The Compassion Concerts

Presenting three signature programs throughout the Rogue Valley,

we sought to create performance experiences to expose our
audience to new and classic repertoire, and to bring composers'
histories to life while using chamber music to participate in a
national conversation.

The first of these concerts wove masterpieces from the string

quartet repertoire with stirring biographical narratives. Using this
concert as a lens we focused the evening on themes of common
ground and music's ability to transcend the circumstance.

FEATURED COMPOSERS:
Though beginning his career as a staunch Czech nationalist
composer, Dvořák famously emigrated to America in 1892 and to
write some of the most stirring pieces of devotion to the American
spirit. Our second composer, Mendelssohn, a German Jew from an
aristocratic family who later converted to Protestantism and
undertook the revival of the music of one of the most important
Christian composers: J. S. Bach. Britten, a queer composer and a
trail-blazer during a time in which gay rights weren’t even on the
radar, lived and worked closely with his life partner, the tenor Peter
Pears. Britten fought tirelessly for recognition, eventually earning
his place in conservative British society and becoming a celebrated
national hero (Pears would receive a note of condolence from the
Queen at Britten’s death). Despite differences in background,
nationality, religion and sexual orientation, these composers and
their music have transcended their unique struggles to bring
audiences together. In the Compassion Concerts, the common
ground of the string quartet would allow us to explore ideas of
identity, hope, and compassion.

On our second concert we presented a wide selection of duos

throughout the Rogue Valley aimed at opening up ears to
boundary-pushing work, including Arvo Pärt, Bela Bartok and one
of Benjamin Britten's more challenging works, the Lachrymae.  Along
with this concert we presented the visual art of local artist, Grace
O'Neil.

For the final concert of our series we sought to use our gifts to give
back to our community and participate in a national conversation
around prejudice and islamophobia. This event entitled We Choose
Love event, would honor the journey of the Rogue Valley's own
hero, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche. More can be read on page,
"We Choose Love" giving spotlight to this event.

Listen to the Chinquapin Musicians now at

twinheroesproductions.com/media.php
COMPASSION; COMMON GROUND
We ended our 2017 'Compassion and Common Ground'
season, by giving thanks to our community and honoring our
Rogue Valley hero, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche.
On the first day of Ramadan, Taliesin was killed while
defending two teen girls — one a Muslim wearing a hijab —
from a man shouting racist epithets on a train in Portland. He
died alongside Ricky John Best, a veteran of the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Though these two came from different
sides of our country's political poles,
these twin heroes came together
in a selfless moment. New Local Work
So moved by Taliesin, we would commission a collaboration on
the theme of compassion between two local artists, spoken-word
wizard Blaine Alexander Lindsay, and celebrated young
composer, Seven Schreck entitled The Turning of the Page.
Alongside Blaine's stirring renditions of Taliesin's own poetry,
The Turning of the Page was brought to life by Blaine and the
Chinquapin Ensemble.

We Choose Love
In partnership with Asha Deliverance,
Taliesin's mother, and the movement she terms
"We Choose Love", we presented two uplifting
and transformational concerts of music and
poetry honoring Taliesin's life and the spirit of
compassion which he embodied.
Performers included New York-based artists,
soprano Danielle Buonaiuto, tenor Justin Montalvo,
violist Brandon Gianetto, violinists Emily Frederick
and Lauren Jenkins, Ashland cellist Michal Palzewicz
and pianist Naseer Ashram, joined by Taliesin's loved
ones, sharing reflections, thoughts and poems
throughout a this memorable and moving night.
Mission
With the uniting belief that the common ground of love
can exist between all people, and that gender roles need
no longer divide us, Twin Heroes brought our
community together for an evening-long celebration of
Queer Art. In this exploration on the themes of
Masculinity, Femininity the Sacred, the Artful and the
Profane we would present the work of 12 local queer
artists of various disciplines to the community.

Community
Responding to the Rogue Valley's need for
queer spaces we designed an atmosphere made
to promote socialization and communication
around and about our queer art. Alongside
performances and exhibitions we offered a
dance party, talkback sessions with our artists, as
well as facilitated conversations with
community leaders all centered around queer
issues. 

Creating a Queer Arts History

One of our big ambitions for the evening was to place our 12
local artists alongside the work of major historical artists that
have added gender diversity and have queered arts history.

We played the work of Hildegarde von Bingen, the 11th

century abbess, composer and polymath. Though the canon of
classical music is an overwhelmingly male-dominated field,
her work would lay an important and enduring cornerstone at
the earliest moment in this tradition. 

Secondly, we programmed Destruction and Desire, a one-man version of Oscar Wilde's

Salome. In this work, a young girl's desires lead to the destruction of both her and her
beloved obsession. The Salome story touches on the deep link in queer life between
love and death. Whether through persecution throughout history or later during the
terror of the AIDS crisis, the queer path to love has been perilous.  Wilde himself was
openly gay at a time when it was beyond unheard of. Wilde faced fierce persecution,
leading eventually to his death.

Finally, we featured Benjamin Britten's Three Divertimenti. Britten is one of the Queer
Movement's biggest early success stories. Britten became a household name in the 50s
and 60s England. The queen herself sent his life-long partner a note of condolence at
Britten's death. The work, originally titled Playboy, Play, was written as a portrait of three
men in Britten's life. 
Queer Arts
Gallery

Fool'isha

Grace O'Neil

DIAMOND
LEVEL

Aphasia
 The House Is Open is an electro-acoustic opera in
two acts about Charley, a young boy who has spent the
majority of his life asleep and in dreams.

Plot
The first act follows Charley's waking and his increasingly perilous
re-introduction to his family. Beginning almost as a children's
opera The House Is Open soon twists in on itself; Charley's parents
transform from kindly homemaker/breadwinner stereotypes into
monolithic earth-mother/sky-father archetypes; his sister, Sophia
reveals a passionate and incestuous determination; and The Man,
the sinister agent of society's hand, makes visitation on the boy.

Departing from a straightforward, waking narrative, the second act

becomes a surreal dream-portrait of family, society and sexual
awakening. In the second act we watch through Charley's closed
eyes as the boy is drawn back into dreams, pulling his family with
him into the abyss.

Groundbreaking Electronic Worlds

The House Is Open lives between two sonic worlds: the acoustic world that
accompanies the waking parts of the drama and a crushing surround-sound
speaker system that envelops the audience in the nightmarish electronic sound as
the psychological, dream element comes to dominate.

This combination of acoustic and electronic forces marks a

major step forward for the operatic genre. The two sonic
worlds viscerally serve the drama; the electronic sound
envelops the audience and plunges us into Charley's internal
world while the orchestral sound, sound that is perhaps, more
distant, sound that only comes from the front is heard as the
sound of the external, waking world.

Listen to excerpts from The House Is Open now at:

twinheroesproductions.com/projects/thio.php