Conspirare, "Considering Matthew Shepard"

Conspirare’s Grammy® award-winning Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson will debut his groundbreaking contemporary oratorio this February. Following a 2014 Grammy for Best Choral performance, and a recent nomination in the same category, the incomparable singers of Conspirare will deliver a poignant concert experience, inspiring hope, compassion and empowerment. An ensemble of 29 singers and eight instrumentalists, including Johnson on piano, will lead the listener through a tapestry of musical textures and styles.

In October 1998 a shocking hate crime was committed against Matthew Shepard who was brutally beaten and left tied to a fence to die. Shepard’s story haunted Johnson for years and finally impelled him to compose a musical response to this tragedy: “The entire process has been about asking questions, particularly this enduring question of whether or not love itself is part of our essential nature, even amidst the many painful and confounding realities of our existence.”