Conductor Tesfa Wondemagegnehu’s “latest project is ‘Resistance and Resilience,’ a program he devised for the One Voice Mixed Chorus, an LGBTQ community choir in the Twin Cities that he has been guest-conducting,” writes Terry Blain in Thursday’s (6/27) Star Tribune (Minneapolis). “ ‘Resistance and Resilience,’ being sung Saturday and Sunday at the Ordway in St. Paul … links together two movements Wondemagegnehu feels passionately about—the struggle for African-American civil liberties, and the gay rights movement. Half of the concert is devoted to a new work titled ‘Quiet No More,’ co-written by six composers. Commissioned by the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, it commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising…. The first half … features music from the African-American tradition, focusing particularly on black spirituals…. He is aware that there are dangers involved in identifying overlaps between these historical experiences [but] is evangelical about the unexpected bonds that can be forged between disparate groups of people, in the healing environment of musical happenings…. Says Wondemageghehu, ‘These communities—both gay and African-American—that have been oppressed and marginalized for so many years are going to wake up, combine forces, and say, Game over.’ ”
Posted June 28, 2019
