'Classical Queery' series shines a light on LGBTQ+ identities in classical music

NINA MOINI: Today, we have a special guest for our usual song of the day, YourClassical's very own Mya Temanson. Mya is a fellow there, and we're going to learn about a project she's been working on in just a few moments. She's here in the studio with me. What do you have for us today, Mya?

MYA TEMANSON: Hi, Nina. Today, I have a song from award-winning transgender Mexican-American composer, Mari Esabel Valverde. This is "When Thunder Comes," performed by the choir at St. Olaf College.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The poor and dispossessed

Take up the drums for civil rights

The poor and dispossessed take up the drums

For civil rights

The poor and dispossessed

Take up the drums

Take up the drums

For civil rights

Freedoms to think and speak

Petition, pray, and vote

When thunder comes

The civil righteous are finished being meek

Why Sylvia Mendez bet against long odds

How Harvey Milk turned hatred on its head

Why Helen Zia railed against tin gods

How Freedom Summer's soldiers faced the dread

Are tales of thunder, thunder

That I hope to tell

From my thin bag of words for you to hear

In miniature, like ringing a small bed

And know a million bells can drown out fear

And know a million birds can drown out fear

And know a million birds can drown out fear

A million birds can drown out fear

For history was mute

Witness when such crimes

Discolored and discredited our times

NINA MOINI: Beautiful. Our friends over at YourClassical have been celebrating Pride Month with a new series called "Classical Queery." It explores the intersection of classical music and LGBTQ+ identities. And again, we're thrilled to have its creator, YourClassical fellow Mya Temanson, joining us to share more about this series. Thank you so much for coming on down to the third floor. [LAUGHS]S

MYA TEMANSON: Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here.

NINA MOINI: The beautiful piece that you just selected for our song of the day, can you tell us a little bit more about it and why you selected it?

MYA TEMANSON: Absolutely. This was composed by Mari Esabel Valverde, and she composed it as a commission for One Voice Mixed Chorus, which is an LGBTQ+ chorus here in the Twin Cities area. And it's meant to celebrate the Civil Rights movement, the heroes of the Civil Rights movement in the United States.

And this just felt like a really timely piece to share, considering it's Pride Month, considering tomorrow's Juneteenth. And you know, its message is so uplifting and empowering, and I feel like we all need that right now.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So what inspired you to just pick the songs that you were picking? How do you pick?

MYA TEMANSON: I think it comes down to-- the messaging, of course, comes first and foremost, but highlighting and uplifting the voices of queer musicians, queer composers, is always a really important thing that we could always be doing more of. And especially in the case of Mari Esabel Valverde, I had the privilege of speaking with her. Her part of the series is going to be published tomorrow. And highlighting her voice, sharing her music felt right.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So another clip that we're going to play from your first episode with Dr. Martha Mockus, a former scholar of queer feminist and music studies, as well as a musician. Let's take a listen.

MARTHA MOCKUS: To queer something is an active project of turning something inside out and exposing that which is odd, peculiar, and seeing it as a very powerful aesthetic or politics or force for change. Queering classical music is granting a legitimacy to that presence and that participation.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, I had not heard that term, "queer," as a verb. It might be unfamiliar to some people. Can you explain more about just what it means and why it's important we talk about it with classical music?

MYA TEMANSON: Absolutely. Well, queer has a very complicated history.

NINA MOINI: Yeah.

MYA TEMANSON: And it wasn't always associated with the queer community. Originally, it just meant something odd. And I love how Martha Mockus explains its trajectory. She explains that eventually, it did become an insult, but we've since reclaimed it and reclaimed its original meaning.

And so when you queer something, that's where you turn it into that a little bit more peculiar light. You consider all the possibilities that something can be interpreted in, or performed in, or created in, very much in the way, you know, to be queer is to not be straight. And in our society, to be straight is the norm. And so it's all about unseating the norm and thinking about what else is possible.

NINA MOINI: How did it feel to talk to these guests, these people behind these beautiful songs and music?

MYA TEMANSON: It was really inspiring. The other program that plays throughout the month, throughout Pride Month, with YourClassical is "Proud To Be," and that largely features composers and musicians who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, who are a little bit more higher-profile across the United States.

NINA MOINI: Mm-hmm.

MYA TEMANSON: In the case of "Classical Queery," I really wanted to focus on people local to the Twin Cities area.

NINA MOINI: Sure.

MYA TEMANSON: And that also meant people whose careers and jobs were not necessarily being musicians, but they still were involved in the music community. And so they had their own very unique stories to tell that were very grounded in the Twin Cities community.

NINA MOINI: I love that. So we talked about queering as a verb. Are there ways that you, with a listening ear, could perhaps tell traditional classical music from queer classical music? Or how are you identifying differences?

MYA TEMANSON: I posed that question to Martha Mockus, and I have to give her credit for this really wonderful answer.

NINA MOINI: Sure.

MYA TEMANSON: It's difficult to differentiate, because it all comes down to intention.

NINA MOINI: Hmm.

MYA TEMANSON: When it comes to queer classical music, that's music that's been deliberately queered. However, what you might call traditional classical music still has potential to be interpreted or experienced in a queer way. Just, that wasn't the composer's intention.

NINA MOINI: I love the idea of things meeting at an intersection, because we're all multifaceted, and there's just so much going on in life and people have so many different experiences. Why did you feel that this intersection between classical music and queer identity was so important to highlight? Obviously, it's Pride Month, but generally.

MYA TEMANSON: Of course. Well, I think lots of people who aren't so familiar with classical music or who haven't spent as much time looking at these intersections, not just with the queer community, but also other multicultural experiences of classical music, there's a very particular idea of what classical music is. But when you go deep enough, you realize that that isn't very true either.

I had a conversation with a dear friend of mine for this series, Danica Rumney, who is going to be earning a master's in music therapy, so she had her own very unique perspective on this. But she grew up in a very musical family, and she explained that in many ways, there is something queer about classical music in general.

It's a space where you must be vulnerable with the people that you're making music with, and you form families that are unique and outside of what we expect a family is. And so to be able to highlight that in multiple layers felt really important.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. We've got just about a minute left. Would you just tell us, Mya, how many episodes are there? What's a few other people's names people will be hearing about?

MYA TEMANSON: Definitely. There are five episodes. We're on our third episode tomorrow. I also spoke with Sonia Mantell, who is a cellist with the Minnesota Orchestra. She might be her name might be recognizable to some. I also spoke with Waigwa, who's the artistic director of One Voice Mixed Chorus, and they had some really inspiring, insightful things to share that will be coming out a little bit later.

NINA MOINI: Wonderful. Very-- well, great mix of names and a beautiful intention. Thank you so much for stopping by Minnesota Now and sharing this project with us.

MYA TEMANSON: Thank you so much.

NINA MOINI: That was your classical fellow, Mya Temanson, the creator of "Classical Queery." You can check out the full series at yourclassical.org.