Gay orchs play for Orlando in SanFran and Berlin
mainpress release:
San Francisco’s Bay Area Rainbow Symphony will be performing a free concert to remember and honor the victims of the Orlando Victims on Monday June 20th at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak Street. Music Director Dawn Harms will conduct Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #6 “Pathetique”. All the tickets had been reserved for the concert in 2 days after ticket sales were launched this past Wednesday. To be on the waiting list, please reserve through Orlando-strong.eventbrite.com. For more information go to www.bars-sf.org or email Ganakajima@yahoo.com
Launched in 2008, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) is an orchestra dedicated to promoting and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer-identified (LGBTQ) musicians and composers. By creating an artistic community striving for both inclusivity and artistic excellence, BARS is becoming an intersection for LGBTQ artists to connect with each other and a wide range of audiences. Over 25% of BARS musicians and 40% of BARS audience identify as heterosexual/straight.
Berlin’s concentus alius, Homophilharmonisches Orchester Berlin will be performing a free concert called “Orlando-Memorial-ein Konzert fuer die Liebe” featuring Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #6 “Pathetique” on Wednesday June 22nd at Emmauskirche. Lausitzer Platz 8. The concert will be conducted by Christiane Silber. concentius alius is Berlin’s LGBTQ orchestra, founded in 1999.
For more information go to www.concentus-alius.de
As someone who has attended several BARS events I would to thank you for posting this press release. This will be an evening of real musical quality apart from bringing people together in solidarity, empathy and perhaps to a degree, catharsis, in respect of the Orlando massacre.
I hope other orchestras follow suit and would also consider programming Britten’s Sinfonia da requiem, a early masterpiece that deserves a place in such concerts. Its final section is far more consoling and not nearly as desolate as the Pathetique’s. However,the musical violence of its second movement is probably inappropriate for commemorations close (in space or time) to the event.
Beautiful gesture and hopefully contributing to the aims of the event. I am puzzled by the profile of the orchestra in gender/sexual terms, however, seems nonsensical to me.