ChamberQUEER Festival: Closing Night
$25
- Jessie Montgomery, violin
- Melissa Wimbish, soprano
- Mazz Swift
- Giancarlo Latta, violin
- Clara Kim, violin
- Jessica Meyer, viola
- Yuri Hughes
- Eleonore Oppenheim, double bass
- Jules Biber, cello
- Andrew Yee, cello
On June 10 and June 12, National Sawdust presents ChamberQUEER, an organization dedicated to highlighting historically underrepresented queer figures in western classical music and providing an intersectionally inclusive space within western classical music for artists and audience. The timing of these shows will coincide with Pride Week in NYC. Following these dates, the shows will be available to stream free via National Sawdust and ChamberQUEER's respective websites.
The June 12 performance highlights the influential work Gay Guerrilla, by iconoclastic queer composer Julius Eastman, in a new arrangement for string septet by Jessie Montgomery, who will also feature on violin. Curated in partnership with featured artists, the concert features an immersive reflection by Eastman scholar Isaac Jean-François, a new film by Ashanti Soldier and Kham Owensand additional works by Eastman’s colleague and contemporary Tania León. The evening continues with Benjamin Britten's Les Illuminations, based on the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud and sung by soprano Melissa Wimbish. Other featured performers will include Mazz Swift, Giancarlo Latta, Clara Kim, Jessica Meyer, Yuri Hughes, Eleonore Oppenheim, with CQ founders Jules Biber and Andrew Yee.
Doors open at 5pm; performance begins at 6pm.
Please review National Sawdust's COVID-19 safety protocols before attending this event: https://nationalsawdust.org/covid-safety-protocols
About ChamberQUEER
ChamberQUEER highlights LGBTQ+ voices in classical music; creates intersectionally inclusive spaces; and applies a queer lens to the experience of classical music in the 21st Century.
https://www.chamberqueer.org/About Jessie Montgomery, violin
About Melissa Wimbish, soprano
About Giancarlo Latta, violin
About Clara Kim, violin
About Jessica Meyer, viola
About Eleonore Oppenheim, double bass
About Jules Biber, cello
About Andrew Yee, cello
Praised as "spellbindingly virtuosic" by Michael Kennedy of the London Telegraph, the Juilliard School trained cellist Andrew Yee is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet who have released several albums to Critical acclaim. Their newest recording of the string quartets of Caroline Shaw won a Grammy for best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble performance.
Inspired by their experience as a bi-racial and non-binary person, their solo project, Halfie, draws from their access to multiple communities at once, while simultaneously not feeling at home in any of them. Yee plays on an 1884 Eugenio Degani cello on loan from the Five Partners Foundation.
https://www.andrewyeecellist.com/