On Saturday, October 15, The Elora Singers’ 2022-2023 season opens with Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard.
This moving oratorio serves as both an account of and reflection on the hatred that ended Matthew Shepard’s life.
In October of 1998, Matthew Shepard, a young gay student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie was kidnapped, severely beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die in a lonely field. Five days later, when Matthew died, the world was watching. It was one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in US history. As the 20th anniversary of Matthew’s death approached, American composer Craig Hella Johnson responded with his first concert-length work, Considering Matthew Shepard.
At a time when hate crimes toward members of the LGBTQ2S+ community are on the rise, this moving and thought-provoking work is as important as ever.
“Considering Matthew Shepard asks us all to hear a difficult story and to respond with love and compassion.” – Mark Vuorinen, Artistic Director
Join us at Harcourt Memorial United Church in Guelph, at 2:30 and 7:30, for a powerful, difficult work that offers hope of acceptance and inclusion in a changing world.