IDENTITY: reclaimed encompasses three works that explore the reclamation of individual identity in times of violent struggle, culture war, or political oppression. Troublingly relevant to narratives of today from Uganda to our own backyard in Worcester, MacMillan, Durufle, and Ginastera collectively demand we not let these souls “fall into darkness.”

Coro Allegro presents a concert of inspiring works by Black American composers, featuring ground-breaking and renowned Black artists from the LGBTQ+ and allied communities, as part of our season long exploration of identity.

GALA Festival 2024 Coffee Concert: Voices reach out across generations for LGBTQ+ youth in a newly commissioned work by award-winning composer Andrea Clearfield. A mother writes to her transgender son on his 5th birthday to affirm who he always was. A survivor of conversion therapy writes to the memory of their own younger self, fighting to survive their mother’s desperate attempt to save them from whom they are. We further explore the intimate power of the human voice and spirit through poems on music by Walter de la Mare, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and a contemporary Norwegian composer’s settings of a 16th century Spanish mystic. Also featuring works by Ronald Perera and Ola Gjeilo.