Concert Choir & Chamber Choir

The Williams Concert and Chamber Choirs present a staged rendition of Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard. This work, composed by conductor Craig Hella Johnson in 2018, is a musical response to the 1998 murder of a young gay man in Wyoming, the brutality of which captured nationwide attention. This three-part fusion oratorio incorporates a variety of musical styles seamlessly woven into a unified whole. Johnson relies on texts by various poets including Hildegard of Bingen, Lesléa Newman, Michael Dennis Browne, and Rumi, interspersed with passages from Matt’s personal journal, interviews and writings from his parents Judy and Dennis Shepard, newspaper reports, and additional texts by the composer.