Theatre performance of "The Laramie Project"
"Sanctified" Sculpture Installation
YourClassical Minnesota Public Radio presents ""
"Considering Matthew Shepard" Oratorio
Twenty-five years ago, the murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student at the University of Wyoming, shook America. The act seemed truly pitiless, so far beyond ordinary violence as to be depraved in its cruelty. Shepard’s death prompted a flood of activism and support for the LGBTQ+ community, not just among his family and friends but nationwide.
That legacy continues at ×ö°®ÊÓƵ this month in “Considering Matthew Shepard: 25 Years Later,” a multi-event project using music, performance, art, and spoken word to bring focus to prejudice and tolerance. The aim is to engage the campus and community in conversations about how to erase hate in the world while exploring the legacy of Matthew Shepard 25 years after his tragic death.
The idea of hosting multiple events in remembrance of Shepard came from Dr. Michael Culloton, associate professor of vocal music education and church music, who serves as Concordia’s director of choral activities.
Culloton had seen a performance of the “Considering Matthew Shepard” Oratorio by about seven years ago and found himself very touched by the piece, with its narrative text inspired by Shepard — not just his death and the horrifying events surrounding it, but his life, too, from his youthful optimism to his love of the wide-open Wyoming landscape.
Rather than hosting a single choral performance, though, Culloton wanted to do more and recalled all the other ways people had memorialized Shepard, including the stage works and art pieces and, as the 25th anniversary of Shepard’s death drew near, he enlisted help from people in other Concordia departments.
The result is a multifaceted symposium-like event series at Concordia, capped with the oratorio, performed by multiple Concordia choirs, a faculty ensemble, and guest soloist Marin Wilts ’21.
Sanctified
Art history major Hannah Sleath ’25 has created a sculpture installation that will be displayed outside the Frances Frazier Comstock Theatre, seeking to memorialize Shepard and other victims of ideological hatred.
Many victims, including Shepard, were considered martyrs by society, and many injustices continue to repeat themselves.
‘Bring the Sing’
A community sing-along choral event that welcomes all levels of singing ability, “Bring the Sing” will be led by Dr. Joseph Kemper, assistant professor of choral music and conductor of Concordia’s Chapel Choir, Kantorei, and Cantabile, as well as Joseph Osowski, director of choirs at St. Michael-Albertville High School.
The group will be singing pieces from “,” a collection of songs themed around social and environmental justice meant to encourage more community singing with those focal points. It includes traditional hymns as well as new music from a variety of songwriters with a variety of cultural backgrounds.
Attendance is free, and all community members are welcome.
‘The Laramie Project’
After conducting 200 interviews with the people of Laramie, Wyoming, where Shepard was killed, Moisés Kaufman and the members of the wrote “The Laramie Project,” expertly weaving a narrative from the snapshots those interviews provided.
The play has an unusual structure, typically featuring eight actors portraying 60 different people with minimal costuming and sets, touching on a vast array of perspectives and levels of involvement in Shepard’s death.
The play’s content can be harrowing, as Shepard’s physical state when he was found is described by those who tried to save him. His killer, too, gives an account of the incident, and perhaps just as difficult to hear is the play’s depiction of the hateful protestors that tried to disrupt Shepard’s funeral.
That’s not all the production has to offer, though. Shepard’s death changes the people of Laramie in unexpected ways, and some of those are positive, even joyful.
“The Laramie Project” reflects all those facets.
‘Considering Matthew Shepard’
“I almost think the need for the piece is greater now than it was seven years ago,” Culloton said of the oratorio, which will serve as a capstone to the series. “This piece is saying ‘How can we make the world a better place for those who are marginalized?’”
Like “Laramie,” “Considering Matthew Shepard” has emotional ups and downs, featuring a wide variety of musical genres, characters, and events. Its gospel-style finale, “All of Us,” is resolutely optimistic as it proclaims that it takes everyone together to make the world better.
While the oratorio, too, features troubling events and language in both the sung words and the accompanying slideshow, Culloton and Kemper spent time working through the material with the students.
“For the final movement ‘All of Us’ to make sense, we have to go through the hurt — and contextualize that,” he said.
That context includes a Broadway show tune peppered with words from Shepard’s childhood journal, music from J.S. Bach, a blues tune, and a country ballad sung by a personification of the fence Matthew was tied to.
While the oratorio can be a hard listen, Culloton wants to welcome people into the discomfort of it.
“It can be something very special that is shared among the audience in that moment,” he said. “Overall, it’s a piece about hope and love, about good things — and the need for us to be our best people.”