Love Letters
A workshop celebrating love, sex, and intimacy
Sunday, February 16th
POP HQ (The POPera Shop)
Sunday, February 16th
POP HQ (The POPera Shop)
Vocalists:
Soprano:
Jill Redding
Aria Gittelson
Drew Corey
Alto:
Rhiannon Lewis
Rachel Steinke
Vera Lugo
Tenor:
Jeff Greif
Daniel Leese
Bass:
TJ Sclafani
Will Reeder
With:
Hann McEwen, intimacy coordinator
Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
Soprano:
Jill Redding
Aria Gittelson
Drew Corey
Alto:
Rhiannon Lewis
Rachel Steinke
Vera Lugo
Tenor:
Jeff Greif
Daniel Leese
Bass:
TJ Sclafani
Will Reeder
With:
Hann McEwen, intimacy coordinator
Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
LET HIM KISS ME
Composed by Jonathan Miller
Let Him Kiss Me is the first movement from the cycle Kisses of Myrrh by Jonathan Miller. The music builds on Biblical texts, more than 2000 years old. Let Him Kiss Me is a languid yet passionate articulation of a long, gradually building kiss. Miller positions himself as a lover, trying to express in music the tender sentiments of the poem. From the outset, the songs in the cycle were intended to be a modern interpretation of some of the more explicitly erotic verses in the Song of Songs, the exquisite book of love poetry found in the Old Testament. The narrative voice in the Song of Songs changes frequently between male and female speakers. Because what mattered to Jonathan Miller was the depth of feeling expressed by either lover and not who was talking - he took on whatever voice present in those verses, whose content struck him the most.
FIREWORK
Composed by Nathan Hall
Firework, by Nathan Hall, is a musical setting of the first stanza to Amy Lowell’s poem “Pyrotechnics”. Much like a firework, in a short-lived burst, this piece beautifully illuminates Lowell’s text.
*20 minutes at the booths*
Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
HAy in the needle stack
Composed and performed by Aria Gittelson
Text by Aidan Moravec
with Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
Text by Aidan Moravec
with Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
LOVE LETTER
Composed by Sarah Dacey
Settings words from part of a letter by Edna St Vincent Millay to her lover Arthur Davison Ficke, this is a gentle piece that celebrates our freedom to love. Dacey’s rich harmonies and quirky melodies are presented in a rocking 5/8 time signature, and conclude softly with the central message as the phrase ‘you and me’ fragments and fades into the distance.
Text:
It doesn’t matter with whom you fall in love, nor how often, nor how sweetly. All that has nothing to do with what we are to each other, nothing at all to do with You and Me
Text:
It doesn’t matter with whom you fall in love, nor how often, nor how sweetly. All that has nothing to do with what we are to each other, nothing at all to do with You and Me
The funeral of consumption
Composed by Drew Corey
Funerals is a series of performance pieces Drew began in 2016. The funerals are performative rituals of letting go, burying trauma, relationships, experiences, or even a positive experience that is coming to an end. All of the funerals involve some element of music; mostly voices, wine glasses, and winds, but can be voiced for any instrumental combination. In the funerals, the performer buries what they need to bury, and the audience is invited to place their intention on the performative ritual that will be buried along with the performer’s. The aim is to create a cathartic experience for both performer and audience.
*20 minutes at the booths*
Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
Sonetto xxx
Composed by Benjamin Britten
Performed by Jeffrey Greif
with Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
Performed by Jeffrey Greif
with Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
Love letter, by c3la after a postcard by liza lim
by Liza Lim
with Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
with Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
“Eugene Ughetti, the Artistic Director of Speak Percussion, commissioned Love Letter for the group’s 10th Anniversary concert. In the tradition of James Tenney’s famous postal pieces, he asked me to make a work in a similar format which I did on the plane enroute between Manchester and Melbourne in April 2011.Obviously, the postcard as ‘score’ is merely a prompt, an invitation to the performer to participate in a process of honouring someone (‘their beloved’) and all the true work lies with the performer.” —Liza Lim
Jesus at the gay bar
Composed by Stuart Beatch
with Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
with Wells Leng, collaborative pianist
"As a queer person of faith, the intersection between religion and sexuality has always been important to me. I first discovered Jay Hulme’s poem circulating online following the November 2022 shooting in Colorado Springs—despite the grief and fear being felt by the queer community, Jay’s beautiful expression of love and acceptance resonated with me in a profound way.My setting of this poem begins with rhythmic dance music played by the piano, creating a kaleidoscope of bright and contradicting harmonies. As the piece progresses, the textures and harmonies become simpler and evoke music from the English cathedral tradition, repertoire that has defined my own musical development over the last decade. The music ends with a moment of peace, as if Heaven itself has opened to welcome queer people in." –Stuart Beatch
Text:
He’s here in the midst of it –
right at the centre of the dance floor,
robes hitched up to His knees
to make it easy to spin.
At some point in the evening
a boy will touch the hem of His robe
and beg to be healed, beg to be
anything other than this;
and He will reach His arms out,
sweat-damp, and weary from dance.
He’ll cup this boy’s face in His hand
and say,
my beautiful child
there is nothing in this heart of yours
that ever needs to be healed.
Text:
He’s here in the midst of it –
right at the centre of the dance floor,
robes hitched up to His knees
to make it easy to spin.
At some point in the evening
a boy will touch the hem of His robe
and beg to be healed, beg to be
anything other than this;
and He will reach His arms out,
sweat-damp, and weary from dance.
He’ll cup this boy’s face in His hand
and say,
my beautiful child
there is nothing in this heart of yours
that ever needs to be healed.
This organization is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.
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