At a recent performance of Considering Matthew Shepard, I was reminded once again that Emmanuel Church is one of Baltimore’s leading centers for music and the arts.
Earlier this month we took the short train ride to Baltimore to hear Andrew sing as part of Emmanuel Episcopal Church’s special performance of the Craig Hella Johnson oratorio Considering Matthew Shepard. The acclaimed choral piece—performed for Baltimore’s Pride month—honors the legacy of the gay college student whose 1998 murder became a defining moment for LGBTQ+ rights. The moving concert featured the Emmanuel Choir alongside special guest Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in a major Christian denomination.
This promo from the local CBS station provides background on this composition and the performance.
“The three-part fusion oratorio speaks with a fresh and bold voice, incorporating a variety of musical styles seamlessly woven into a unified whole. Johnson sets a wide range of poetic and soulful texts by poets including Michael Dennis Browne, Lesléa Newman, Hildegard of Bingen and Rumi. Passages from Matt’s personal journal, interviews and writings from his parents Judy and Dennis Shepard, newspaper reports, and additional texts by Johnson and Browne are poignantly appointed throughout the work.”
We’ve heard Andrew sing the moving aria In Need of Breath several times. It always brings me to tears. In a solo setting, such as in his performance at Carnegie Hall, it is powerful but misses the context of the full piece. At Emmanuel Andrew was a member of the twenty-voice choir, singing the entire oratorio including this aria, with full orchestration. The tears flowed even more effusively.
There were highlights throughout, but the Epilogue was especially powerful. Soprano Julie Bosworth led a gospel-infused Meet Me Here and was soon after joined by soprano Bonnie Lander and mezzo Alexis Tantau in the stirring All of Us.
The video of Johnson’s choir singing highlights from Considering Matthew Shepard gives you a flavor of the music and drama.
If you have a chance to see this work at some point in the future, take it. You will not be disappointed.
MUSIC AT EMMANUEL
Music at Emmanuel is a wonderful series developed under the direction of Christian Lane and held in the heart of the historic Mt. Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore. It features a full season of concerts and special liturgies with The Emmanuel Choir, a happy-hour chamber music series, Tuesdays at Six, and programs featuring the church’s ensemble-in-residence, Mount Vernon Virtuosi.
I want to highlight two concerts for the upcoming 2026-2027 season to whet your appetite.
VOCES8
This October, on Sunday the 18th, the acclaimed vocal group VOCES8 will perform at Emmanuel.
“Their program, Give Me Your Stars, is a journey through centuries of choral music united by themes of wonder, human connection, and the places we call home: from the jubilant brilliance of Orlando Gibbons and the polyphonic splendor of John Sheppard to Eric Whitacre, Nat King Cole, Simon & Garfunkel, and New York, New York — with Lucy Walker‘s eponymous commission for VOCES8 at the evening’s heart.”
I also want to include videos of the group singing Morten Lauridsen’s setting of O Nata Lux as well as John Tavener’s The Lamb, a setting of a William Blake poem. Both are exquisite.
STRAUSS Enoch Arden
Next May, Music at Emmanuel will present the Richard Strauss setting of Alfred, Lord Tennyson‘s poem Enoch Arden, “weaving music and spoken word into a single, unbroken emotional arc.” This performance presents Strauss’ work in a new transcription for string trio by cellist Molly von Gutzeit, “whose arrangement draws the music into closer conversation with the verse.”
This video of von Gutzeit’s solo cello arrangement of Purcell’s Dido’s Lament provides an introduction to the artist. She writes of the performance,
“There are moments in life where it’s brevity, fragility, and temporariness come to the forefront of thought. This work, from the closing aria of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas known as Dido’s Lament or ‘When I am Laid in Earth,’ evokes a desperate reflection of the inevitable.
I worked on this video and recordings while grappling with some of these ideas in my own life. I think this was a way in which I could, through music, film, and nature better understand what Dido sang in the original opera.”
The second video is a live 2024 performance at St. David’s in Baltimore of Have You Seen but a White Lily Grow by Robert Johnson (c. 1583 – 1633) arranged for solo cello by von Gutzeit.
There are many other treats to be found throughout the Music at Emmanuel season. If you live in or near Baltimore, take the time to discover this vibrant congregation in their beautiful historic building and sample one or more of these musical gems.
More to come . . .
DJB
Main exterior and interior photos of Emmanuel credit Andrew Nigl. Photos of stained glass windows and artists signing in Considering Matthew Shepard by DJB. Photo of Andrew Bearden Brown at Carnegie Hall credit Boston University.
MORE TO COME... 