you really are
If you want to shine
I'm letting you know this
the kind of love we grow can't grow in the dark
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The pride that we feel
the power we hold in our high heels
the rights that we've earned
where we began and what we've learned
was built on
drag
The Team
A sincere thank you to all the performers and support staff who participated in this recital and helped to make this production possible.
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Vocalists
Lorraine Yaros Sullivan
Nils Klykken
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Instrumentalists
Brian Dunbar------------------------Flute
Max Grube------------------------------Bassoon
Michael Dudley----------------------Trumpet
Luke Spence-------------------------Trumpet
Peter McCoy-------------------------Trombone
Tim Sullivan------------------------Drums
Keilor Kastella-----------------------Piano
Andrew Voelker----------------------Keyboard
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Ethan Hurst----------------Scarlette Vendetta
William Rauch------------- Lyn Guinie
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Support Staff
Tom Grobowski
Kathleen Crecco
Ethan Feuer
Arrangers
David Bobowski
Bailey Lapo-McDermott