Arts Council awards $4,500 grant to NH Master Chorale

PLYMOUTH —The New Hampshire State Council on the Arts has awarded a $4,500 grant to the New Hampshire Master Chorale to support three November concerts of the highly acclaimed contemporary oratorio, “Considering Matthew Shepard.”

The 30-voice chamber chorus, led by Dan Perkins of Plymouth State University, will offer three performances of the concert-length work, including on Sunday, Nov. 18, at 4 p.m. in the Plymouth Congregational Church.

The other concerts will be at South Church in Portsmouth on Friday, Nov. 16, at 8 p.m., and at the First Congregational Church in Concord on Saturday, Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m.

The concerts commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student at the University of Wyoming. His death touched off a national movement that led to a 2009 federal anti-hate crime law bearing Shepard’s name and that of Joseph Byrd Jr., a black Texan who was murdered by three white supremacists the same year.

“Considering Matthew Shepard,” written by the American composer Craig Hella Johnson for chorus and chamber orchestra, tells the story of Shepard’s life and murder, the immediate and lasting response it evoked, and its deeper implications, from the story of Cain and Abel to current-day hatred and violence directed at those who do not conform to societal norms.

“The piece actually became a whole lot more than just the story of the suffering,” Johnson said. “It needed to become this larger invitation to return to love. And to … remember who we are as human beings.”

The oratorio blends musical styles ranging from Bach and Gregorian chant to country-and-western, blues, gospel and contemporary choral scene-painting.

Johnson’s oratorio is one of the latest of many responses to the Matthew Shepard story. It has been the subject of plays, books and documentary films. On Oct. 26 of this year, Shepard’s ashes were interred in a crypt at the National Cathedral in Washington that contains the remains of luminaries such as President Woodrow Wilson, Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan. The Rev. Eugene Robinson, retired Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, was instrumental in arranging the interment.

Also in October, Matthew’s parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, donated their son’s childhood artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution.

The Shepards lead the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which documents hate crimes and sponsors educational seminars for schoolchildren, law enforcement officers and legislators.

Each concert will be preceded by a pre-concert conversation with author Lesléa Newman, writer of “October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard,” from which much of the poetry for “Considering Matthew Shepard” was taken. 

The New Hampshire Master Chorale is a non-profit choir established in the spring of 2003, dedicated to excellence in the art of choral music performance. Members of the group are trained singers, auditioned from throughout New England, who have performed as soloists and in choral ensembles throughout the world. A taste of the New Hampshire Master Chorale is at soundcloud.com/nh-master-chorale, and the ensemble is on Facebook and Twitter: www.facebook.com/NHMasterChorale and twitter.com/nhmasterchorale. 

Tickets are available at nhmasterchorale.org and at the door — $30 general, $25 senior, and $15 for a group of 10 or more. There is free admission for undergraduates and students in grades K–12.